The primary election in Nye County is just ahead. Those not registered to vote that intend to vote have until May 8 to register by mail. Between May 9-18 they can register in the Nye County Clerk’s office. Early voting will begin on May 22.

So, now that the time for candidates to register for the elective offices they’re running for is closed who is running for what? Here is the list I consider to be the most major offices up for the Nye County election:

For Nye County Assessor:

• Kathleen L. Bienenstein—Democrat
• Shirley Matson—Republican
• Sandra M. Musselman—Democrat (incumbent)

For Nye County Clerk:

• Andrew “Andy” Alberti Jr.:–Republican
• Sandra “Sam” Merlino—Republican (incumbent)
• Norma Jean Opatik—Republican

Nye County Commissioner, District IV:

• Andrew “Butch” Borasky—Republican (incumbent)
• Donna C. Cox—Republican
• Sandra D. Darby—Libertarian
• Carl L. Moore Sr.—Republican

Nye County Commissioner, District V:

• Paul Holder—Democrat
• Laurayne Murray—Democrat
• Fely A. Quitevis—Republican (incumbent)
• Dan Schinhofen—Republican

Nye County District Attorney:

• Bob Beckett—Republican (incumbent)
• Nicholas Anthony Del Vecchio—Democrat
• Ron Kent—Republican
• Brian T. Kunzi—Democrat
• Nancy Lord—Republican
• Michael Root—Republican
• Charles G. Watkins—Republican

Nye County Public Administrator:

• Robin Dorand-Rudolf—Democrat
• Falkon Finlinson—Independent American Party
• Donna J. Jokinen—Democrat

Nye County Recorder:

• Deborah Beatty—Republican
• Byron P. Foster—Republican (incumbent)
• Cindy Wyrick—Republican

Nye County Treasurer:

• Gary S. Budahl—Democrat (incumbent)
• Darryl Lackey—Republican
• Michael W. Maher—Republican

Nye County Sheriff: (Non Partisan)

• Scott Cobel
• Tony DeMeo (incumbent)
• Ted Holmes
• Ray “The Flagman” Mielzynski
• Gerald “Bear” Smith

Pahrump Town Board: (Non Partisan)

• Bill Dolan (incumbent)
• Carolene Endersby
• Anthony Greco
• Isabel Isherwood
• Lu Komorowski
• Harley Kulkin
• Frank J. Maurizio (incumbent)
• Michael A. Miraglia
• Warren Pawliuk
• Jim Petell
• Amy Riches
• Don Rust
• Nicole Shupp (incumbent)
• Eric Vessella
• Tom Waters

There are other offices not on this list which will be on the ballot. Each are important, of course, but the ones I’ve listed are the ones I think are generally more important to follow.

First, let me say (or more accurately—write) that this election is a primary election. That means that you voters get to pick which candidates get to go on to the general election which will take place in November. The primary election allows you to pick what you consider to be the cream of the crop.

Second, I’ll be writing about the upcoming primary election in the weeks ahead. It is no secret that I am a Democrat and tend to favor Democratic candidates. So I head into this election season with that bias. However, I’ll also tell you I have and will in the coming election vote for at least one Republican on this list.

Past all that I hope to be as objective and factual as I can be. That is the best I can do.

I look forward to this election. I’m interested in why these people are running for the office they seek and what they hope to accomplish in doing so. We can all learn together.

Finally, I offer a tip of my hat to each of them. It takes somewhat special people to run for an elective office. Most of us never do. It is hard work. It is expensive. There is little thanks given for doing it. I thank each of you for doing what the majority of us would never do. So, show us what you’ve got.

So, if you are interested on my take on the election you are welcome to follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Featheriver. Every post I write on this blog goes out on Twitter also. You won’t miss anything that way.

Last Sunday I attended the Pahrump Town Hall Meeting at the Pahrump Nugget. Over 200 people attended, 50 of whom arose and spoke about the current health care system, the formation of that system being considered in Congress, or their personal experiences with the health care system.

Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign were invited to attend along with Congressman Dean Heller. Likewise invited were Congresswomen Shelly Berkley and Dina Titus though neither represents Pahrump. None attended or sent a representative. Only two of them even acknowledged their invitations.

Five chairs were set in front of the audience with their pictures appended to represent the Nevada’s Congressional Delegation.

