Assembly District 6

Voters in Assembly District 6 might have noticed something strange about this year’s campaign for an open seat in the Legislature.

Only one of the candidates is actually campaigning to replace Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas.

Democrat William McCurdy II, a UNLV student and union organizer, won a crowded primary race to face the sole Republican candidate in the general election.

But Republican Carlo Maffatt doesn’t seem to be campaigning.

He didn’t respond to inquiries from the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the matter and didn’t return a questionnaire the newspaper sent to candidates.

Maffatt doesn’t have a campaign website. His social media accounts haven’t mentioned the Assembly race. And he hasn’t filed a single campaign finance report, according to the Nevada secretary of state’s office.

For what it’s worth, Maffatt, who has worked with state Republicans doing outreach to Hispanic voters, was always facing stiff odds: The majority-minority district has been held by a black Democrat for more than a decade. As of 2016, 66 percent of the district’s voters were registered Democrats.

McCurdy, 28, brought a lot of money to the campaign. His June campaign finance reports showed he raised about $89,000 — more by far than any of his primary opponents.

McCurdy has said his time as the College of Southern Nevada’s student body president has helped him prepare for the Legislature, and he’s no stranger to Clark County politics. His family’s political consulting company, McCurdy & McCurdy Media Group, has worked on a number of campaigns, including those of Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Las Vegas City Councilman Ricki Barlow.

The first-time candidate is interested in criminal justice and education issues and supports the “ban the box” movement to remove questions about criminal convictions from job applications. He said the Legislature should take a close look at property tax issues in 2017.

McCurdy said he had a rough upbringing and a troubled past — including a 2012 arrest for DUI — and hopes to teach young people that people can turn their lives around.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.