Douglas high teacher files for Assembly

Douglas County government and economics teacher Randy Green filed Thursday for the Assembly seat representing Douglas County.

Green, 53, said he can do a better job representing the entire community than incumbent Lynn Hettrick, a Republican.

"He seems pretty non-representational of people who are not in his party," Green said of Hettrick. "I feel once you're elected, it's your duty to represent your entire constituency."

Green is registered as a nonpartisan candidate, not tied to any political party. He said he made that decision in 2000 because he believes partisanship is "really disruptive to the political process in this state."

He said he started seriously thinking about running after the 2003 Legislature in which, he said, Hettrick was one of the leaders of the group holding up passage of the budget.

He said he also disagrees with Hettrick's support for efforts to block Douglas County's anti-growth initiative.

Green said like it or not, the initiative was approved by the voters.

"The people should be allowed to decide these issues and the people's will should have been followed," he said.

This isn't Green's first run for office. He was elected to the Douglas County School Board in 2002, but the district filed a challenge in court arguing he couldn't be on the board because he's a teacher. The district court agreed and ruled he couldn't do both.

He has been a government and economics teacher at Douglas High for 27 years.

If elected, he would be the first independent in the Legislature since Emerson Titlow won a Senate seat representing Nye County in 1965.