Our election picks: They’re about ideas, intellect and character

Every election season, the Review-Journal editorial page staff spend considerable time interviewing candidates for office, seeking more than memorized talking points, probing their political philosophies, their personalities, their knowledge of the issues.

Once we publish our resulting endorsements, a few humorists always write in, assuring us they'll now vote exactly the opposite of the newspaper's recommendations.

In some cases, they should.

The Review-Journal has long favored moderate, sensible levels of taxation and regulation, adequate to take miscreants off the street and help the helpless, but retaining the high levels of financial liberty and personal responsibility that have long created opportunity in Nevada.

Voters who want vastly higher taxes, lots more bureaucratic regulation to cripple our remaining businesses and far less personal freedom may very well want to vote opposite our recommendations - at least until they can find a way to move to California, Chicago or Kazakhstan.

If you want colorful radicals who would jack up Nevada tax rates in the midst of a recession to fund every left-wing dream left unrealized, by all means re-elect Peggy Pierce in Assembly District 3, and send dedicated redistributionist Patricia Spearman of Senate District 1 to join her. Ms. Spearman upset moderate, pro-gun-rights Democrat John Lee in a thinly attended primary this summer and now asks of Nevadans - who already spend more than $10,000 per child per year supporting public education - "I hear people say 'You can't throw money at education because more money won't fix education.' Well, how do we know?"

In recommending against Ms. Pierce and Ms. Spearman, our differences are philosophical. But other races are different. Some candidates simply display personal and intellectual qualities that make them unusually well - or poorly - suited to public office.

In state Senate District 9, 28-year-old Mari Nakashima St. Martin wants to cut "regressive" motor vehicle taxes that weigh most heavily on the working poor. The Republican objects that any potential business margins or gross receipts tax - which her opponent, Democrat Justin Jones, says "ought to be considered" - makes business owners less likely to create new jobs. We like her pro-business, pro-job politics. But Ms. St. Martin is more than that: She's quick and articulate, and she has a compelling life story, as a third-generation Nevadan who grew up in Ely's small Asian community. She'd be an outstanding asset to the state Senate, with or without the "R" after her name.

The same goes for 56-year-old civil engineer Phil Regeski, challenging ineffective incumbent Paul Aizley, a retired university professor, in Assembly District 41. When the energetic and common-sense Mr. Regeski had finished his rapid-fire introductory remarks, detailing the issues he thought were important and what he'd do about them, we didn't know whether to dream up some new questions to replace all the ones he'd already answered, or to simply hold up pieces of paper on which we'd written "10."

Though District Court judgeships are nonpartisan races, Judge Jerry Tao, son of Chinese immigrants, got his start in public service as a legislative aide for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. If the endorsement process were a mere D or R litmus test, why did this Republican-leaning newspaper endorse Jerry Tao for Department 20? Because he's among the smartest, most capable, most thoughtful judicial candidates to walk through our doors in years.

What about Assembly District 19? Democratic newcomer Felipe Rodriguez favors binding arbitration and prevailing wage laws - he carries the union endorsements to prove it - yet he insists he's open to reforms unions oppose, saying "I'm not closed-minded." Republican Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, on the other hand, is a soft-spoken old country boy who lets you know, in his understated way, just where he stands. We prefer the forthrightness - and the knowledge of his constituents' needs - of Cresent Hardy.

In state Senate District 7, Republican Trish Marsh challenges incumbent David Parks, a Democratic lawmaker who happens to be gay, with a code-word campaign, accusing the incumbent of "not understanding the family unit." Sen. Parks differs from us on many issues, but not on individual rights, which he reliably champions. Ms. Marsh, on the other hand, discouragingly resembled a cat trapped in a paper bag as she tried to explain her position on any specific issue.

In Senate District 18, thoughtful and responsible Assemblyman Scott Hammond faces Kelli Ross, wife of Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross. When the filibustering Ms. Ross can be nailed down on anything, the Democrat refuses to believe the Clark County School District has 1,000 fewer teaching positions than it did before this summer's cutbacks ("It's all a big game" on the part of school administrators, she charges), and insists that if a public employee gets an automatic pay increase after gaining another year of service or some form of additional certification, "It's not a 'pay raise' because it was already told to them."

So if you're inclined to vote opposite of this newspaper's endorsements, go ahead. You'll end up casting a ballot in favor of some completely unqualified candidates who'll be out of their depth the moment they take office.

Don't say we didn't warn you.