MARK WAITE / PVT Democratic congressional candidate Jill Derby holds a community barbecue picnic at Honeysuckle Park last Friday evening to meet and greet people from Pahrump. Advertisement

Amidst a Republican squabble over the results of the primary election two and a half weeks ago, with conservative Sharron Angle mounting a legal challenge against Secretary of State Dean Heller following his Aug. 15 victory at the polls, Democrat Jill Derby visited Pahrump last week to stump for her own election to represent Nevada's 2nd Congressional District.

Angle, who lost to Heller by 421 votes, has claimed voter fraud and late Friday afternoon called for a new election.

The congressional seat in contention was vacated by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who now has his party's nomination for governor.

Meanwhile, about 100 potential voters came to eat hamburgers, hotdogs and chips Friday evening and talk to Derby under the park pavilion.

A political maverick who wants to "give the boot" to career politicians, Derby was basking in the news of Angle's legal challenge. The wrangling has given Derby a chance to outshine her opponents by transcending party politics.

"It's not about party," said Derby in an interview. "It's about good ideas and bringing change to Washington." Derby said she was seeking the votes of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.

It was Derby's fourth visit to Pahrump. She said local concerns seem to center on growth and water issues. But those concerns and others as well -- cutbacks in veterans' health benefits, the rising cost of health insurance premiums and rising fuel costs -- were on the minds of many of her would-be constituents in what is, geographically, the largest congressional district in the United States, she added.

People are concerned about the general direction of the country, Derby said, "about where everything is headed and their own economic insecurity."

An uncertain future looms for Americans, Derby said. "People feel not listened to and not represented in Congress," she said, signifying a loss of political control. "They keep getting elected and forget about the people back home -- middle Americans -- and instead listen to lobbyists."

Derby has not held elected office before. She is an appointed regent to the 13-member Nevada Board of Regents that governs the state university system.

Derby said she simply "got fed up with the mess things are in" and decided to run. She claims that politicians elected to Congress too soon forget why they were elected and become part of the system. She also said she was "fed up with the polarization, harsh rhetoric and bickering" in the nation's capital.

"People have a sense of going in the wrong direction," Derby said, "and average citizens are struggling and losing ground."

Derby characterized herself as "a problem solver and bridge builder, working across party lines," and therefore as an agent of change from the business-as-usual approach to politics.

Derby said she was "tired of gridlock and political posturing" on the national level.