Gibson, McArthur fighting for GOP nod in Assembly District 4

Republicans Donnie Gibson, a businessman and construction contractor, and Richard McArthur, a retired FBI agent, will meet in a primary for Nevada’s Assembly District 4 in northwest Las Vegas, with the winner facing incumbent Democrat Connie Munk, who is seeking her second term.

McArthur previously served three terms in the Assembly representing the district, from 2008-2012 and 2016-2018. Munk defeated him by 120 votes out of 29,000 cast in 2018. Gibson, who said he decided to run last July, has the support of the Republican Assembly caucus. The two aren’t widely apart on most issues, with differences appearing mostly in Gibson’s critique of McArthur’s tenure in office.

Gibson said he first got involved in the business of government during the 2015 legislative session, joining construction and contracting-related government affairs committees. Through that and subsequent sessions, he saw many bills “being passed off that are bad for business, not great for construction industry, not good for employers, and some that quite frankly weren’t great for employees.

“I was just really taken aback by the people making the decisions that affect business and employment, really have no idea of what they’re making decisions and how it’s going to affect business,” he said.

His faith in the efficiency of smaller government extends to his views on education: he thinks the Clark County school system, the fifth-largest district in the country, is too large and should be broken up. His two children attended public school there, but he supports school choice and trade education.

“Being a business owner, I’m huge on competition. And quite frankly, our education system needs competition,” he said.

As for his opponent, he said McArthur “has held very hard lines” on issues in the Legislature “to the point in the fight where he’s taken himself out of the conversation.”

“It’s an easy perspective to take a hard line” and lose a vote, Gibson said. It’s harder to acknowledge sharp differences on issues and “get out of my chair and go talk to those people and convince them why it is not a good thing for the state.”

McArthur dismisses the criticism.

“That’s the story they’ve been putting out for quite a while ever since he came in – I don’t work across the aisle, I vote ‘no’ too often,” he said. But the Democrats have been controlling up there (in the Legislature) and I’m not in favor of all their bills. You know we pass 650 bills every time and I only voted ‘no’ about 100 times.”

He blames his 2018 loss on a conservative third-party candidate who received 671 votes.

“The reason I run, and the reason I’ve always run is, I’ve been in Las Vegas for 40 years, and I just want it to be a good place to live, work, raise a family, feel safe, (provide) jobs for people, that sort of thing,” he said.

He lists his issues: limited government, low taxes, gun owner’s rights, school choice, voter ID. In the next session, the Legislature will also be handling census-driven reapportionment. But bigger than that, it will be dealing with COVID-19’s impact on the state finances and economy.

“I think what people don’t realize is that Las Vegas is going to recover a lot more slowly than the rest of the country, because we depend on people to come here to come to this nice fun city,” he said. “So we’re gonna have to consider about how we keep our businesses going.”

He said he has disagreed with Gov. Steve Sisolak’s directives to close nonessential businesses, saying the governor “clamped down way too much way too soon.” And he takes the position the people dying from the virus have underlying conditions.

“But we need to open up for the rest of the people, because a lot of people who get this have very few symptoms,” he said.

Contact Capital Bureau reporter Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.