Advertisement

Nye County Commission District 3 candidate Harley Kulklin will be required to appear before Fifth District Judge Robert Lane at 9 a.m., June 30, to show why a challenge to his residency is not valid.

A challenge filed by Mark Reasbeck claimed Kulkin only visited an RV space at the Tough Boy RV Park a total of 10 hours during a four week period in May.

Candidates are required to be residents of their districts at least 30 days before the filing period, which for the county commission District 3 race ended May 16.

The evidence includes a DVD containing footage shot by a laser-beam, infrared camera. Reasbeck lives a block away on Tough Girl Road.

A fellow District 3 county commission candidate, Robert "Butch" Dole, objected to having his name listed as a party of interest in the styling of the complaint.

Dole said he was informed by a representative from the district attorney's office the listing of the other candidates as "real parties in interest" is required by statute.

Dole said he doesn't even know Kulkin personally. But he added that having to get involved in the legal challenge has energized his campaign.

Dole is one of three Republicans in the race who will face off in the Aug. 12 primary for the right to challenge Kulkin, a Democrat, in the Nov. 4 general election, assuming Kulkin survives the legal challenge.

"The only way I care is if he did something wrong. Then he should be punished for it," Dole said. "You only have to have a month or two months of residency, it should be a year. We wouldn't have these challenges. We wouldn't have this thing going on if you can't just move over to somewhere else."

Kulkin charged listing the names of the other District 3 candidates along with District Attorney Bob Beckett and Reasbeck in the wording of the petition is an attempt to dilute incumbent District 3 Commissioner Gary Hollis's involvement.

"I don't think they have a legal right to put his (Dole's) name on there if he doesn't want to put it on there," Kulkin said. "It's to dilute the fact Gary Hollis is the only person behind it."

Hollis denied any involvement in the investigation or the legal challenge of Kulkin's residency.

"I didn't know anything about it up until I got served with these papers Friday that somebody had challenged it. I did not ask anybody to do this," Hollis said.

The wording allows any of the county commission candidates in that district to join the legal challenge if they wish. Dole said he will probably attend the June 30 hearing, just in case.

Kulkin said he wants to request testimony from numerous public officials during the show cause hearing, including the district attorney.

"This is a concentrated effort by some people who think they can manipulate everything around here," Kulkin said.

Kulkin will be giving depositions later this week in another legal matter, his case against the Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Service after his Johnnie home was partly damaged by fire in December 2006.