Nevada Assemblyman Ken Gray and Silver City Advisory Board Chair Erich Obermayr at the Dayton Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum on Oct. 8.
Photo by Jessica Garcia.
Nevada Assembly District 39 incumbent Ken Gray and his opponent Silver City Advisory Board Chair Erich Obermayr have maintained a friendly history even if they disagree on many issues.
The candidates shared their diverse approaches to increasing access to health care, economic growth policies, education funding and safe drinking water in Lyon County during the Dayton Chamber of Commerce’s Candidates Forum on Oct. 8.
Gray and Obermayr spoke of community efforts for office at the Dayton Valley Community Center. Their discussion was moderated by Dayton High School juniors Jacklyn Kikuchi, Blake Palmer and Avaline Reardon.
Gray, a Republican, retired as a chief master sergeant after 26 years in the U.S. Air Force and as a medic in the National Guard. He entered public service and ran for Lyon County Commission district 3 in Dayton in 2016. He continued in the seat for two more terms. Among other work, Gray served as vice chairman of the Carson Water Sub-Conservancy District, Comstock Historic District commissioner and senior field representative for the U.S. House of Representatives for Nevada Congressional District 2 and helped in veterans and public lands issues.
“I've raised both my daughters here in our community, I've been here for 22 years now,” Gray said. “I'm talking about getting stuff done, I mean, from the day I just started I decided to throw my hat in the public elected ring and I decided that I was going to fight tooth and nail.”
He became assemblyman in 2022 with the objective to restore election integrity by repealing election laws passed in the previous legislative session and requiring voter identification. He also wanted to repeal laws infringing on Second Amendment rights and to help train more doctors for Nevada, among other issues.
Obermayr, a Democrat, was raised in southern Idaho and has lived in Silver City for 30 years with his wife Meg. He built his home there and raised a daughter who now works as a high school teacher in Indianapolis. Obermayr retired as an archaeologist and said he wished to run for the district 39 seat as a representative who will help to accomplish things for the state, including advocating for responsible gun ownership, opening the voting process to non-partisan voters by allowing them to participate in the party primary of their choice and supporting Question 6 on the Nevada ballot this election providing for a state constitutional right to an abortion.
“I'm running for district 39 because we need a representative who puts getting stuff done first,” he said. “This means working from the ground up, beginning with that will be getting with the basic questions. What will a bill do to make life better for my constituents?”
Obermayr referred to the Silver City Community Center, a two-room school established in 1867 that became a fire station and town hall but was lost to a fire in 2004. With group efforts, the Silver City Preservation Society in 2014 came together and worked to secure the Stagecoach Community Center to give the town a new place to meet and it helped Lyon County keep its current buildings operational.
“This took years, working with the county to overcome a reluctant insurance company,” Obermayr said. “We succeeded, so we're sitting down as one of the finest community centers in the state. … This never came up. This was never even mentioned. This is the kind of success we can have, you know, we put getting stuff done first, and this is what I will bring to the Legislature.”
The moderators asked how each would address Nevada’s fiscal challenges, and Gray replied the Silver State spends more than it brings in revenue.
“I’ll tell you the governor allocated — and we supported — more money to education than any other governor in the history of Nevada, and yet the other side of the aisle still, still wanted to increase beyond what we had in the budget, like $258 million,” Gray said.
Although it would be helpful to have this funding on hand, it will push the state over the fiscal cliff, Gray said, and cuts will be needed and tax increases will be necessary in the next legislative session.
Obermayr suggested looking at funding for education on a per-pupil basis and the state’s sources of revenue.
“So the fiscal problem in the state, of course, is where do we get the money from, and we have taxes on the casinos and taxes on the mining industry, and there's the sales tax, which is a pretty regressive tax,” Obermayr said. “So we have to look at where we can spend the money most efficiently and where we might be able to increase our funding.”
They also addressed ideas on what the Nevada Legislature could do to ensure a clean, safe drinking water supply, to which Gray touted his experience serving on the Carson Water Subconservancy and Dayton Valley Conservation districts. He suggested examining Southern Nevada, which uses reclaimed water, as well as water sent to Southern California’s water basins for waste.
“What we need to do is finish our water loop so there’s an uninterrupted supply in case there’s an emergency that can shut off the wells and not permanently, you know, in case of an contamination issue, and there will still be water for the public use,” Gray said.
Obermayr preferred looking to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection’s oversight of water quality and said climate change has affected increased runoff into Lake Tahoe and surrounding reservoirs, and with more natural events such as fires expected, local agencies should be prepared.
“We need to be able to ensure that our water delivery systems have the capacity to deal with the periods of extreme rainfall and then fill in with drought times between those,” Obermayr said.
In closing remarks, Gray said he does not consider issues from a partisan view.
“I look at it from a constitutional view,” he said. “Is it constitutional? is it good for Nevada and if it's great for Nevada, I think that's the key thing when looking at legislation.”
Obermayr said whatever the outcome is, he and Gray share at least one opinion on the race.
“One of the things that I hear most recently is that people are sick and tired of the politics, they’re sick and tired of the lies, they’re sick and tired of the insults, and Mr. Gray and I have talked about this before,” he said. “On Nov. 6, I want to be able to wake up and be able to say that we put on a good election for you guys.”