National, local election cycles never end

Our focus:

Major parties look toward their respective summer conventions

Nevada features a crowded field for the Republican side in the U.S. Senate race

Churchill County voters will select a commissioner on June 14

Nationally, the race to the White House sped over its next-to-last bump before delegates head to their respective party’s conventions sometime this summer.

Both the presumptive candidates from the two major parties — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump — are on a collision course and will have numerous junior high school spats along the way.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders put together a strong campaign trying to dethrone the anointed one, but the so-called superdelegates of the Democratic Party ensured that Hillary rose of the war as the victor. It’s amazing how many of the party’s status quo defends the Super delegates, which in our opinion acts to disenfranchise many voters. In reality, the Democrat’s convention would be best suited if neither one had superdelegates and to let both sides fight it out on the convention floor.

Perhaps voters will have a breather before “torch the earth” campaign kicks off after the two conventions.

Statewide, all eyes will be on the U.S Senate race to fill Harry Reid’s tired, old shoes. Although Nevada’s primary election day is less than a week away, most predictions are focusing on a Joe Heck-Catherine Masto Cortez faceoff.

Six years ago Sharron Angle definitely became a big factor in the race and led Reid until Election Day. For this cycle, though, Angle’s campaign doesn’t have the same spark it did in 2010, and her visits to Churchill County have not been as frequent as the first time she ran for Senate.

Locally, the only contested race that will have a bearing on the next four years is for Churchill County Commission. Two good men are running for this office: Incumbent Carl Erquiaga and businessman and former Churchill County School Board member Bill Slentz. Because of a new state law passed by the Legislature, candidates of the same party will faceoff in the primary election rather than in the general.

The LVN has asked each candidate pertinent questions about county government, the movement to return federal land back to the states and many others. Their responses will appear in both Friday’s newspaper and online.

Only three candidates applied for three school-board openings, and a pair of candidates is running for two openings in the Mosquito, Vector and Noxious Weed Abatement Board.

Early voting closes Friday at the Churchill County Commission, and general election voting is Tuesday from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. at the Fallon Convention Center.

Editorials written by the LVN Editorial Board appear on Wednesdays.