Candidate filing ends Friday for state and local races. To fill us in on who's stepping into the political ring this season, Reno Public Radio's Julia Ritchey sat down with political reporter Seth Richardson from the Reno-Gazette Journal.
All eyes are on the U.S. Senate race where 16 candidates have filed. But the two presumptive nominees are, on the Democratic side, former Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, and for the Republicans, Rep. Joe Heck.
“Both of them have raised quite a bit of money,” says Richardson. “This is going to be a really expensive Senate race. It’s definitely one of the deciding races for whether the Democrats take back the U.S. Senate.”
Richardson says outgoing Sen. Harry Reid will also play a large role in trying to keep this seat blue, which could help Democrats lower on the ticket.
One seat Nevada Democrats hope to recapture is District 15, held by Republican Greg Brower, who’s not running for re-election.
“It’s one that Democrats definitely have their eye on,” says Richardson.
Heidi Gansert, Gov. Brian Sandoval’s former chief of staff, is running against Eugene Hoover in the Republican primary for that seat. The winner of that contest will take on Devon Reese, a Reno labor attorney.
“I think they’re hoping for an upstart candidacy there,” he says. “That’s kind of the contested race for the general election, the rest are kind of in the primaries, though.”
Richardson says there to two main primaries to watch in Northern Nevada. The first is Assembly District 25, Rep. Pat Hickey’s old seat, which has three Republicans vying for it.
The other is in AD 26, where Republicans Lisa Krasner, a professor at Truckee Meadows Community College, will face off against Jason Guinasso, law partner to Devon Reese.
Krasner lost that seat by 11 votes last time, says Richardson.
As to whether Nevada’s local and state races will see any so-called “Donald Trump effect,” Richardson says it’s too soon to tell.
“He’s driving record turnouts on the Republican side. We had 80,000 voters here for the Republican caucus; he had more voters for himself than there were caucus goers in 2012,” he says. “His campaign has been so unpredictable … no one really knows what that effect will be.”
For more of Seth’s political coverage, go to the Reno Gazette-Journal.