Nevada judicial elections, 2014

Nevada judicial elections, 2014
Overview
Total candidates:	148
Primary candidates:	102
General election candidates:	80
Incumbency
Incumbents:	79
Incumbent success rate:	96%
Competition - general election
Percent of candidates in contested races:	92%
Percent uncontested:	8%

2015 → ← 2013
Judicial Elections
Judicial elections, 2014
Judicial election dates
Candidates by state
Supreme court elections

The Nevada judicial elections featured several contested races for the district courts in 2014. The 8th District, which presides over Las Vegas and the rest of Clark County, had the most seats up for election. Two seats on the supreme court were also up for election, and both justices were re-elected after running unopposed.

Nevada's general election featured 80 judicial candidates, 74 of whom were in competitive races. The other six were unopposed and, therefore, automatically re-elected. There were 79 incumbents at the start of the campaign season, and three were defeated.

Nevada swore in 12 new judges in January. Besides the three candidates who defeated incumbents, there were nine contested races without an incumbent running.

See: Nevada elections summary, 2014.

Election dates

• January 17: Filing deadline
• June 10: Primary
• November 4: General election

In addition to candidate lists, this page includes information about how the state's judicial elections work, as well as articles about noteworthy news in races across the state.

Supreme court candidates

The following justices of the Nevada Supreme Court were up for election in 2014. They were both unopposed and were re-elected following the general election.

Seat B

■ Kris Pickering (Incumbent/Unopposed)

Seat D

■ Mark Gibbons (Incumbent/Unopposed)

General election: Contested races

The following four judicial districts had contested races in 2014: 2nd District: Washoe County 5th District: Counties of Esmeralda, Mineral and Nye 6th District: Counties of Humboldt, Lander and Pershing 8th District: Clark County

Judicial District Contested races Contested races without incumbent 2nd 5 3 5th 1 0 6th 1 1 8th 28 5

(I) denotes incumbent

Second District Court, Dept. 6

• Doug Rands, 42%A
• Lynne Simons, 58%A

Second District Court, Dept. 8

• Keith J. Tierney, 32%A
• Lidia Stiglich (I), 68%A

Second District Court, Dept. 11, Family Court

• Caren Cafferata-Jenkins, 42.4%A
• Chuck Weller (I), 57.6%A

Second District Court, Dept. 14, Family Court

• David Humke, 50.5%A
• John P. Springgate, 49.5%A

Second District Court, Dept. 5, Family Court

• Cliff J. Young, 37.8%A
• Cynthia Lu, 62.2%A
• Jack E. Kennedy, 47.5%A
• John Schlegelmilch, 52.5%A

Fifth District Court, Dept. 2

• Lillian Jo Donohue, 32.3%A
• Robert W. Lane (I), 67.7%A

Sixth District Court, Dept. 1

• Jim C. Shirley, 53.3%A
• Todd Plimpton, 46.7%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 14

• Adriana Escobar (I), 70.7%A
• Michael Root, 29.3%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 19

• Cliff Marcek, 29.1%A
• William Kephart, 70.9%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 2

• John G. Watkins, 46.5%A
• Richard Scotti, 53.5%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 20

• Jerome Tao (I), 67.4%A
• Nicholas Anthony Perrino, 32. 6%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 22

• Jacob Hafter, 24.8%A
• Susan Johnson (I), 75.2%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 23

• Craig Friedberg, 28.2%A
• Stefany Miley (I), 71.8%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 24

• Jim Crockett, 53.2%A
• Joe Hardy, Jr., 46.8%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 25

• Kathleen Delaney (I), 63.3%A
• Sean P. Connell, 36.7%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 28

• Ron Israel (I), 53.6%A
• Susan Bush, 46.4%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 3

• Douglas Herndon (I), 61.8%A
• Michael D. Davidson, 38.2%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 30

• Jeffrey S. Rugg, 27.6%A
• Jerry A. Wiese (I), 72.4%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 32

• Randall Tindall, 39.1%A
• Rob Bare (I), 60.9%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 4

• Kerry Earley (I), 65.6%A
• Steve F. Smith, 34.4%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 5

• Carolyn Ellsworth (I), 68%A
• William C. Horne, 32%A

Eighth District Court, Dept. 8

• Christine Guerci-Nyhus, 44%A
• Douglas E. Smith (I), 56%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. B

• Joseph A. Scalia, II, 37.3%A
• Linda Marquis, 62.7%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. C

• John Hall Howard, Jr., 34.6%A
• Rebecca Burton, 65.4%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. D

• Robert Kurth, 45.5%A
• Robert Teuton (I), 54.5%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. F

• Denise L. Gentile, 54.6%A
• William Gonzalez (I), 45.4%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. H