A number of cameras recorded the event.

Dan Schinhofen, my fellow columnist in this newspaper, put the affair together. His idea, and a good one I thought, was to video the event and send copies of the video to each member of the Congressional Delegation. Since none of the Delegation had held their own Town Hall Meeting in Pahrump, or anywhere else in Nye County, residents of Pahrump was afforded no opportunity to discuss health care reform with any of their elected representatives in Congress. To his credit, Dan is seeing that the Delegation will hear from Pahrump whether they like it or not.

I doubt they will like it.

The reaction of the audience upon learning none of the elected Congressional members would attend or be represented by a member of their staff was negative. It was as though the audience felt they were being ignored. I could not escape the feeling that members of the audience can be expected to reciprocate by ignoring the Delegation on their next election day.

Having watched other Town Hall Meetings across the nation on TV I was not sure what to expect from the Pahrump audience. I was billed as being the Progressive liberal, Dan as the Conservative–opposite bookends of the political spectrum. And we are. We both were co-hosts of the event.

Though the event was not a political rally I could not help but scan the audience to see if I could identify any Democrats. Out of the 200+, I saw eight I could recognize.

The audience was well behaved. No banner waving, no orchestrated demonstrations. No AR15’s or handguns in view. As each spoke their allotted two minutes, the audience quietly and respectfully listened to each.

I saw the entire event as a classic example of grassroots democracy in action. The audience was attentive and engaged. I commend them for that.

The comments were a wide-ranging smorgasbord of views held by those that spoke. It displayed the intensity and seriousness with which they viewed the state of the current health care system and of their views of proposed reforms.

One man told of an experience with his wife who experienced cardiac emergency. He took her to Desert View hospital, learned there was no cardiologist to attend her. She had to be taken by helicopter to Desert Springs hospital in Las Vegas. He related the helicopter transport cost $16-18,000 and her stay at the Las Vegas cost another $26,000.

Two others shared their experiences in Canada’s health care system with ill loved ones in which they were told to take them home to die peacefully.

Distrust of government seemed to me to be the common theme throughout the audience. Fear of “socialized medicine,” intercession of government bureaucrats between patients and their doctors, inability of government to conduct any program successfully.

Only two of the number of bills wending their way through Congress were mentioned–HR 3200 and HR 676. Several speakers would refer to “the bill” without identifying which bill they were speaking. One of the problems, it seems to me to be prevalent, is that there has yet to be a single bill to arise for the public to address. There are several more, each from multiple Senate and House Committees. For example, the S 703 bill was not mentioned Sunday.

Until all the pending bills are digested into a single bill, it is almost impossible to evaluate the impact of health care reform.

The final item I would like to mention here is about the influence of special interest money on Congress’ treatment of healthcare reform.

I am nagged by the thought that perhaps one of the reasons, if not the reason, none of the Nevada Congressional Delegation appeared is that the actual constituents of the delegation is the health care insurance companies who feed so much money to members of Congress. Congress seems to be controlled and directed by those corporate interests, rather than ordinary citizens such as attended the Pahrump Town Hall Meeting. Perhaps that 200+ were forgotten the day after election.

Update: September 3, 2009. The Pahrump Valley Times stories about the Town Hall Meeting. Emotions vivid at health care forum and Obama proposal compared with Canadian health system.

It is Sunday morning, August 30, 2009. This afternoon between 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. there will be a “Town Hall Meeting” at the Pahrump Nugget about healthcare reform. I have been invited to attend as a “moderator.” The event has been sponsored and put together by Dan Schinhofen.

Dan is a columnist with the Pahrump Mirror, a weekly newspaper. So am I. Dan also has a weekly local TV talk show on Channel 30 on Fridays. I was his guest on the show last Friday.

I asked him how he was going to conduct the program this afternoon. He explained that those attending  the meeting will be provided an opportunity to come forward to the front of the room, five at a time, and address the Nevada Congressional Delegation with their view of healthcare reform. Each will have two minutes to make their statement. Then five more, until everyone has had their chance to speak up.

Dan and I will also be permitted to make a two-minute statement, just like everyone else.

The event will be video taped and the tape sent to the Nevada Delegation: Senators Harry Reid, John Ensign and Representatives Dean Heller, Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley.

The idea is to provide residents of Pahrump their opportunity to speak directly to those members of Congress.

