Carson City’s Amodei to seek re-election to Congress

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nv., Thursday filed for his third full two-year term representing Congressional District 2.

The district covers western Nevada including his hometown Carson City as well as most of northern rural Nevada.

Amodei faces two Democratic challengers so far: Chip Evans of Reno and Rick Shepherd. Evans, a longtime member of the Washoe Democratic Central Committee, has the endorsement of Sen. Harry Reid.

Asked whether this would be his final term since he has said numerous times he doesn’t like the “culture” of Congress in Washington D.C., Amodei said: “I don’t like the culture but the work is important.”

He said he would evaluate whether to seek another term if he’s re-elected this time when that term comes to an end.

He said he would like to see a different culture in D.C. than the past years of the war between President Obama and the Congress.

He said important to him is, “we need somebody to give a riff about the west.”

As an example, he pointed to “all the green energy push on one hand and, on the other, you can’t get a permit to do it.”

Amodei has been in Congress since September 2011 when he won the special election to replace Dean Heller after Heller was appointed to the U.S. Senate. He ran and won the seat in both 2012 and 2014 and filed Thursday for another term.

One surprise filing for Congress was Morse Arberry in District 4. Arberry is the former chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, a post he held in the Nevada Legislature for seven sessions until he was term-limited out of that body in 2008. Arberry is one of five Democrats seeking to unseat first term incumbent republican Cresent Hardy.

Also filing on Thursday was State Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, seeking a second four-year term in that office. Thus far, he’s the only candidate to have filed for that post.

He said water issues are key in his largely rural district that spans the northern half of Nevada. But he said supporting and expanding four-year offerings at Nevada community colleges is also important to him.

In addition, former Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey of Reno has filed seeking election to the state Board of Education seat he was appointed to fill.

In Carson City, the only new filing since Monday is by Steve Reynolds seeking a second term on the Carson school board in District 5.