• Arthur Ritchie (I), 56.8%A
• Keith Lyons, 43.3%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. I

• Cheryl Moss (I), 63.4%A
• Travis Shetler, 36.6%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. J

• Kenneth E. Pollock (I), 42.2%A
• Rena G. Hughes, 57.8%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. L

• Jennifer Elliott (I), 61.2%A
• Paul “Mitch” Gaudet, 38.8%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. M

• Bill Potter (I), 65.3%A
• James Stuart, 34.7%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. N

• Mathew Harter (I), 64.2%A
• Monti Jordana Levy, 35.8%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. P

• Nathan Gibbs, 47.4%A
• Sandra Pomrenze (I), 52.6%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. S

• Jason Patrick Stoffel, 35.2%A
• Vincent Ochoa (I), 64.8%A

Eighth District Court, Family Division, Dept. T

• Lisa Brown, 55.2%A
• Maria Maskall, 44.8%A

Las Vegas Township Justice Court, Dept. 12

• Diana L. Sullivan (I), 77.2%A
• Marian Kahoiwai Kamalani, 22.8%A

General election: Uncontested

The following candidates were elected or re-elected after running unopposed in the general election.

Appellate courts

Court	Candidate
Click the arrows in the column headings to sort columns alphabetically.
Nevada Supreme Court	Kris Pickering
Nevada Supreme Court	Mark Gibbons

Primary

For candidate lists and results from the judicial primary on June 10, 2014, please see: Nevada judicial primary elections, 2014.

Process

For more information, see: Nevada judicial elections

Primary election

The Nevada primary is held on the second Tuesday in June in even-numbered years.

In the nonpartisan primary, the two candidates who receive the greatest number of votes advance to the general election. Though Nevada has a closed primary system, where voters may only vote for members of their own political party, this does not impact the nonpartisan judicial elections. Voters registered with either major party, or those who are not registered with any political party, may still vote for all judicial candidates in the primaries.

If there are only two candidates who file to run for any one seat, they skip the primary and compete only in the general election.

Unopposed candidates

If only one candidate files for election to any one seat, he or she must still appear on the primary ballot. The candidate then only needs at least one vote in the primary to be elected to office without appearing on the general election ballot.

This does not apply to supreme court candidates. Unopposed supreme court candidates skip the primary and appear on the general election ballot.

Only candidates in contested elections may accept campaign contributions; unopposed judicial candidates may not.

Ballot measure

In 2014, Nevada was one of ten states without an intermediate appellate court. The other nine were: Delaware, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming. The Nevada Creation of a State Intermediate Appellate Court, SJR 14 gave citizens the opportunity to create an intermediate appellate court. That measure passed.

The same question was posed to voters in 2010, with Question 2. At that time, citizens voted 53.18% to 46.82% not to approve the creation of an intermediate appellate court.

Nevada has voted on the creation of an appellate court three times previously, in 1980, 1992 and 2010. In 2007, the Nevada Supreme Court submitted a brief to the state legislature advocating for the creation of an intermediate appellate court. That report can be accessed here: Nevada Judiciary, "Report to the 74th Regular Session of the Nevada State Legislature, 2007, regarding the creation of the Nevada Court of Appeals".

Supreme court caseloads

For the most recent year that data is available, 2012, the Nevada Supreme Court had the third-highest number of case filings in the nation, with 2,500. This followed only the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Florida Supreme Court. In 2011, Nevada's high court received the sixth most filings in the country, and the year before, the eighth.

Noteworthy events

The following articles were current as of the dates listed.

Judicial races in Reno July 10, 2014

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See also: JP Election Brief: Kidnapping, runoffs and voter ID There were five contested races in Washoe Nevada, home of the Second Judicial District Court. That court is located in Reno. Two of the races saw challenges for incumbents. Family court judge Chuck Weller was challenged for his seat by Caren Cafferata-Jenkins, the executive director of the Nevada Commission on Ethics. John C. Hope, Jr. was eliminated from this race in the primary. Weller had held the position for a decade. The Washoe County Bar Association released its judicial survey, where lawyers rate judges. Each judges' performance was ranked on a 1 to 5 scale, and the survey-takers also answered a "yes" or "no" question as to whether the judge should retain his or her seat. Weller received the lowest score of all the district court judges. His performance rating was a 3.5 out of 5, and 59 percent of respondents said he should be retained. Weller responded: “ I've (decided) about 2,000 cases a year and have for the last 10 years and none of my decisions have ever been reversed on appeal by the Nevada Supreme Court. I think this shows my ability in knowing and applying the law. ” Cafferata-Jenkins came from a line of female politicians. Her mother, Patty Cafferata served as an assemblywoman, state treasurer, and district attorney. Her grandmother is Barbara Vucanovich, the first Nevadan woman to be elected to Congress. Judge Lidia Stiglich also saw a challenger for the general election. Stiglich was appointed to her position in 2012. She received one of the highest scores in the Washoe County Bar Association. Her rating was a 4.4 out of 5, with 93 percent of votes in favor of her retention. Her competitor, Keith J. Tierney, had a background in law and economics. He had served as the state economist, an attorney for the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, a city attorney in Reno, and the founder of his own law firm. The other contested seats in the Second District featured no incumbents. For the full list of candidates, see: Nevada Second Judicial District Court.

