Now that everyone can run for House, will they all jump in?

Secretary of State Ross Miller announced Monday — after a couple of weeks of studying the law and gathering information from around the country — that Rep. Dean Heller’s soon-to-be-vacant 2nd Congressional District seat will be filled by a free-for-all special election in which pretty much anyone can run.

For major party candidates, that means filing a declaration of candidacy with Miller’s office. For minor parties who appear on the ballot now, a list of candidates must be filed. Everybody else — including independent candidates — must find 100 registered voters to sign a petition, and they’re on the ballot, too.

Miller’s alternative was to let major party central committees pick a single nominee, a process that would have given the Republican standard-bearer a distinct advantage in a district that currently has nearly 31,000 more members of the GOP. But that’s not why Miller, a Democrat, says he came down as he did.

“There were absolutely no partisan considerations,” he said in a conference call with reporters on Monday. “This ultimately should be determined by a vote of the people rather than a group of elite power brokers.”

As a result, the people will get what promises to be a very long ballot: Republicans Sharron Angle, state Sen. Greg Brower and former USS Cole skipper Kirk Lippold are in for sure, and former state Sen. Mark Amodei and Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki are looking at the race closely.

That the list includes Angle further fuels Republican dissatisfaction. The conservative firebrand would never have had a shot at the ballot if the “elite power brokers” were calling the shots. (To be sure, the much more moderate Krolicki would likely have been the choice, given his unbroken record of statewide wins.)

Now, Angle, Brower, Lippold and perhaps Krolicki and Amodei will have to scrape for votes, creating the possibility of a Democratic candidate amassing enough votes to win. (In this most direct of democratic contests, whoever gets the most votes wins, even if it’s by a single vote, regardless of the percentage. Depending on the final number of candidates — which we’ll know in early June at the latest — and the turnout, a candidate could win with a very small number of votes.)

That assumes, of course, the Democrats can avoid a similar free-for-all, which isn’t certain. Former candidates Jill Derby and Nancy Price — both of whom ran unsuccessfully against Heller in the past — have said they will run. And state Treasurer Kate Marshall may as well. (The only potential Democratic candidate to officially say she’s out is Assemblywoman Debbie Smith of Sparks, who says she’s too busy with legislative business to compete.)

For Miller, the race represents democracy at its best.

“I am confident that this electoral structure is about as American as apple pie,” he said. “It allows for freedom for all to run.”

Beyond that, however, there’s another virtue: It seems to comport with Nevada’s special-election statute and the rest of Nevada election law, Republican protests to the contrary. That it’s small-d democratic, and that Republicans are said to be considering a lawsuit over the decision, doesn’t change that fact.

But don’t forget, this will be the last race in the 2nd District as it’s presently configured. The Legislature is currently redrawing the boundaries, and it could look radically different — geographically and in terms of registration — in 2012, when a regular election to fill the seat will be held.

The winner of this chaotic special election may find his or her hold on the seat fleeting.

 

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. His column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at (702) 387-5276 or at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.