By BOBBIE GREEN & VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The race for Nevada Congressional District 4 (CD4) has become highly contested. A total of eight Republican candidates originally filed to run on the Primary ballot. One of them will be chosen by CD4 Republican voters to go up against incumbent Congressman Steven Horsford (D) in the general election in November.
The Progress recently caught up with four of the frontrunners in the Republican primary race. What follows are the results of those interviews.
Jim Marchant has been a businessman throughout his life. When he was fresh out of college, he worked as a clerk in his father’s convenience store and learned about running a small family business.
He later started a computer software company which served customers all across the country. In 1994, he started one of the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) companies. He also served as President of the nation’s only ISP Association. As such, he helped formulate many of the cyber laws existing today. These include a successful lobbying effort against internet taxation before the Florida Legislature in 1996.
Marchant moved to Nevada in 2005. He was disappointed when the 2015 Nevada State Legislature instituted the Commerce Tax. So he ran for the State Assembly in 2016 and won. He served as the District 37 representative in the 2017 legislative session where he was ranked as the #1 conservative legislator by the Nevada Policy Research Institute.
In the realm of education Marchant said that he supports funding Education Savings Accounts and giving parents a choice in where they send their kids to school.
“I will support removing Common Core standards, curricula and data mining from the Nevada public schools,” said Marchant.
On the subject of health care, Marchant would support the repeal of Obamacare to replace it with an alternative that includes pre-existing conditions, encouraging free market competition to lower healthcare costs and drug prices, and allow for shopping insurance across state lines.
On the subject of illegal immigration, Marchant wants to keep building the border wall. But her also supports an overhaul of the immigration system.
If he is elected, he would like to serve on the House Energy Committee because of an innovative proposal he has to solve the ongoing Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste storage issue.
“Because of Harry Reid’s opposition to the Yucca Mountain project, taxpayers pay $2.2 million a day in fines because the federal government has defaulted on its contract with the utility companies to store the nuclear waste,” Marchant said.
Marchant believes that building a nuclear waste recycling facility and research laboratory at the Yucca Mountain site would remedy this problem and enrich Nevadans at the same time.
Marchant says he is the best candidate in the field because, “…none of the others have the experience I have as a businessman and a legislator. I have a good background.”
“I support President Trump and putting America first,” Marchant added. “I believe that this country should be self-sufficient and I will support policies and legislation to that end.”
Marchant said, “I will not compromise my conservative values while working with the Democrats in Congress. I take all opportunities to use facts to convert opponents.”
Charles Navarro believes that the main thing that sets him apart from the other Republican candidates in this race is his experience.
“On the main conservative issues we are all going to be standing about the same,” he said of the field of candidates. “But the main thing that makes me the best candidate is experience: the different types of work I’ve done, the things I’ve gone through and so on.”
Navarro served as Deputy District Director for U.S. Congressman Cresent Hardy (R-Mesquite). So he is already familiar with the federal issues pertaining to CD4.
In that role Navarro dealt with drawing new business to the district in efforts to diversify the economy, worked directly with veterans and the VA and advocating for CD4 communities in federal public lands issues, he said.
“I’m really the only candidate that has ever worked on federal issues out here,” he said. “I know what the issues are in CD4 and I already have relationships with the people out there. So I won’t be spending a lot of time on a learning curve.”
More recently, Navarro has worked as Re-entry Manager for Hope For Prisoners, a faith based organization that provides training for employment skills and leadership readiness to the recently incarcerated within Clark County Detention Center.
Navarro has served for twelve years in the U.S. Navy. His current assignment in the Navy Reserves is with Naval Security Forces at Point Hueneme, California and Pearl Harbor, HI.
He has worked in law enforcement and has completed his P.O.S.T. Level 1 training through Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the handling of federal relief programs that have followed, have drawn Navarro’s attention to the need to ensure that federal dollars get to where they are actually intended to go. He feels that more accountability is needed to that effect.
One specific area of focus is in the realm of education. “A lot of dollars meant for education unfortunately aren’t making their way to the classroom,” Navarro said. “I have spoken about the need to make a mandatory percentage of federal funds have to get distributed at the school level instead of it always being peeled off at the state level and at the administrative level.”