Allegations of campaign influence in Clark County judicial race April 17, 2014

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See also: JP Election Brief: Candidate controversies In the 2014 race for Department 32 of the Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court, attorney Randall Tindall filed a sworn affidavit alleging that political consultant David Thomas and attorney Robert Eglet attempted to persuade him to exit the race against incumbent Judge Rob Bare. According to Tindall, Thomas suggested that Eglet would financially support his campaign if he instead ran against Judge Valerie Adair. Tindall stated the conversation occurred at the close of the judicial filing period on January 17. Thomas and Eglet both denied the claim. Eglet said he had not texted Thomas about Tindall and expressed support for Judge Adair, who was unopposed in 2014. Judge Bare, who was represented by Thomas, confirmed a brief conversation with Thomas and said he was informed after the fact. Bare stated that it was Tindall who introduced the idea of campaign funding and switching races. According to Bare, an amount of up to $150,000 was mentioned, though no agreement was made. Tindall said he requested written confirmation of the offer but was denied. No documentation was produced to verify the exchange, and the facts remained disputed.

Clark County primary races to watch February 20, 2014

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See also: JP Election Brief: Wisconsin primary concludes as the rest of the nation is just heating up Though all of the Nevada's district court judges were up for re-election this year, many incumbents drew no challengers. Additionally, a primary was only held if more than two candidates filed for one seat. The busiest county for judicial elections this year was the state's largest and the home of Las Vegas: Clark County. The Eight Judicial District Court presides over Clark County. The retirements of four judges of this district drew candidates for their open seats. Eight candidates vied to replace Judge Gloria O'Malley, who retired from her seat on 'Department B of the Family Court. The candidates were: Thomas G. Kurtz Joseph A. Scalia, II Jane D. Femiano Kristine Brewer Ellen J. Bezian Heather Bailey Zana Shann D. Winesett Linda Marquis In the Family Court, Department C race, the following candidates sought to replace Steven Jones (Nevada): Michele Mercer Lynn Hughes John Hall Howard, Jr. Marsha Kimble-Simms Rebecca Burton Running for the district court's Department 2 seat, which was held by outgoing Judge Valorie Vega, were: Phung Jefferson John G. Watkins William S. Skupa Richard Scotti Judge James Bixler's seat, Department 24, drew the same number of candidates as Dept. 2. They were: Tony Liker Anthony Ashby Jim Crockett Joe Hardy, Jr. Allan Earl vacated the Department 19 seat. Two candidates competed to replace him: William Kephart and Cliff Marcek. This meant that there was no primary, and Kephart and Marcek only appeared on the general election ballot.

Two of Nevada's supreme court justices get new terms February 13, 2014

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See also: JP Election Brief: The Election Brief is back! The two Nevada Supreme Court justices with terms expiring at the end of 2014, Kris Pickering and Mark Gibbons, did not draw any opponent for the November 4, 2014 election. After the filing deadline passed on January 17, the justiceswere automatically re-elected to new, six-year terms without having to campaign. The Nevada Supreme Court has not seen a competitive election since 2008. In 2010, incumbent Justices James Hardesty and Ron Parraguirre were re-elected without opposition and, in 2012, Justices Michael Cherry, Michael Douglas and Nancy Saitta were similarly unopposed. Gibbons, the current chief justice, has served on the court since 2002. In response to the 2014 candidate line-up (or lack thereof), he stated, “ I’m gratified that my work on one of the nation’s busiest appellate courts has been recognized and that I will not need to run a statewide campaign for re-election. ” Pickering was said she felt similtarly and credited the court for proving itself. She said, “ I think the fact that none of us on the court has drawn opposition in recent years shows that the court, as a whole, is functioning effectively. ”

See also

• Nevada judicial elections
• Judicial selection in Nevada

External links

• Nevada Secretary of State, "Election Center"

Footnotes

Nevada courts

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Federal courts:

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Nevada • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Nevada

State courts:

Nevada Supreme Court • Nevada Court of Appeals • Nevada District Courts • Nevada Justice Courts • Nevada Municipal Courts • Clark County Family Court, Nevada

State resources:

Courts in Nevada • Nevada judicial elections • Judicial selection in Nevada