Nye County Democratic Party commissioner speed dating event: Who attended?

Two seats on the Nye County Commission will be decided in November. Although none of the candidates in these contests will have DEM next to their name on the ballot, the Nye County Democratic Party held a public event to connect the commissioner hopefuls with voters ahead of the general election.

“We all live in the same community and the commissioners run the town of Pahrump,” Nye County Democratic Party Chair Ann Underdahl told the Pahrump Valley Times. “These are the people who are going to be responsible for many of the aspects of our lives. Relating to property taxes, abatement of mosquitoes and all of the things that come under the purview of the commissioners currently.”

The candidate speed-dating event on Aug. 4 at the Pahrump Senior Center was the first of two this month organized by the Nye County Democratic Party. The Tuesday gathering focused on commissioner candidates from the District 4 and 5 races.

“We got very positive feedback,” Underdahl enthused. “There were many of the attendees who said, ‘I really like this format because I got to talk to somebody face-to-face,’ and the candidates enjoyed it because they really got to hear what’s important to their constituents, and face time in a small town like this means everything.”

During the event, each candidate sat at their own table and spoke to groups of four to five people. The candidates then had 15 minutes to introduce themselves, answer questions, discuss issues and hear concerns. Once the time was up, groups moved to the next table until everyone spoke with all the candidates.

The District 5 commissioner race was in complete composition on Tuesday with Republican nominee Matt Sadler and independent/nonpartisan Chris Lally.

“It’s good to know that ultimately, we are more alike than we are different,” Sadler explained after the event concluded. “I know that sounds kind of trite, but it is true. Sometimes the national media, maybe even the billionaire class, the tech companies or whoever might have motivation to keep people kind of divided, distracted or making it seem like there’s certain issues that we’re divided on, they make them a bigger deal than they need to be. I think really at the crux of everything is people want to live a peaceable life, a good life. They want to have access to good amenities. They want to have public safety. They value good, clean water, obviously. They want the roads to be nice. So it’s a lot of stuff that we find that we have more common ground than we differ.”

Lally told the Pahrump Valley Times after the event, “Ultimately, in a small community we are all kind of nonpartisan from the standpoint of so many issues affect us all, no matter your party, like the data centers, like the quality of our water or the quality of our roads. They don’t matter in terms of your party, they matter to you as a resident, a taxpaying resident, so it’s kind of been a blessing in disguise to have some of these big controversial things come up because I think it’s bringing people together. It was nice, ultimately, though, tonight to just finally meet some folks who are from the other opposing major party and get their thoughts and opinions about things.”

The District 4 commissioner contest was also represented in full at the event with Republican nominee Debra Thomas and Anthony Greco of the Independent American Party.

“It was just a really nice thing to do because there’s actually no Democrats among the candidates that were here tonight,” Thomas explained after the event ended. “So I think it was a big win for the people that attended, and I think it was a win for the candidates, too.”

Thomas added, “The data center was one of the big things that everyone wanted to talk about, but we’ve got the Democrats that don’t want it, the Republicans that don’t want it, so the community obviously does not want it, that was one of the big things.”

Greco said after the event concluded, “Just because they’re Democrats doesn’t mean that they’re not Americans. These are American people.”

“These are my community members, whether they’re Democrat, Republican, nonpartisan. They have a say-so too,” Greco elaborated. “I want to know what they want to talk about and if I become a commissioner, I’m going to sit down with people from my community and talk about what’s on the agenda because I want to know their attitude on what they want me to vote on. Because that’s who I’m working for. I’m working for the people and that’s important.”

Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com