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Nevada Assembly District 36 incumbent Ed Goedhart, a Republican, said, "You can just call me Farmer Ed from Amargosa Valley" during a Democratic Party candidates forum last Friday night.

It was a takeoff on the now famous Joe the Plumber of the presidential campaign. Goedhart appeared in one candidate forum in a cowboy hat, after a campaign visit to Fish Lake Valley, while at other times he was clad formally in a suit and tie.

His opponent, Scotty Babb, a Democrat, has run a very low-key campaign and only appeared for the Democrats forum.

Babb, a former Libertarian Party member, said he moved to southern Nevada 24 years ago from Oklahoma "because of the freedoms we enjoy and the fact Nevada government does things the right way most of the time."

Goedhart echoed the more Libertarian attitude in his speech to Rotarians Tuesday night.

"Some folks look to bigger and better government as the answer to all their problems," he said. "Keep in mind the government is not this omnipotent, all-knowing, benevolent being that we want it to be. It's full of fallible individuals who each have their own views, their own slants, their own biases, their own imperfections. So we can't always depend on the government."

Goedhart said he's been responsible for the high interest in bringing concentrated solar power to Nye County.

"We will not use new water resources, we will simply divert the water use from an alfalfa field to a solar plant. We're talking literally hundreds of millions of dollars of economic opporunities and tens of millions of dollars in tax base," Goedhart said.

Babb said he'd propose a bill to encourage green energy to locate in Nevada and create jobs. Otherwise, whoever is elected to the assembly will have a difficult job with the budget situation, he said.

"I don't approve of the way the federal government spends money like a drunken sailor. They don't have the money and they go deeper and deeper in debt. We don't want that in Nevada. We're going to have to tighten our belts," Babb said.

Goedhart said he'd prioritize public safety, education and transportation.

"We're not going to cut equally across the board in other areas, but we have to keep our honor to limit those top three priorities. Then we have to look at ways to cut overly obtrusive, intrusive government -- allow people who want to use their land and water to be able to have that economic opportunity," he said.

Goedhart told Democrats state employees had two step pay raises of 5 percent each, a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment and a 4 percent cost-of-living adjustment during the last biennium.

"I don't know how many folks out here tonight got a 17 percent increase in the last two years. So we have to look at pay increases, we have to look at the numbers of employees," Goedhart said.

Things like state parks and new memorials, or other grandiose plans, could be cut, he said.

Democratic Party moderator Brian Kunzi asked Goedhart about $34,500 in campaign contributions he received, of which $33,200 came from political action committees in Reno and Las Vegas.

"Last time there was a lot more that came from Pahrump, but I figured times were bad enough in Nye County, I didn't want to be knocking on doors and asking for money," said Goedhart. "These political action committees represent a wide variety of people statewide."

Babb said elections are incredibly expensive.

"I've not raised a lot of money, you can check out my contributors. I've had a lot of people call and e-mail me and offer their support through different ways other than money, because a lot of people don't have a lot of money right now," he said.

Babb said he has found out what the issues are by getting out and talking to constituents. He recalled visiting Pioche over Labor Day and hearing complaints about the closing of the prison honor camp there.

Goedhart touted his business acumen managing the Ponderosa Dairy, starting with 30 employees several years ago and expanding to a workforce of 170 employees today.

"If the rest of the economy had grown by 500 percent over the past several years, I don't think we would've had to worry about our tax dollars," he said. "I had an opportunity to make my money from the poof dirt on up."