Letter: Electing Hof a bad idea for Pahrump

“Cannot Be Bought.”

I did a double take when I saw the billboard from Dennis Hof.

My initial thought was “he needs to fire his marketing guy” followed by “people can’t be that stupid can they?” What Mr. Hof is attempting to do is borrow a page from the Hillary Clinton campaign and smear his opponent. His statement “Cannot Be Bought” implies that his opponent can be bought. Mr. Hof doesn’t think that you will care that in reality, he can be bought because that is what he does for a living.

Mr. Hof buys and sells the services of prostitutes to the general public. He is an extension of that business by virtue of his ownership and his employees work for him. Therefore he is buying and selling himself all the time.

I am not condemning legal prostitution, it has long been a part of our state’s rural areas. That is an entirely separate topic for discussion. But for purposes of this editorial, what he does for a living is very pertinent to this election.

Like it or not, Pahrump has a bit of reputation problem around the state. Mostly we are viewed as home to tweakers, prostitutes and retirees. Granted, there was a real issue with druggies several years back but that seems to have scaled back significantly. And the publicity for prostitution brought by Mr. Hof (his HBO series and recently Lamar Odom!) and others like the well-publicized announcements in the past that Heidi Fleiss planned to open a brothel called “Heidi Fleiss’ Stud Farm” in 2005 that was followed up in 2007 with a laundromat called “Dirty Laundry” certainly have done nothing to scale back that reputation.

And yes, we have lots of great retirees who enjoy the cost of living and low-key lifestyle here. We also have a less than stellar reputation for attracting new businesses to the area. There is a vocal segment of our residents who oppose anything new regardless of the benefit.

Potential new business owners quickly get tired of the difficulty in getting through the process of meeting all the rules and regulations to open a new business here and simply give up. The recent actions to force Mr. Hof to scale back his ridiculously blatant billboards advertising his prostitution businesses is a positive step. And a review of how we can attract and keep businesses that increase the services and quality of life in Pahrump would be helpful, but I digress.

Another consideration of sending someone (anyone) from a minority political party to Carson City is that person will get no committee memberships, no chairmanships, and hence no clout to protect the interests of Pahrump and Nye County residents.

Mr. Hof likes to point out his many public appearances on TV, in the press, and speaking engagements. Every single one of those appearances is because Mr. Hof was promoting himself and his prostitution businesses, not for the “good” of Pahrump residents.

Electing Mr. Hof, a professional pimp, self-promoter, and minority party person is a bad idea for Pahrump residents.

Frankly, it’s just plain embarrassing.

Tim Burke is a Pahrump resident