Four vie in Clark County Commission District G primary

The race for the Clark County Commission District G seat has attracted a candidate who stood before commissioners a year ago and pleaded with them to not abolish his office.

Las Vegas Township Constable John Bonaventura is running for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Commissioner Mary Beth Scow, who seeks re-election to a second four-year term. Scow voted unanimously with her colleagues in March 2013 to abolish the constable’s office, effective when Bonaventura’s four-year term ends in January 2015.

Bonaventura is fighting the commission’s decision in court, and also running for county commissioner.

In the June 10 primary, two Republicans, Cindy Lake and Carson Earnest, are vying for the GOP nod. The Democratic and Republican primary winners will square off in the Nov. 4 general election.

County commissioners abolished Bonaventura’s office after a variety of high-profile episodes following his election in 2010, such as an online reality television pilot showing foul-mouthed deputies and jurisdictional disputes with neighboring constables.

Bonaventura said the office, which performs evictions and serves legal papers, is a public service. Bonaventura, who also served a term in the Nevada Assembly in the 1990s, said the office’s work needs to remain, regardless of who the constable is.

Scow, a resident since 1977, said she wants to continue working on neighborhood issues, which include volunteer cleanup and graffiti abatement programs. She credits her past service as a Clark County School Board member for preparing her for work with large budgets and construction and zoning issues.

She also supports efforts to clean up the Strip, including a proposal to replace private newsracks with a uniform system of county-owned newsracks that was approved last week.

The Republican primary has two candidates.

Earnest said the County Commission would be a place to speak out against government waste, whether it’s county money or that of another agency such as the school district or city of Henderson. Commissioners have the influence to speak out against questionable spending, he said.

A three-year resident of Clark County, Earnest said spending money wisely must take precedence over raising taxes.

Lake did a one-year term as chairwoman of the Clark County Republican Party. A 25-year county resident, Lake casts herself as a candidate who would provide a reliable fiscally conservative vote on the commission.

She would like to see a moratorium on county business license fees for new establishments and businesses in their first five years of operation to encourage economic growth.

In the district, 51,850 registered voters are Democrats, and 46,554 are Republicans. Another 32,034 registered voters are nonpartisan or belong to third parties. Scow carried 55.35 percent of the vote in the 2010 general election.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-405-9781. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1.