Election Guide News, voter information Rob Mobley Lorinda Wichman Nye County Commission District Boundaries Advertisement

Three of the five Nye County Commission seats will be contested in the Nov. 4 election, in District 1 there's no incumbent seeking re-election.

Roberta "Midge" Carver isn't running for reelection to District 1 after two terms in office. Lorinda Wichman and Rob Mobley are seeking that seat.

District 1 includes a vast area from remote communities like Ione and Sunnyside in the far northern part of Nye County, down to the eastern part of Pahrump including Mountain Falls.

LORINDA WICHMAN

Wichman, a Republican, announced her intention to run for office early in the campaign, in April 2007. She said it was after some prodding from Commissioner Carver. She resides in Round Mountain and is a governmental affairs representative for Round Mountain Gold Corporation.

Wichman is a native of northern Idaho. She operated Associated Business Services in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho from 1987, until moving to Nevada in 1999. It began as a business for her father, a commercial truck driver, and blossomed into a company helping start-up businesses in northern Idaho.

Wichman was an administrative assistant for Nye County, working under former county managers Dave Chavez and Mike Maher from 2001 to 2003.

Wichman is a director on the Central Nevada Regional Water Authority. She was formerly an associate for Haas and Associates, a paralegal firm specializing in water rights. She is also a member of the Smoky Valley Community Development Team and is co-operator of a small ranch.

Wichman said her qualifications and background are valuable assets in her candidacy for the county commission.

"My experience and my skill set would be extremely valuable to the county. Nye County needs to be represented by someone they can be proud of and they have faith in," Wichman said.

Though she lives in Round Mountain, Wichman said she will have plenty of time to spend in Pahrump. She plans to quit her job at Round Mountain Gold if she's elected commissioner.

"I intend to represent Pahrump while I'm living in Smoky Valley with the same passion, conviction and integrity that I represented Smoky Valley while I was in Carson City; the same way I would represent Sunnyside while in Gabbs or Gabbs while in Pahrump," she said.

Wichman said she's logged 46,000 miles on her pickup truck attending numerous campaign functions over the last 13 months.

Wichman knocked on 109 doors in Pahrump. People in the winery area were concerned about flood control, she said. Residents farther north were wondering about the proposed, federal detention center.

"Most of the rest of them want to know 'what are you going to do for Pahrump,'" Wichman said. "Most of my attention will probably be spent on the largest population but that doesn't mean I won't have the best interest of all the communities."

Wichman said the county commission should have completed most of the work for the federal detention center by the time she would take office in January.

But she added, "I've done my homework. In talking to the other communities that have some facilities the benefits outweigh any perceived detriment."

County commissioners earlier this year didn't act on a request to put Pahrump incorporation on the ballot. But it may arise again within the next four years.

Wichman said it's the right of citizens to request a vote on an issue.

"The only thing I have asked for is a feasibility study," she said.

While Wichman represented Round Mountain Gold in opposing a proposed, half-cent sales tax increase last year, she said, "Pahrump definitely needs more help with public safety and I am truly hoping we can find a way to do that through the budget process."

When it comes to revitalizing county towns, Wichman noted she has been a member of a Smoky Valley development team and was recently elected to the Silver Trails territory by the Nevada Commission on Tourism.

"I'm hoping I can find some way to encourage some sensible, responsible development. I have a problem when big businesses come in and within a few months they're gone and then you have a boarded up building," she said.

Wichman said as an agent for a truck driving company she's familiar with the good safety record of nuclear waste haulers.

"As far as nuclear spills or accidents, they're basically non-existent," she said. "I've been out there and have taken the tour. I am not worried about Yucca Mountain. I think Yucca Mountain is an opportunity for us, especially since it's already there and we have to live with it."

Wichman sees money, budgets and unfunded mandates from the state of Nevada as the biggest issues in the next four years.

"They're going to be a bigger problem as we're all facing economic challenges. That filters down," Wichman said.

