Geoff Dornan/Nevada AppealDanny Tarkanian, Republican candidate for governor, speaks Tuesday at the Carson Senior Center.
It wasn't the biggest audience he's ever drawn: Just three seniors at the Carson Senior Center Tuesday afternoon.
But a gracious Danny Tarkanian sat down and answered their questions for a full hour, saying he is the Republican who can beat Sen. Harry Reid in November.
He arrived at the center in mid-afternoon when almost no seniors were there.
He cited opponent Sue Lowden's criticism that Reid only brings 65 cents of every tax dollar Nevadans pay the federal government back to the state and her promise to bring more to the state. Tarkanian said his goal would be to reduce federal spending, not just get more for Nevada.
"We have everybody trying to fight to spend more money," he said.
He said while he is anti-tax increases, Lowden voted "numerous times" for taxes while a state senator and even supported Reid in the past.
"She's talking the GOP line with the taxes but she's voted for taxes in the past."
"I understand what I believe the vast majority of Nevadans are looking for now - someone who is going to be an independent voice for Nevada," he said.
Tarkanian said Lowden, a former state senator and former state GOP chair, is not an independent voice.
As for taking on Reid, he said those who want someone independent, not tied to the establishment, will vote for him.
"Those who believe in more government are going to vote for Reid."
On Yucca Mountain, Tarkanian said the state should turn it into a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility and make hundreds of millions of dollars for the state in the process. He added that the nuclear waste would be much safer stored in one place than the roughly 100 sites it is now stored at.
The second way the state can make money, he said, is by getting the federal government to turn over lands with potential value - such as those near Las Vegas - so the state can attract businesses to Nevada by offering them a dollar-a-year lease to move their company onto those lands.
He called for the federal government to remove itself from regulating and mandating to state and local school systems.
"I don't think the federal government has any business being in the education business," he said.
He said he supports more charter schools, school vouchers to create more competition and improve education for all students.
Tarkanian said he doesn't believe he will have to go negative to beat Reid because Reid has so many negatives of his own. But he said if Reid goes negative, "I'll be ready to go after him blow by blow."
First, however, he has to get past Lowden, Sharron Angle - who he said he shares many beliefs with - and nearly a dozen other Republican candidates in the primary.
Tarkanian is a lawyer who also operates a real estate development firm and an academy that he said teaches life skills to young people through athletics.