Acting Nevada Governor Wins Easily in Democratic Primary

Acting Nevada Gov. Bob Miller won an easy victory in the state’s Democratic primary Tuesday night as he made a bid for his own four-year term in the post. In the Republican gubernatorial primary, a relative newcomer to Nevada, businessman Jim Gallaway, held a sizable lead.

Miller, who inherited the governor’s office as lieutenant governor when Democratic Gov. Dick Bryan was elected to the U.S. Senate two years ago, was in front of five relatively unknown challengers, one of whom had changed his legal name for publicity purposes to Rhinestone Cowboy.

In Nevada, voters are also permitted to cast ballots for “None of the Above” in each race. In the Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday night, Miller had 75% of the vote, “None of the Above” was running second with about 11% and Cowboy was running third with 5%.

Meanwhile, Gallaway, a heavy campaign spender, was on top among eight GOP contenders with about half the total vote. In this contest, too, “None of the Above” was running second. Contractor Charlie Brown was third.

The election was marred by a light plane crash Monday that seriously injured two statewide candidates and killed the wife of one of them.

Republican candidates Sue Wagner, running for lieutenant governor, and Bob Seale, running for state treasurer, were seriously hurt when the plane that Seale was piloting developed engine trouble and crashed just after taking off from the Fallon airport, 50 miles east of Reno, on a campaign swing.

Seale’s wife, Judy, was killed, and two campaign aides suffered minor injuries.

Both Wagner, 50, a state senator, and Seale, 48, a public accountant, were listed in fair condition Tuesday at a hospital in Reno.

In mounting returns, Wagner took a sizable lead for the GOP nomination in her race, while Seale had a narrower lead in the contest for the party’s nomination in his race.

Miller, 45, has compiled a record as something of an environmentalist, opposed to further federal inroads on Nevada land, either for expanding military bases and weapons testing sites or for the construction of a proposed underground repository for nuclear wastes.

Gallaway, in his campaign, emphasized his stand in favor of abortion rights, which Miller opposes, and criticized the governor for proposing a state payroll tax plan.

Low state and local taxes are a consistent theme in Nevada politics. In 1989, the average Nevada household paid only $231 in these taxes, the fourth-lowest such tax bill in the nation. Presently, the state has no state or local income tax and no estate tax. Nevada government is largely financed through levies on the huge gambling industry, plus sales and gasoline taxes.

A recent poll indicated that Miller would go into the general election campaign over Gallaway with a 2-1 lead, 60% to 27%, with the rest undecided.

Nearly 500,000 people were eligible to vote in the fast-growing state, but election authorities had predicted a turnout of 35% to 40%. Registered Democrats slightly outnumber Republicans in Nevada, and both U.S. senators, as well as the governor, are Democrats.

Perhaps the most bitter contest was in the Democratic primary for attorney general, where Nevada Secretary of State Frankie Sue del Papa was seeking to move up. Her principal opponent was a former Las Vegas judge, Leonard Gang.

Gang pointed out that Del Papa is ineligible to practice law in Nevada, but Del Papa, who had practiced law for 16 years before becoming “inactive,” responded that, under state law, she could return to active status simply by paying $126 in fees and completing a 10-hour legal refresher course. This, she said, would be a matter of a weekend’s study.

In partial returns Tuesday night, Del Papa held a 2-1 lead.

The contenders in the Republican attorney general’s primary were Bryan Nelson, a former chief deputy state attorney general, and Randy Rumph, an attorney for Bally’s hotel-casinos.

Nelson was leading in the partial returns by a wide margin.

In a legislative contest, the name of Assemblyman Marvin Sedway, a Democrat from Las Vegas, remained on the ballot, despite his death in July of lung cancer. It had been too late to remove his name.