Kunzi’s defeat surprises county politicos

County officials were still reeling from attorney Angela Bello’s victory over District Attorney Brian Kunzi, the sole Democrat in county office, as Republicans made a clean sweep of Nye County politics.

Bello won 7,388 votes to Kunzi’s 4,618 votes, a margin of victory of 61.54 percent to 38.46 percent.

“I was absolutely stunned, completely, totally blown away. I had no clue,” County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman said. “Brian has done an exceptional job. I am very, very pleased with everything he’s done for us and I’m absolutely blown away. It’s one of the surprises. Politics never fails to surprise me.”

County Manager Pam Webster said she can only speak for herself, but she indicated Bello will have to get up to speed on a lot of county business in short order.

“We have many projects in process with the DA’s office that are very complex in nature like the transition plan for the town, several ordinance updates including the Brothel Ordinance, the new public administrator and the issuances of the medical marijuana licenses. We are dealing with many water-related issues, land use issues with BLM and other agencies, collective bargaining unit issues and many new agenda actions for application in the next few months. There’s a steep learning curve ahead and we have to be responsive in a very timely manner. These obstacles pose a huge administrative hurdle to be overcome in a very short period of time,” Webster said.

“You could’ve knocked me over with a feather,” County Commission Chairman Dan Schinhofen said on hearing the results. Speaking of Kunzi, Schinhofen said, “he hasn’t done a bad job. It was a Republican wave. Republicans showed up, Democrats didn’t. He had a D after his name.”

County Commissioner Butch Borasky said he expected Kunzi would have more support than he did. He was also surprised at the results, but he was confident Bello will fill the DA’s shoes. Kunzi touted his hard work ethic and attacked Bello for just moving to Pahrump during the campaign.

“She’s going to have to learn the post. I did talk to her a lot last night, she said she’s going to get right into it, know what there is to learn and do the job,” Borasky said the day after the election.

In an e-mailed statement, Kunzi said, “not surprisingly I am disappointed with the result, but grateful for the opportunity I had to serve as district attorney for the past four years. My experiences over the past four years have been the most professionally rewarding for me. I leave office with the utmost respect for the dedicated staff with which I had the pleasure to serve and who joined me on the roller coaster ride of the DA’s office. It has been a joy and pleasure to have had the opportunity to serve.”

Down the hall in the judges’ chambers, voters liked the incumbents, Fifth Judicial District Department Two Judge Robert Lane repelled a challenge from attorney Lillian “Lil” Donohue 8,784 votes to 4,186 votes, a margin of two-to-one, easily capturing all three counties in the district. Department One Judge Kimberly Wanker didn’t face any opposition in her bid for her first full six-year term, she was appointed by Gov. Brian Sandoval May 23, 2011 to fill the seat of the late John Davis and won a two-year, unexpired term with a resounding victory over attorney Nancy Lord in November 2012.

Donohue raised the issue of term limits in the campaign. Lane won a special election in 2000 for the second judgeship in the fifth judicial district, initially serving a two-year term, he was re-elected to full, six-year terms in 2002, 2008 and this year. Lane said voters had confidence in judges that are working hard and trying to be fair.

“I know I’ve done a good job and I know my record was good in court. Most people aren’t going to want to get rid of somebody who was doing a good job to take a chance with somebody new,” Lane said. “I was pretty confident. I knew if I got out and shook hands and told people about my record I knew I’d get re-elected.

Donohue plans to devote her attention full time to her Pahrump law practice.

“I enjoyed meeting so many people in three counties on the campaign trail and I wish Judge Lane a long and fulfilling career,” Donohue said. “I was traveling hundreds of miles throughout the counties, it was a real adventure.”

Likewise, two county commission incumbents faced easy paths to re-election, both are Republicans. District 4 County Commissioner Butch Borasky won over 50 percent of the vote in the primary and didn’t have to face an opponent in November. In the June 2012 Republican primary, Borasky had to draw cards after a tie with Carl Moore Sr. Borasky will be term limited in 2018 after this third term.

Schinhofen polled 44 percent of the vote in the primary for district 5 county commissioner, well ahead of Dave Caudle, Bill Dolan and Walt Grudzinski. In the general election he finished with 58.75 percent of the vote, comfortably in front of Democrat Bob Howard with 24 percent and former County Manager Rick Osborne, the Independent American Party candidate, with 17.25 percent. Schinhofen enters his second term, winning 1,574 of the 2,879 votes cast.

“I just think that being a realist that you have to basically conclude that it’s very difficult to get elected as a third party. I can’t give you an explanation as to why,” Osborne said. Schinhofen ran as an independent in 2006 after losing the Republican primary and lost in the general election to Peter Liakopoulos.

Public Administrator Falkon Finlinson won election as an Independent American Party candidate in 2010, but didn’t run for re-election. Deputy Public Administrator Robin Dorand-Rudolf fought off accusations by challenger Bob Pilkington that the office was rife with corruption to win 5,719 votes to 4,940, a margin of 53.62 percent to 48.38 percent. Pilkington didn’t want to comment Wednesday, other than to wish Dorand-Rudolf all the best.

“I just ran on the basis of trying to continue the work I do. Now that the count is in and I know I’m in, I’m going to try to see what I can do to improve the way the office functions, to restore the faith that is lacking in how we do what we do,” Dorand-Rudolf said. “He made a lot of allegations. It was based on nothing, no facts. It was innuendos and he was attempting to bully, trying to bully me and tell people what he would have done to make the office more efficient.”

She pledged to be more hands-on with the public administrator duties, unlike Finlinson who delegated a lot of responsibilities to his deputies.