Democratic newcomer faces two-time candidate in Assembly District 21

A Democratic newcomer is looking to keep Assembly District 21 blue in a race against a Republican who has ran for the seat unsuccessfully twice before.

Democrat Elaine Marzola is coming off a landslide primary victory and has the financial backing and endorsements from Democratic lawmakers and numerous labor unions. Marzola is facing off against Republican Cherlyn Arrington, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2018 and 2010. The district’s two-term incumbent, Democrat Ozzie Fumo, is leaving the position to run for Nevada Supreme Court.

Marzola also holds a substantial campaign money advantage. She has spent more than 10 times as much campaign cash thus far, and holds a nearly five-fold lead in cash on hand over Arrington as of June 30.

Arrington is also facing an uphill battle when it comes to voter registration, as Democrats hold a significant advantage in the district with 39 percent of registered voters compared with 31 percent for Republicans.

Helping small business

Marzola said she wants to work on getting small businesses back on their feet after the economy was thrashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and said she thinks the state needs to be mindful about any potential revenue increases that could hurt those businesses or working families in Nevada.

On where the state could look to tighten its belt if more budget cuts are necessary, Marzola said she didn’t have a direct answer and “would have to look at all of the possibilities available.”

“We’re in a hard situation. We don’t want to do anything that is going to harm us even more,” she said.

Similarly, she said she support exploring “many different” revenue sources, but couldn’t provide examples of what those revenue streams would look like.

Marzola said she supports the trio of mining tax proposals that Democrats passed during a special session in the summer. All three are constitutional amendments, and Democratic leaders have said they only intend to advance one of the three next session. Any of the measures would also need to be approved by voters in 2022 to be enacted.

Marzola said there needs to be more accountability and transparency for police, but did not commit to an answer when asked if she would support eliminating qualified immunity for officers.

Critical of budget cuts

Arrington, a former case manager in the Clark County district attorney’s office, criticized the cuts, especially those to education, that lawmakers made to close the $1.2 billion budget deficit caused by the pandemic, but could not offer alternatives that lawmakers could have taken to avoid those cuts.

“I wasn’t in special session, so I didn’t see what was there in front of them,” said Arrington, who said she had surgery around the time of the special session.

Like Marzola, Arrington also did not offer any of her own positions for where the state could cut or shift funds if more budget reductions are needed next year, saying she is reserving her position until then. She said she supports pursuing additional revenue streams by getting more companies to move to Nevada.

Arrington said that Nevada does need reforms to the criminal justice system. To her, that includes adding more protections for police officers, including shielding their addresses and taxpayer funded salaries from the public, and making the justice system more punitive for juveniles.

“I think our criminal justice system is too easy on juveniles. I think it needs to be harder on them,” Arrington said.

She also said prosecutors need to be held accountable for when they don’t prosecute a case brought by police.

“Why waste an officer’s time filling out paperwork if you’re just going to release them?” she said.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.