By Marcos Duran Posted December 17, 2014
As you may know, the biennial midterm elections were held this year, with key races happening locally, statewide, and nationally. While the voter turnout was the lowest in years, there were still major shifts of power.
On a local level, the three things mostly everyone was looking out for were the Sheriff and Judge races, and the Boys and Girls Club Funding Tax, more commonly known as Question 2. The Sheriff’s race was between incumbent Sheriff Ed Kilgore and challenger Mike Allen. Allen won with 54% of the vote, leaving Kilgore with 46%. For the District Court Judge race, the candidates were Todd Plimpton and Jim Shirley. While Humboldt County showed its support for Plimpton, Shirley carried Pershing and Lander Counties, thus winning the seat by a narrow margin of 7%. Teachers Laura Mercado and Mark Carstensen expressed their opinions on the election.
“I believe Allen won because people are tired of what’s been going on with the Sheriff’s Department,” said Mercado. “I myself am interested to see what he does to improve the situation. If anything, he needs to be open and transparent. As for the Judge Race, I believed Mr. Plimpton was going to take it, but Shirley won, I am also interested to see what he does in office,”
Question 2 was a big upset, as it was rejected by voters 60% to 40%.
“I thought with it being an extremely modest, almost unnoticeable tax increase to fund a recreational center, it was going to be approved easily, but I guess people don’t want any sort of new tax,” said Mercado.
At the State level, nothing changed much, with incumbent Governor Brian Sandoval remaining in office. The only major change is that the State Senate is under a Republican majority.
“Democrats just didn’t show up to vote,” said Carstensen. “You can see that if you look at the results of the Nevada races, with not a single Democrat winning. Now that the State Senate is controlled by the Republican Party, they might make cuts in spending, which could seriously damage education here at home.”
At the National Level, all eyes were on the Senatorial races, which would determine if the Senate was taken by the Republicans or kept under a Democratic majority. As the results rolled in, the Republicans won major races, which helped it take control of the Senate with a 53-seat majority. The Democratic Party now has 44 seats. There are also currently 2 Independent seats.
“It has been difficult to get anything done in the government with a Democratic President, a Democratic Senate, and a Republican [House of Representatives], at least then President Obama had the Senate’s support, now with an entirely Republican Congress, President Obama will have an even more difficult time getting anything done,” said Mercado.
Carstensen has a tone similar to Mercado’s.
“Nothing will get done in Washington; the only thing that is troubling is that the Republicans will cause another government shutdown while trying to get their way by repealing Obamacare. They’ve already done it once last year, and that was with just the House under their control. Who’s to say that they aren’t going to do it again, this time with the entire Congress?” said Carstensen.
When the new Republican Congress takes charge in January, they will have two years before the Presidential Election, in which a new President will take office, and more Congressional seats open. This change in control might have an effect on the election.
“If the Republicans get bills passed and stuff done during the small time that they have, it will be hard for a Democratic President to be elected,” said Mercado.
“If nothing gets achieved with a Republican Congress, it could seriously hurt them. It would facilitate the election of the Democratic candidate, and the Democrats would have a good chance of taking either the House or the Senate. We’ll have to see how everything unfurls,” said Carstensen.
