Nevada Women Strike Electoral Gold : Politics: They have won half the statewide offices in the 1990s. Their success is attributed to the state’s independent streak, a weak political party system, and a call for change.

Nevada, long a haven for legalized prostitution and topless showgirls, is bestowing a new kind of attention on women these days: electing them to public office in record numbers.

Nevada’s attorney general, lieutenant governor and secretary of state are women. So is the mayor of Las Vegas--the state’s largest city. Women make up 27% of the Nevada Legislature, a quarter of the congressional delegation and 70% of the state university and school boards. In November, Nevadans elected their first woman justice to the state Supreme Court.

“We are not the good old boys,” said Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, a Democrat and political science professor who this year became the first woman party leader in either house of the Legislature. “Here in Nevada, there are opportunities for new people, and women can take advantage of it.”

Women leaders attribute their success to the state’s lingering frontier spirit, a historic independent streak, a weak political party system and a healthy mistrust of government among Nevadans.

At the same time, the election of women from both parties is helping Nevada shed its image as a conservative state. Fueled by a booming casino industry, Nevada is the fastest-growing state in the nation and has attracted a steady influx of new voters from California and other states.

“We have a lot of open-minded people here who are willing to give people a chance,” said Democratic Atty. Gen. Frankie Sue del Papa, who served one term as secretary of state before winning her current post in 1990. “I think it’s been an advantage for me because people are very independent here.”

One of the most colorful politicians in the state is Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, elected in 1991 after she built name recognition by starring in a series of humorous television commercials for her family car dealership--dressing in one ad as Little Red Riding Hood.

Now the novice Democratic politician has emerged as a statewide force who is often named along with Atty. Gen. Del Papa, Republican Lt. Gov. Sue Wagner and Republican Secretary of State Cheryl Lau as a potential candidate for governor.

“Women are seen to represent change,” Jones said. “This is sort of an entrepreneurial state--there’s that frontier attitude. People tend to assess you on what they perceive is your talent, not your gender or other factors.”

With a population of just 1.3 million--about the same number of people who live in the San Fernando Valley--Nevada’s political life has a friendly, small-town feel. Voters know their elected officials personally and call them by their first names.

“Nevadans have always been fiercely independent,” said Democratic Gov. Bob Miller. “We struggled to get where we are. We vote for whoever we want and we still maintain a lot of that Western spirit.”

Nevada granted women the right to vote in 1914--six years before the United States as a whole--and the state’s history is filled with strong-minded women who thrived on the frontier.

In 1919, voters elected their first woman legislator, Sadie Hurst, to a seat in the state Assembly. A year later, she was on hand to vote for ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which granted women the right to vote.

But until the 1970s, Nevada women were elected to office only occasionally. Not until 1966 was the first woman elected to the state Senate. In 1982, Republican Rep. Barbara Vucanovich became the first Nevada woman elected to Congress. The same year, her daughter, Patricia Cafferata, became the first woman elected to statewide office when she became treasurer.

Nevada women have made their greatest gains in the 1990s, winning three of the six statewide offices and, this year, winning a record 17 of 63 seats in the Legislature.

Lt. Gov. Wagner, first elected to the Legislature in 1974, now presides over the state Senate and, at times, serves as acting governor.

Nationwide, Nevada ranks third in electing women to state executive posts and 11th in sending women to the Legislature, according to the Center for the American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University.

California, which made history last fall by electing two women to the U.S. Senate, lags behind Nevada in electing women to state office, ranking 18th in sending women to the Legislature and 21st in voting women into state executive posts. Colorado ranks first with women holding three of five elected state executive posts.

Despite the growing number of women in office in Nevada, there has been no attempt by female leaders to outlaw prostitution. State law lets each county decide whether to permit prostitution except in Las Vegas and Reno, where it is banned. Some women activists argue that legalized prostitution provides economic opportunities for women in rural areas, where jobs are scarce.

“No woman has ever taken that on as an issue,” Wagner said. “I perceive it as a demeaning profession in terms of women but I’m not opposed to it. We’re the least hypocritical state in the nation. It goes on everywhere; we control it.”

But women’s rights have wide support among Nevada’s electorate. In 1990, the women’s movement here sponsored a referendum guaranteeing Nevada women the right to choose abortion. The measure passed by a 2-1 margin and cannot be changed by the Legislature.

Nevada women’s progress in the courts has been slowest of all. It was not until 1983 that Miriam Shearing became the state’s first woman judge. Last year, she became the first woman to join the five-member state Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, women said they are pleased with their achievements and look forward to the day when it is not unusual for women to vie with each other for the state’s highest offices.

“There have been a lot of successes,” said Rep. Vucanovich. “Women are realizing they can make a difference and they are willing to put themselves out there and take the heat.”