Election 2014: Congress District 2 candidates spar at Carson City Community Center

Democrat Kristin Spees of Incline Village charged Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., hasn’t done enough in the three years he has been in that office.

“Look at his voting record. Roads and bridges are falling apart. What has he done? What has he done to support our veterans,” she asked.

Amodei said he has moved heavy lands bills as a member of the Public Lands Committee and brought legislation on a number of Nevada issues as a member of Appropriations and the Public Lands committees.

That includes a half dozen lands bills for Nevada including the Yerington Lands Bill and the potential listing of the sage hen as endangered; he said he has been working on those issues for three years.

Amodei said he and his staff “have tried to establish ourselves as people who are work horses, not show horses.”

As for the sage hen, he said, as a member of Appropriations, he managed to insert language delaying potential listing of the bird for another year.

“It’s not the bird that’s in danger; it’s the habitat,” he said. “What happened to the habitat? It burned up. It’s not because of more cows, more sheep, people on dirt bikes.”

Spees said she doesn’t want the land listed “because we lose access to our public lands.”

Independent American Party candidate Janine Hansen agreed the problem is wildfires, not human-caused loss of habitat. She said those fires are the BLM’s fault.

The three aired their views at the a League Of Women Voter’s forum Tuesday night at the Carson City Community Center.

Spees said she has crisscrossed the northern half of the state that makes up District 2 and knows the issues and the needs of its residents. She charged Amodei missed more than twice the number of votes the average congressman did this past year.

Many of those missed votes, however, were held while he was recovering from surgery to repair a detached retina, which he said requires the patient be pretty much immobilized.

On the Affordable Health Care Act, Spees said everyone needs healthcare and, if the law is flawed, “let’s find those problems and solve it. Let’s fix the ACA and not try repeal it.”

“The political reality is for the next 24 months, Affordable Care is not going to be repealed,” said Amodei.

He said Congress needs to do the things it should have done before it was voted into law at 2 a.m. without members having time to read it.

Hansen said the act has raised the cost of medicine for people working in Elko area mines and reduced their benefits.

“What you have with this is socialized medicine,” she said.

All agreed the immigration system needs repairs and now.

Amodei said he’s for reform but a decent bill by a bipartisan group hasn’t made it to a vote.

Hansen said people are “pouring over the border and we need to respond to this crisis and protect America first.”

Spees said it’s necessary “we reform immigration right now.”

She said the number one concern of seniors is social security but the question is how to protect it.

“We can’t privatize Social Security. That’s your retirement,” she said. “What if Goldman-Sachs got a hold of it.”

Amodei said people “need to demand courage from your people (elected officials).”

“If you disagree with what they do, every two years you can fire them,” he said referring to the election cycle for House members.

Hansen said the reason Social Security is in financial trouble is Congress has taken money from the fund repeatedly for other needs.

She said the focus of her campaign is the need to cut taxes and “unconstitutional spending,” promote free enterprise and job creation.

Spees said she is “owned by no one and therefore can vote for the constituents’ best interests.”

Amodei said elections are a personnel session: “We try to make the basis of whether we get elected or not the job you’re doing — if you want a worker, that’s us.”