Not a bad idea I thought. There is no other way I know of that residents of Pahrump can provide their input to Congress, unless they want to write.

So, being confined to two minutes to make my contribution I have been working on my “speech.” Here is my pitch:

Good afternoon to the Nevada Congressional Delegation.

It is regretful you cannot be here in Pahrump in person. But considering the acrimonious Town Hall Meetings being experienced in the nation your absence is understandable.

Here is my understanding of the facts with which we are faced:

The U.S. spends $7,129 per capita, twice as much as the other industrialized nations on health care.

Other industrialized nations have higher life expectancies, lower infant mortality and immunization rates.

Other nations provide comprehensive coverage to their entire populations, while the U.S. leaves 45.7 million completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered. That 45.7 million is more people than the entire population of Canada.

The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because of our “for-profit insurance” system. Private insurers waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as profits and executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the multiple insurance bureaucracies. The cost consumes one-third (31 %) of money paid in premiums to the for-profit insurance companies. That leaves only 69 cents to pay medical claims.

Medical professionals in the group called “Physicians for a National Health Program” state that:

Single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. The potential savings on paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, are enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do.

Under the single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. Patients would have free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would have autonomy over patient care.

Physicians would be paid a fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.

A single-payer system would be financed by eliminating private for profit insurers replaced by non-profit insurers and recapturing their administrative waste. I understand that modest taxes would replace insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments currently paid by individuals and business. That costs would be controlled through negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing.

The current health care system by for profit insurance companies does not work. For profit insurers  systematically “dump” their customers who they find are not profitable. They deny payment of medical claims on grounds of “pre-existing medical conditions” or for surgeries they can classify as “experimental.” Failing that they hike the premium payments beyond the reach of ordinary people or small businesses.

UnitedHealth, Aetna, Wellpoint, and CIGNA have accumulated corporate control of virtually all of the healthcare industry in the nation and have eliminated savings from competition. They constitute a monopoly. They also exercise far too much control over members of Congress.

I urge Congress to pass HR 676 and establish comprehensive non-profit insurance coverage for all American citizens.

I’m looking forward to hearing what the others who attend the meeting will have to say. I’m also curious about how many Democrats will show up and speak. Will anyone from the Nye County Democratic Central Committee appear and speak on behalf of the Democratic Party. Same curiosity exists for those of the Republican persuasion.

I’ll know in a few hours.

Dan Schinhofen

Received a phone call from my friend Dan Schinhofen this morning. Dan is a conservative and writes a weekly column in the Pahrump Mirror. He espouses the conservatives view of politics.

Jack Wood

I am a progressive Democrat. I also write a weekly column in the Pahrump Mirror. I espouse the progressive view of politics.

Dan and I can take different views and argue about them without either of us having a handgun strapped to our waists or an AR-15 slung over our shoulders.

Dan phoned me this morning to inform me that since no one else in Pahrump has done so, he has arranged with the Pahrump Nugget to hold a Pahrump Town Hall Meeting on the timely question of Healthcare Reform, here in Pahrump, Nye County, Nevada.

Nye County, for those of you who don’t live in the county or the state of Nevada, is a bright red county, as opposed to blue. The Republican Party owns it, runs it, and holds the political power.

It is as good a place as any for our own Town Hall Meeting. I tip my hat to Dan for getting it set up. The Democrats sure didn’t.

Here are the details:

When: Sunday, August 30, 2009 from 3:00 – 5 p.m.

Where: Pahrump Nugget, intersection of Highways 160 and 372

Moderators: Dan Schinhofen and Jack Wood

Master of Ceremonies: Yet to be determined

Everyone is invited to attend and participate. Dan has undertaken to invite Senators Harry Reid, John Ensign, Congresswomen Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus and Congressman Dean Heller.

The event will be televised on Pahrump local TV channel 30.

My colleague, Dan Schinhofen, a columnist in the Pahrump Mirror has announced he is a candidate for election to the Nye County Board of Commissioners. [Pahrump Mirror, July 23, 2009, page 1]

Dan is a Republican and resident of Pahrump. He plans to run to be the County Commissioner for district 5. The seat is currently occupied by Fely Quitevis, another Republican, who was appointed by Republican Governor Jim Gibbons to complete the term of former Republican Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos, who is awaiting sentencing following his conviction in which “The jury found Liakopoulos guilty of felony bribery and misdemeanor counts of offering a reward for an appointment and graft by a public officer.”

