Longtime Bunkerville constable facing challenge from young newcomer

Both candidates in the constable’s race for Bunkerville township don’t expect people will pay attention to their race, but that doesn’t stop challenger Jace Haviland or decades-long incumbent Erik Laub from wanting the position to serve the small community.

Bunkerville is a small unincorporated town in eastern Clark County that neighbors Mesquite and has a population of just more than 1,000 residents, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Constables take a small but important role within local government in Nevada; they perform evictions, serve court documents and perform other duties.

The challenger, Haviland, is 23 years old and his motivation to run is a desire to serve the public outside of his normal job on his family’s 100-plus-year-old cattle and alfalfa farm.

“I just want to be able to contribute in some way to my community,” said Haviland. “And being constable is a way that I feel I can contribute to my community, but still being able to have my normal job and I still have time to be with my family.”

Laub, who has served as Bunkerville constable nearly ever term since first being elected in 1974, had similar reasons for seeking the position for another four years, saying that he “enjoys serving the public.” But he isn’t sweating the competition for this position.

“It’s such a small community with few voters, it’s not a big deal for me to campaign,” said Laub. “Everyone knows me personally so they know if they will vote for me.”

Laub has won most of his elections without opposition, but he was briefly unseated in 1982 before coming back four years later and winning the seat back. He’s held it ever since.

Haviland doesn’t harbor animosity towards Laub or think the incumbent is doing a bad job, but he has heard some complaints in the community about it being hard to work with the current constable’s office.

“I would try to make myself very reachable,” said Haviland. “Other than that, there’s really not too much that I can change personally.”

But Haviland said that as long as community members don’t need to interact with the courts they won’t need to interact with his office.

“I actually think most people in Bunkerville aren’t even aware that there’s a constable for our town,” Haviland said.

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on Twitter.