Carson City Congressman Mark Amodei coasts to re-election

Mark Amodei cruised to victory Tuesday night, easily winning a second full term in the House of Representatives representing western and northern rural Nevada.

He was leading Democrat Kristen Spees by a better than 2-1 margin — 115,712 to 48,851. IAP candidate Janine Hansen was a distant third with 11,190 votes.

Amodei said now that the Republicans have control in both houses of Congress, they shouldn’t consider it a mandate and try basking in the glory.

He said it’s “an awful time to be in Washington, D.C., which Americans don’t trust and don’t believe can fix anything.

“It’s not pretty,” he said. “It’s really about the economy, stupid.”

“As Ben Franklin said, better well done, than well said so we’d better start concentrating on well done,” he said. “We’d better hit the ground running.”

His opponent, Incline Village lawyer Spees, was dramatically underfunded in the campaign, gaining just $1,061 in contributions.

Amodei had success in moving several pieces of Nevada legislation through the House in his first term, including a series of lands bills. He said he will continue to reach out to both sides of the aisle to try get things done and that the partisan divide isn’t good for anybody.

Amodei first claimed his seat in a 2011 special election called after Dean Heller was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Brian Sandoval. Amodei won it in 2012.

He holds important posts within the House including a seat on the powerful appropriations committee.

His district includes Carson City, Douglas, Storey, Washoe and several rural counties — 10 of Nevada’s 17 counties in all.

When contacted Tuesday evening, he was boarding an airplane to Boise, Idaho, for a conference on the Sage hen and its potential listing as an endangered species, a major issue for Nevada and, especially his district.

Rep. Horsford concedes close race to Cresent Hardy

Rep. Steven Horsford says he has conceded the race for the 4th Congressional District after calling his Republican challenger Cresent Hardy to wish him the best.

Horsford made the announcement Tuesday night at a Democratic Party event in Las Vegas.

Hardy says he was honored to be elected. He says he knew it was going to be a close race but one he could win.

The race was closely watched especially after a group backed by Karl Rove brought hefty campaign dollars to the race in recent weeks to attack Horsford. Hardy’s margin of victory was less than three percentage points late Tuesday with a 70 percent of precincts reporting.

Horsford was first elected in 2012.

Republican Rep. Joe Heck easily fended off Erin Bilbray with more than 60 percent of the vote. Democratic Rep. Dina Titus won a clear majority of votes in her race, too, to represent the largely Democratic Las Vegas-area. She was up 57 percent to Annette Teijeiro’s 38.