Orentlicher, seeking first re-election, draws challenger in AD20

A longtime resident of Las Vegas will challenge an incumbent assemblyman in District 20, a portion of Las Vegas and Henderson east of Harry Reid International Airport.

Challenger Trish Marsh will face Assemblyman David Orentlicher, D-Las Vegas, who was first elected in 2020.

The winner of the Democratic primary election will face Republican Stan Vaughan and Libertarian Josiah Logan LaRow in the November general election.

Marsh, a 59-year resident of Nevada, believes members of the state Legislature are either corrupt or completely disconnected with the issues affecting residents.

“I’m offering you substance, courage and the determination to help Assembly 20 residents regain district representation which is geared to improving all our lives instead of improving only the bank account of the representative,” Marsh said.

She said she will work toward providing better-paying stable jobs, affordable healthcare, including reasonable prescription costs, accountability of government money, and the elimination of any mandates that are “smothering residents and strangling small business.”

Marsh, who says she has a lifelong passion to help people and has worked in the past to design events to help people with disabilities live productive lives, said she used to be a Republican, but after doing some research and soul-searching, decided to switch parties.

“I started looking at the Democratic platform and started to notice that they had more in line with what my mind was thinking and that’s when I started making my changes,” she said.

“I am committed to craft clear, positive solutions and to provide a more efficient, less burdensome government,” Marsh said. “We need a government which listens, not dictates.”

Orentlicher, who holds both law and medical degrees from Harvard University, considers himself “an educator, physician, attorney and ethicist” and teaches courses in health law and constitutional law at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law.

He served in the Indiana House of Representatives for six years before moving to Las Vegas five years ago.

“As a doctor, I’m especially interested in working to improve our health-care system,” Orentlicher said. “We’ve made great strides in Nevada, but there’s still more to do, like making sure we do all we can to prevent disease and ensure access to health care for everyone and lowering the costs of prescription drugs.”

Orentlicher served in 2008 as a health policy adviser for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama and worked on the health plan that eventually became the Affordable Care Act. He also directed the medical ethics program at the American Medical Association, drafting the AMA’s first-ever Patients’ Bill of Rights. He also wrote conflicts-of-interest guidelines that protect the integrity of the patient-physician relationship.

Orentlicher, who in Indiana authored legislation to protect children from abuse or neglect and increase funding for start-up companies to create new jobs, says he believes his experience as a legislator gives him an edge over his opponent.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.

This story was corrected to include the name of Libertarian challenge Josiah Logan LaRow.