State Senate District 7
Democratic state Sen. David Parks is poised to hold on to his District 7 seat.
His Libertarian opponent, first-time candidate Kimberly Schjang, faces an uphill battle in a district where registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans and nonpartisan voters nearly 2-1.
Registered Libertarian voters in the district number 563, compared with 28,629 Democrats, according to Nevada secretary of state voter data.
Schjang said she opposed the $1.5 billion tax package passed in the 2015 Legislature because she felt that businesses would be “bogged down” by such taxes. “I would like to roll a lot of those back,” she said of the record tax increase that Parks voted for.
Schjang said she is in favor of educational savings accounts, arguing that they give better opportunities for families who opt out of public education for their children. 
And she doesn’t support a $750 million public contribution, in the form of a hotel room tax increase, for a $1.9 billion domed football stadium that would house the NFL’s Raiders.
Parks did not return repeated calls for comment.
Parks and Schjang both support state Question 2, which would legalize recreational marijuana.
Schjang opposes state Question 1, which would expand background checks for firearms purchases, because she said she believes law-abiding citizens would be affected by excessive regulation.
“Punishing law-abiding citizens in an effort to get to the criminal is never going to solve the issue,” she said.
Parks, responding to a Review-Journal questionnaire emailed to him, said he supports Question 1 because he believes it would protect the public.
Parks was first elected to the state Senate in 2008 after terming out as an assemblyman representing District 41 for 12 years. Before joining the Legislature, he was assistant director of the Clark County Regional Transportation Commission and directed the Las Vegas office of budget and management.
Contact Alexander S. Corey at acorey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0270. Follow @acoreynews on Twitter.