"In light of the economic challenges that the whole country faces right now, everybody needs to be paying attention to the basics. So the county basics are the infrastructure: law enforcement; the roads that allow us to get home and to the store; our education; the basics that county government is supposed to be focused on in the first place. If we can take care of the basics a lot of the stuff I am confident will work its way out."

Wichman said her opponent's advertisements have been focused on criticizing her, not what he would do for Nye County.

ROB MOBLEY

Mobley, who is also a Republican, is a history teacher at Great Basin College in Pahrump and the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. He is cataloguing the collection at the Pahrump Valley Museum.

Mobley has a master's degree in American history from the University of Tulsa and is working on his doctoral dissertation. He moved to Pahrump three years ago from Las Vegas.

"Eighty-percent of the (county) population is in Pahrump Valley and 75 percent of the registered voters of District 1 are in the Pahrump Valley. How can you know what's going on with the majority of your constituency if you're not near them?" Mobley asked.

He charged Wichman's loyalties will be with the mine and her neighbors in Round Mountain over 200 miles from Pahrump.

"They're sponsoring the person they want in there, the person they want access to," Mobley said. "I'll have office hours and an open door. I don't care who you are."

Mobley said it wouldn't be right to have county commissioners living outside Pahrump assessing fees for a General Improvement District on flood control in Pahrump, which is one plan being discussed. It's also not fair to have four of the seven seats on the Nye County water board apportioned to people living outside Pahrump, he said, giving people in communities as small as 400 people a say over Pahrump's water usage.

One thing both candidates agree about, is the challenges posed by the slumping economy on the budget.

"In building a smaller community and not having a large business base there's going to have to be some sort of belt tightening. Businesses are going to be very reluctant to expand. A lot of businesses are contracting. Government survives on expansion to the extent of additional tax base," Mobley said.

Mobley criticized all the county commissioner's travel expenses, like Carver's recent trip to Switzerland, or a trip by Commissioners Butch Borasky and Gary Hollis to visit nuclear reactors in Red Wing, Minn.

"I wouldn't take a dime of taxpayers money for a junket," he said. "How many nuclear reactors can you look at? I think if you've looked at one you've looked at them all."

Instead of spending money on consultants, Mobley said he is an expert on research in his profession who would research the issues himself.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is trying to kill Yucca Mountain, but he predicted scientists will soon be able to transform the nuclear waste into inert matter.

Mobley said it's his understanding the federal detention center is a done deal outside of the development agreement.

"I think it's really poor to be spotting a jail in the heart of town, especially when people have to drive up and down Highway 160," Mobley said. "I don't like having a jail in my community. I don't want to be known as housing a federal detention center and then it's five year contracts. After that what does it become a private jail for somebody?"

Mobley said the question of endorsing Pahrump incorporation would depend on what plan was presented.

"I don't think rubber stamping what we have would be beneficial to the community. We need a better game plan for incorporation," he said. "I think that's too much power vested in the city manager."

Mobley said a half-cent sales tax increase may have been feasible last year, but not in this economy. He added a Clark County sales tax increase that was supposed to go to additional police personnel ended up being used to increase salaries for Las Vegas Metro officers.

"Right now it would be like bleeding a turnip. People don't have the money to pay that increase," he said. "Raising taxes, it's hard to justify, despite the need. There's no money. People are having a hard time paying their bills and I can't see going in the next couple years saying raise your tax. And besides, it just barely passed."

But he added, "that's not to say in the future the economy isn't going to go gang busters again. Maybe you can muster up a sales tax increase."

Mobley's advertisement takes Wichman to task for testimony before the statewide committee on taxation against the half-cent sales tax, saying 88 percent of the people in Pahrump should pay for their own additional sheriff's and fire protection.

"I don't think she has a right to say we should tax ourselves," Mobley said.

Mobley said Pahrump needs to have facilities on par with other communities as it grows. It makes more sense to have centralized county offices, instead of a hodgepodge of offices scattered around, he said. But in the current downturn, Mobley said it would be difficult to finance.