Redistricting doomed Conklin though his party did well

When the man-who-would-be-speaker ends up as the only legislative incumbent to lose his seat, there has to be a reason.

It certainly wasn't for lack of money.

As the shoo-in for the speaker's job, Democrat Marcus Conklin raised more than $712,000, a phenomenal amount for an Assembly race.

It certainly wasn't because of some anti-incumbency mood. Conklin was the only incumbent legislator who went down.

The culprit? Redistricting.

When the district lines were redrawn in 2011, all of Sun City Summerlin was moved into Conklin's Assembly District 37. Before that, the retirement community had been divided into several Assembly districts.

Suddenly Conklin was facing a district that was between 60 percent to 70 percent new. Though he has been in the Assembly for 10 years, these new people didn't know him.

Before redistricting, the district had 16 percent more registered Democrats than Republicans. Now it's almost equally divided between the GOP and Democrats.

"Even though it was evenly split, the vast majority identified themselves as conservatives," Conklin said.

Wesley Duncan, the Republican challenger, won by 668 votes though he was a first-time candidate. He saw that redistricting left Conklin vulnerable.

Districts drawn by Democratic legislators were vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval, and redistricting ended up in the hands of the Nevada Supreme Court for the first time in Nevada history. The folks hired to draw the districts decided Sun City Summerlin should be represented by one assemblyman instead of several. That doomed Conklin.

If the legislators had drawn the lines, Democratic legislators wouldn't have allowed Conklin's district to lose its Democratic edge, and Duncan might not have won.

Besides redistricting, Duncan attributes his victory to his walking door to door, starting Jan. 28 and continuing until Nov. 5.

"More people than I can tell you said there was no way I could win," the attorney and Air Force veteran of the Iraq War said. "But I was not running to be a kamikaze pilot."

He knew he couldn't win on the money front, although he raised a respectable $124,000 .

But he also knew that by showing up at the doors of all voters, not just Republican voters, he could make those necessary personal contacts.

Duncan admitted he also was lucky.

"I had no primary challenger or third-party challenger, and that helped. In the general, the IAP (Independent American Party) takes from the Republicans."

Neither man thought the many negative campaign fliers against them from third parties had a strong effect on the race. Both thought people tuned those out.

"When the early voting numbers came in on election night, we were up about 560," Duncan said. He never fell behind. Conklin called him to concede about 11:30 p.m.

"He was great. He offered if I had any questions to give him a call, and I'm probably going to do that," Duncan said.

Conklin sounded cheerful in our interview.

"There's an enormous amount of disappointment, but that disappointment is accompanied by relief," he said. "It is such a grind to serve the public in that capacity. I'm not sure the ordinary person really understands the commitment required."

At 32, although he looks younger, Duncan could have a long political career ahead of him.

As for Conklin, at 43, he said it's too early to see whether he will re-enter the political world.

"I'll take time to enjoy life. It's too early to make any decisions. The disappointment is too fresh," he said.

Praising his campaign team's efforts, Conklin said, "At the end of the day, there are some things you can't control."

Conklin's loss is a warning to future legislators to do the redistricting they are charged to do.

The courts look to change boundaries so that each district has the same number of people.

Incumbent-protection is not a court's concern.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison.