Pubdate: Thu, 19 Aug 2004
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2004 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact:  http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Ed Vogel, Review-Journal Capital Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 9

A counterculture businessman/writer who considers Assemblywoman Chris
Giunchigliani too conservative is challenging her in the Democratic
primary for District 9.

"I'm very liberal, more liberal than her," Lewis Whitten said of
Giunchigliani, a seven-term incumbent and widely known as the most
liberal member of the Legislature.

Whitten pointed out that Giunchigliani authored the law that makes
possession of small amounts of marijuana a misdemeanor. If elected, he
said he would work to legalize the drug.

"I would treat it like weeds or flowers," he said. "There is no
regulation on flowers.

"She comes up with positions she thinks are the safest. Honesty is not
the best policy when you are in politics."

The Giunchigliani-Whitten primary winner probably will win the seat in
November. No Republicans are in the race, and Independent American Lee
Wayne Haynes is the only other candidate on the general election
ballot. Democrats comprise about two-thirds of the registered voters
in the district.

Whitten does not expect to win. He acknowledges he is running "to give
my neighbors a choice" and because Giunchigliani had no opposition two
years ago.

Giunchigliani isn't taking the race for granted and intends to knock
on almost every door in the district.

She quit her $71,000-per-year job with the Community College of
Southern Nevada earlier this summer when her supervisors gave her
little work to do. "My salary was a waste of taxpayers' money," she
said. Now she has more time to visit with her constituents.

Giunchigliani had been critical of the Board of Regents, the governing
board of higher education, and some college officials during last
year's investigation of the school's hiring and lobbying practices.
That investigation led to the demotion of two administrators and open
meeting law violations by regents.

She has proposed a constitutional amendment to shrink the board from
13 elected members to nine, with three elected members and six
appointed by the governor.

A retired teacher and former president of the Nevada State Education
Association, Giunchigliani makes no apologies for supporting last
year's $833 million tax increase package.

"We did what we thought we needed to do," she said.

She said legislators should review why the live entertainment tax is
not meeting revenue projections.

Legislators also need a plan to deal with Southern Nevada's water
needs, she said. That plan should include the desalinization of ocean
water. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake