Derby announces run against Dean Heller

RENO - Adopting the Democratic mantra of "change," Jill Derby on Wednesday announced another run against Dean Heller for Nevada's second congressional district seat.

Derby ran what most observers say was the best campaign of 2006, but still lost to Heller by about 5 percent. Asked what is different this time, she said Heller didn't keep his promise to the state.

In 2006, she said both she and Heller ran for the seat vacated by now-Gov. Jim Gibbons, promising to be independent and put Nevada's needs first.

"The difference is I'm running against his record," Derby said.

"Dean Heller has really let this district down," she said. "He promised to be independent and vote for Nevada. He hasn't done that."

Derby charged that Heller has voted "in lock step with the Bush Administration" more than 90 percent of the time. She said he voted against expanding the federal funding to provide health insurance to children while supporting the president's plan to give millions in tax breaks to oil companies.

She said he voted against letting the federal government negotiate better prescription drug prices for Medicaid and other programs. She said he has supported the president in "this costly, seemingly endless war."

"I'm back and I'm still fed up with politics as usual in Washington," she told a crowd of about 50 supporters at Cathexis in Reno. "If we want change in Washington, we need to change the people we send to Washington."

She said another difference from two years ago is that she has an organization spread across the district this year where in 2006, she and her core supporters had to build that organization.

Derby said she believes Heller's record will help her overcome the Republican registration advantage in District 2, which basically consists of all of Nevada outside Las Vegas.

She said she has heard growing dissatisfaction with the way Washington works not only from fellow Democrats but Republicans in the north and rural Nevada as well. She said there is a "common thread" of frustration in the district.

Derby had to resign as chairman of the state Democratic Party, in the process surrendering her status as a superdelegate, in order to run for the office. She said she did so Wednesday morning.

She promised that, if she wins, she will be "a problem solver who can work across party lines."

She said she will vote the interests of Nevadans, not lobbyists and the wealthy.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.