Dan is a former Nye County Regional Planning Commissioner. The Mirror reported Schinhofen says “He won’t be running on a particular political platform, instead he believes he will bring a sense of fairness and honesty to the role of commissioner….”

“I didn’t move from Vegas to make Pahrump like Vegas. I moved here for what it is, not to try to change it. I like where I moved to.”

Dan writes a weekly column in the Pahrump Mirror called Ramblings of a Madman. He has written two books “The Moses Stern Chronicles Vol I” and “The Ramblings of a Madman Anthology,” published by Robert’s Inadvertent Publishing.

We will soon have a PayPal account set up, but if you order now you will receive FREE postage. The first 100 orders will pay only the cover price. Moses Stern is $20 and The Ramblings of a Madman is $15.

Place your order or contact us by emailing us at rip@pahrump.com or snail mail us at:

PO BOX 4796 Pahrump NV 89041 Checks payable to RIP

Note to Dan: No charge for the plug for your books.

My friend, Dan Schinhofen, is a writer. We are of opposite political views. We each write a weekly column in the Pahrump Mirror and set out our differing political views.

But that is not the reason for this post. Dan and I are also Facebook friends. Today Dan wrote on Facebook:

Site up dated robertsinadvertentpublishing.net PLEASE check it out and maybe buy a book. I know we are all tight on cash, but you might enjoy the book.

Robert’s Inadvertent Publishing (RIP) is a privately owned company formed to publish the writings of Dylan Roberts. As Dylan is the father of the owners they thought that maybe if the old man finally got published they would not have to keep reading his stories.

I admire Dan’s entrepreneurship. Why don’t you go on over to his publishing site and look it over. Maybe buy a book. Tell Dan I sent you.

Before you read the following post I should explain something so you won’t think I’ve finally lost my mind. I write a weekly column for a Nye County weekly newspaper called The Mirror, entitled, strangely enough, Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals.

A friend of mine, Dan Schinhofen, a Nye County Republican, also writes a weekly column in The Mirror.

Dan writes about his view of the world from a Republican perspective. I write from a Democrat’s perspective. Though we agree on some things, we disagree about many things from our respective political viewpoints.

What you are about to read is my response to Dan’s column last week.

Well, Dan, having read your “Obama knows best” column about healthcare reform last Thursday, June 18, 2009 in The Mirror I came away with the thought it sounds like “let’s keep on doing what we’re doing—i.e., retain the status quo.” If so, the status quo isn’t working very well.

“President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass comprehensive health reform in his first year in order to control rising health care costs, guarantee choice of doctor, and assure high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.” [Source: Whitehouse.gov]

During the presidential election campaign Obama’s theme was Campaign for Change. My friend, Kelly Almond and I, heard repeatedly from people living in Precinct 28 in Pahrump—they emphatically wanted change from the status quo. Part of that change they sought was reform of the healthcare system in the United States. And, though Obama did not win in Nye County, the people of Nevada and the nation picked Obama as their agent to effect the change.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama pointed out in their public debates that change was in the air, and perhaps now was the time to push for universal health care, that the political will seemed present. Both cautioned that changing the healthcare system to include all Americans would be extremely difficult at best.

Clinton and Obama recognized the entrenched medical care industry and your political party would tenaciously resist any change. But change, it must.

“Comprehensive health care reform can no longer wait. Rapidly escalating health care costs are crushing family, business, and government budgets. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 9 years, a rate 3 times faster than cumulative wage increases. This forces families to sit around the kitchen table to make impossible choices between paying rent or paying health premiums. Given all that we spend on health care, American families should not be presented with that choice. The United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, or $7,421 per person – nearly twice the average of other developed nations. Americans spend more on health care than on housing or food. If rapid health cost growth persists, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2025, one out of every four dollars in our national economy will be tied up in the health system. This growing burden will limit other investments and priorities that are needed to grow our economy. Rising health care costs also affect our economic competitiveness in the global economy, as American companies compete against companies in other countries that have dramatically lower health care costs.” [Whitehouse.gov]

I could see from your column last week that you subscribe to Frank Luntz’s “The 10 Rules for Stopping the Washington Takeover of Healthcare,” I wrote about in The Mirror on June 11 and 18. Specifically you followed Luntz’s Rule 4 when you assert Obama “is determined to have the Federal Government in charge of everything.”

