Nye County Republican Club general election debate: Who attended, which races?

The Nye County Republican Club held its first night of two scheduled general election debates for local races on Monday.

“I think the event went really well,” Nye County Republican Club President Joe Burdzinski told the Pahrump Valley Times after the last debate.

The Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino was the venue for the three week-night debates. Former Nye County Commissioner Frank Carbone was the evening’s timekeeper. A reporter from the Pahrump Valley Times asked the candidates questions and moderated the debates.

Nye County commissioner, District 4

Republican nominee Debra Thomas and Anthony Greco of the Independent American Party took the stage first.

“As a commissioner, how would you approach the retention of local young adults when it comes to the community’s workforce? So that when younger professionals finish college or skills training, they don’t move somewhere else but stay in their hometown of Pahrump to work,” was a question posed to the commissioner hopefuls.

“My youngest son’s going through an apprenticeship training program right now,” Thomas replied. “I think we need to get union workers and have them do training here and have unions have a headquarters where they can get the trade workers trained.”

“We need someplace like a transfer station,” Greco responded, elaborating further, “There’s no chemicals that can hurt us with that and it’s good-paying jobs. So we have to find a way of bringing good-paying jobs in without poisoning the community because once you start bringing MediWaste and data centers you’re ruining everything.”

Fifth Judicial District Court, Department 1

Incumbent Department 1 Judge Kimberly “Kim” Wanker is seeking another term. Challenger Nathan Gent is running for the Department 1 seat this year. Both clashed with each other throughout the debate on Monday.

“But I will never forget what my mother taught me in the living room, that we should treat others the way we want to be treated,” Gent answered when asked to describe his judicial philosophy. “That people are not a burden to bear. People are a blessing to serve.”

Wanker said, “I’m criticized often by my opponent because he says, I don’t go through the calendar fast enough. Why? Because I allow people to be heard and anybody who’s ever sat in my courtroom will tell you one thing, ‘Judge Wanker, you have been more than fair.’ Check out my website, you’ll see the comments by people who have appeared in my courtroom. So my judicial philosophy is apply the law, apply it correctly, be the most informed person in that courtroom, and treat people with dignity and respect.”

During the rebuttal period Gent added, “I’ve had the opportunity to speak with lots of different people and hear about their experiences that they have had in the courtroom and they have shared with me the experiences that they have had and what they would have wished they could have had in the courtroom. And I have to say that it touched me that people were not being treated the way they should have been treated and I think we can do better.”

“So it’s very interesting in my book that we hear that comment, because I post regularly on Facebook, if you follow me, Retain Judge Kim and I don’t mind when people post a negative comment,” Wanker responded. “But you know, Mr. Gent shuts his comments off, because he doesn’t want to know what they’ve had to say about him. So he says he’s not treated fairly, but have you guys done a public records request to look at the complaints that have been filed against him as a public defender? Maybe you should do that. So the fact that he’s saying he’s not treated fairly in the courtroom, you know, somebody’s going to lose in every case. You’ve got to understand that and I’m very fine with that. You know what? They are treated fairly in my courtroom. He’s never sat in my civil calendar and never sat through a complete criminal calendar in 15 years. How would he know?”

Gent said next, “Serving Nye County and Esmeralda County, I’ve had the opportunity to be able to serve on both sides of the table. I’ve served as a deputy district attorney on the criminal side and a deputy district attorney on the civil side. I’ve had the opportunity to be involved with numerous different jury trials and I’ve also had the opportunity to serve in civil cases as well. It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve Nye County and I want to continue to do so in a judicial capacity.”

Fifth Judicial District Court, Department 2

Incumbent Judge Robert Lane is seeking reelection to Department 2. Jason Earnest is challenging Lane for the seat this year.

“What qualities, traits, or skills, excluding legal understanding and experience, do you view as most important in being a District Court judge?” was asked to both candidates.

“I pride myself on my problem-solving skills because I stick to my process,” Earnest said during his response. “Deductive reasoning’s very important, critical thinking. Clearly research. Again, running my own firm. I just hired my first associate last year. Frankly, I’ve done all my own research. I’ve done all my own writing. It’s important you want to be clear and concise and direct but you also want to make sure that you cover all your bases and you want make sure you have all the right case law.”

“Ditto to all that. Also empathy and patience,” Lane answered. The judge elaborated later, “As I mentioned earlier, I’m a religious man so I love people. They’re all my brothers and sisters. Be patient with them. Like Jason said, have both feet on the ground, be rational, logical, listen to what they have to say. Try to make the right decision that will help them and the right decision for the case.”

For more information about the Nye County Republican Club, visit nyecountyrepublicanclub.org.

Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com