Harley Kulkin Angie Cochran Laurayne Murray Advertisement

Three Democrats competing in the Aug. 15 primary in the Nevada Assembly District 36 race have all sought political office in Nye County before.

Harley Kulkin, 55, has owned Servco, a Pahrump heating and air-conditioning business, since 1994. He previously lived in Minden and, before that, Ridgecrest, Calif., and the Los Angeles area, where he was a heating and air-conditioning mechanic.

Kulkin has had a television talk show and served briefly on the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission. He ran unsuccessfully for Nye County Commissioner of District 1 in 2004; incumbent Roberta "Midge" Carver won that race 1,749 votes to 827.

"I was on the planning commission during the master plan. I believe zoning should be about organization, not elimination of lifestyles," Kulkin said.

A Johnnie resident, Kulkin said he was instrumental in the establishment of a more permissive rural homestead zone in the master plan for Pahrump Valley. He also took credit for pushing a wildlife habitat zone.

Kulkin said he worked at the China Lake Naval Weapons facility in California. While Nevada has fought against the Yucca Mountain project, Kulkin said it could bring high-paid, professional jobs like physicists, to Pahrump , if it's done right.

"The nuclear waste at the test site is only 5 percent spent. There's 95 percent of the renewable energy left when we put it in storage" Kulkin said. "If we started looking into it, we would find continued uses for that fuel and all that could be done in Nye County and Nevada. We need to bring outside revenues into our state. They're trying to tax us more and more."

Kulkin doesn't think businesses that provide jobs should have to pay the impact fees charged in Pahrump.

He said residential growth needs to be slowed down; one way would be by requiring six water rights per lot instead of two.

Kulkin doesn't like the county's bill draft request for a water district. "A water district gives somebody an awful lot of power to control water around here," he said.

Regarding the proposed half-percent sales tax increase, Kulkin said, "we do need it, and it's such an insignificant amount for each family, they probably wouldn't even notice it."

Asked what specific issues he'd like to address, Kulkin said, "I want to solve the illegal alien problem, and that's real simple. The state of Nevada needs to fine employers."

Kulkin said he doesn't support Assemblywoman Sharron Angle's tax initiative to lower taxes on casinos. "I know that's going to be a big shortfall for the state of Nevada."

Kulkin instead would like to see the state freeze property taxes for people 62 years or older and the handicapped.

"Nobody should be taxed out of their home when they retire," he said.

A law should be passed so public entities don't have to buy water rights for things like a school or a park, he said.

Kulkin is also enthusiastic about a theme park in Pahrump, which he said would make the Pahrump Valley a destination for tourists.

Kulkin felt his Democratic party label won't have any effect if he should proceed to the general election.

"The average voter has enough hands-on contact with the person they're going to vote for," Kulkin said. "I think their reason for voting for me will be for me as a person."

Angie Cochran and her husband own I and S Insulation. She ran unsuccessfully for the Pahrump town board in 2002. But she edged out David Bennett to win the Democratic primary race for the U.S. representative District 2 seat in 2004, before losing to incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons 8,781 votes to 4,102 that November.

Cochran said she first became involved in politics when she moved to Pahrump 16 years ago and went to the Pahrump Community Center to protest the closure of Mickey Street.

Cochran said the most important thing that needs to be addressed is infrastructure. She mentioned the need for traffic lights in Pahrump on Highway 160 and Highway 372.

Cochran also said Pahrump should collect more funding from developers.

"We should have got a lot more in roads and parks and street lights because they had put in 400, 600 homes in different places," Cochran said.

Water is another critical issue facing the state, she said.

"Rural Nevada does not have to solve the problems of Clark County and Nye," Cochran said, referring to the water feud with Las Vegas and White Pine County. When she first moved to Pahrump, Cochran said she was informed Pahrump had a big aquifer. Now people are told there isn't such a bountiful supply of water, she said.

"We will have to depend on Yucca Mountain for the payments equal to taxes," Cochran said. "We pay pretty hefty taxes as it is."

Money for improvements should've been charged to developers instead of taking it out of Yucca Mountain money or increasing sales taxes, she said.

"If you ask developers, they tell us the reason we don't have big business is because we have too much red tape. But then when it comes to infrastructure, they have to come up with something," Cochran said "Our taxes are not cheap. Our taxes are high, and we don't get that much for our taxes.

"I want to try to represent the people here," she said, "so they have a say when all these people make deals."

Laurayne Murray retired in 1997 after a 32-year career with AT&T. Her last position was executive assistant to the vice-president of consumer products in Pennsylvania. Murray, 57, and her husband Tim, settled in Pahrump in 2001 after traveling around full-time in a recreational vehicle.

Murray finished second in the September 2004 primary and was second again in the November 2004 general election to take one of two seats up for grabs on the Pahrump Town Board. She followed in her father's footsteps <!-- 2013(unknown) --> he was on the city council in her hometown of Davenport, Iowa.

"I'm the only candidate that's retired, that will be available on a full-time basis to make sure we're represented on all those committees, including the interim committees," Murray said.

Murray said she attended almost all the Nye County Commission meetings and the stormwater task force meetings to keep on top of what the county wants in the upcoming session of the legislature. She became aware that many times counties run into obstacles in the Nevada laws.

"These laws being established are mostly influenced by the urban areas. We need more attention to how those can be written to accommodate the needs of the rurals as well," Murray said.

She is a proponent of alternative energy. But Murray said, "In Esmeralda County the state wanted to bring in more geothermal business, which is good. But the way they were designing the incentives, it would take money away from the county."

State officials want to diversify the economy from gaming and mining, and the rural areas afford a prime opportunity to do that, she said.

Murray wants to continue developing the Pahrump Great Basin College campus.

Nevada also needs to improve health services, she said, citing the example of a Tonopah doctor who can't transfer patients by helicopter to Las Vegas because the hospitals are full. She added that Nye County doesn't have a health department and Gabbs residents are worried about ambulance service.

The process of having to prove water rights has led to wasteful uses of water, Murray said. The law should be changed.

Murray said she's traveled extensively throughout the big district since January and has visited every community except tiny Ione, in remote northwestern Nye County.

"There's a couple thousand more registered Republicans than Democrats," Murray said. "There's also 4,000 independents, so you have to look at that, and I think I have a great deal of crossover support like I did when I ran for the Pahrump Town Board."

Democrats are the majority party in the Assembly, which she said would allow her better committee assignments and more consideration on bill drafts.

"I'm actually very fiscally conservative. When you go back to the public record and look what I've done locally, I'm usually the one who's voting against frivolous spending of taxpayer money" she said.