You may want to re-think your position that “This time his [Obama’s] sight is on the best health care system in the world and remaking it into a third world model.” The World Health Organization in 2000 ranked the healthcare system of the United States as 37th in the world. [Source: Geographic.org]

We may be lower than that by now. Keep in mind that that ranking has been achieved by our current healthcare industry without “government in the middle of the healthcare industry.”

Dan, note that President Obama’s approach to healthcare reform doesn’t constitute “The biggest threat to our deficit.” Re-read what he says. His approach is to cut and contain healthcare costs, not increase the deficit.

Since I’m running short on space, permit me to quickly change gears here. A fundamental factor seems to separate our view of this whole topic. I see healthcare as a Constitutional right of the people of the United States. The Preamble to the Constitution reads:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” [Preamble to the United States Constitution]

To me the “general Welfare” includes health. I submit my view of the application of the “general Welfare” clause is buttressed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “no state shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” [14th Amendment to the United States Constitution]

Contrary to your apparent view, the matter of healthcare reform, is a Constitutional issue, not an economic one. The Constitutional right to healthcare for all is not dictated by nor controlled by insuring that the healthcare industry maintain a right to make a profit from the diseases, sicknesses, and health problems of the populace.

As those of you who regularly read this blog knows I live in Pahrump, Nye County, Nevada.

The guy on the left is Dan Schinhofen. Notice I put his picture on the left side. I did that to annoy him because he is a right wing conservative Republican.

I’m of the Democrat persuasion politically. I’ve lived in Pahrump for six years. Am retired and got myself involved in local politics to keep me out of pool halls, bars and casinos.
[Read more →]

Republican Congressman Dean Heller, Nevada Congressional District 2

Democratic Senator and Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid

I enjoyed reading Jon Ralston’s column yesterday in the Las Vegas Sun. He has a way with words. “Let us turn our attention today from the train wreck unfolding in Carson City” he began, inviting our attention to Nevada Senator and Majority Leader of the Senate, Harry Reid. [Read more →]

There is this fellow that lives in Pahrump that sort of fascinates me for some reason. His name is Dan Schinhofen.

Photo: Dan Schinhofen and his dog, Strider

Why my interest in Dan. Well, because he is interesting. He’s a Republican. I’m a Democrat. He is conservative. I’m progressive (that is a word meaning liberal, for those of you who are hung up with labels). Dan and I hold opposite political views. He even, gasp, criticizes Barack Obama. I, on the other hand, find no problem in believing Obama walks on water. He is the messiah.

But Dan and I do have some common interests. He likes to write. So do I. He’s opinionated. So am I. He likes to express his opinions. So do I.

He writes a weekly column in the Pahrump Mirror. So do I.

Today I learned that Dan has written a book. It is called The Ramblings of a Madman Anthology. He wrote the book under the pen name of Dylan Roberts. I like that—a man with a pen name. Shows some literary class.

It will be published by a Pahrump publisher called Robert’s Inadvertent Publishing. I like that name for a publisher. Click the link and find out some more about the publisher, and Dan.

The Ramblings of a Madman Anthology will be an unlimited issue and will include many never before published columns and a few unedited. This Anthology will include many different columns as Dan or Dylan never seems to write about just one topic. They will range from “Political, “Philosophical” and some “Just for Fun”. The cost of this book is $15 Plus Postage. Handling is FREE!

I have another motive in writing all this about Dan, er Dylan. By plugging his book I’m hoping he will give me an autographed copy for free. I’m too cheap to pay money for it.

Today I more or less challenged Dan to initiate a blog. We need another blogger in Pahrump, especially a conservative Republican blogger. I told Dan he and I could become the “dueling bloggers” of Pahrump, or all of Nye County for that matter.

We can each try to turn the other into a sort of punching bag as we argue our different political views in those dueling blogs. I hope, if he accepts the challenge, that he names his blog “Ramblings of a Madman.” He can even run an ad on his blog advertising the sale of his book.

I wish Dan the best of luck with his book and the publishing venture. Pahrump needs some cultural literary resource.

So, what do you say Dan? Shall we do it?