Navarro has seen similar things happen for federal funds intended to aid small businesses. For example, he points out that much of the Payroll Protection Program funding passed by smaller mom-and-pop businesses for which it was intended, and went instead to bigger companies.
“We have to make sure that there is a mechanism for accountability built in,” Navarro said. “There has to be a way of holding the banks and financial institutions accountable and making sure that those small business applications are processed correctly.”
But there is a deeper element involved as well, Navarro said. He points out that, because of the unique business climate in Nevada, that the state drew the short end on much of the COVID-19 federal assistance bill.
“We need to look at making it a more fair market for the funds so that they will be more evenly distributed to the States,” Navarro said.
Sam Peters decided to run for the CD4 seat because he felt Nevada, and the United States, need a fighter in Congress.
Peters fought for this country for 20 years in the United States Air Force.
A successful business owner, Peters has a Master Level Certification in Organizational Finance. He is also licensed by the Finance Regulatory Authority as a Personal Finance Representative.
He said that there are only two ways out of debt: 1. to pay it off; or 2. to go bankrupt.
“That means we need to get our government spending under control immediately” he said.
Peters believes there are many government agencies that could and should be streamlined for efficiency. This would also limit the amount of overreach in the federal government.
“I have the experience, the education, the work ethic and the belief in our Constitutional values that will help keep our American experiment alive and well,” Peters said.
Peters fully supports President Trump’s America First policy, no question about it.
On the subject of public lands, Peters wants to return use of federal lands to Nevada counties. “I have identified numerous areas of economic development while campaigning and working with local leaders,” he said.
Many of the counties already have plans and options in place for use of the federal lands, Peters said. “For example, Lincoln County wants to put in a new road to shorten the drive to its disposal plant,” he said. “White Pine County wants a housing development. I would work with local leaders to get those things done.”
If elected, Peters said he would like to serve on the House Budget committee. He fears that the country is headed into bankruptcy and he believes someone with experience needs to take the lead.
“It is my belief that the focus of Congress has, too long, been to avoid its main job,” Peters said. “Congress should be budgeting money, not just spending it.”
Peters said he would also vie for a position on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He has held a top-secret clearance before and is well versed in working with the intelligence community.
“We need experience on this committee to protect our homeland from the deep state reality,” he said.
When asked if Governor Sisolak made the right decision to close churches due to COVID-19, Peters stated that he felt the Governor has overstepped his authority and stripped Americans of their Constitutional rights for far too long.
Peters definitely believes in requiring some kind of voter I.D. system for voting.
“If elected I will sponsor a nationwide voter I.D. law,” he said. “Vote by mail does open opportunity for fraud as does extended early voting.”
Lisa Song-Sutton is completely new to the political scene. But she is not new to the things that many Nevadans find important.
Song-Sutton, of Las Vegas, has an interesting and diverse resume. She is a businesswoman, an entrepreneur, an outspoken advocate for women and she served as Miss Nevada United States 2014.
Song-Sutton says that she is part of a growing number of private sector individuals who have decided to come off the sidelines and engage in civic service.
“That message is resonating among a lot of us who are tired of politicians,” Song-Sutton said. “We are tired of seeing these people who have been ingratiated into the system while regular people’s lives have not improved and promises have not been kept. That is something that we as a community don’t want as part of our repertoire anymore.”
Song-Sutton is an entrepreneur who has started several successful businesses and continues to run them. These include a real estate business, an online retail organization, a shipping store in North Las Vegas and a business called Sin City Cupcakes which makes alcohol-infused cupcakes. Altogether, these small businesses employ around two dozen people, Song-Sutton said.
Song-Sutton is concerned about the issue of illegal immigration. She has a cousin who is a federal agent with ICE who has served with Border Patrol on the Arizona/Mexico border. “I’ve heard the kitchen table stories of what our men and women there go through,” she said. “They need resources and they need our support.”
In the realm of managing federal lands in Nevada, Song-Sutton believes that more weight needs to be placed on the wishes of the people of the state. “I think that the federal government needs to be listening to the people here in the state,” she said. “If we say that there is something that we want for economic growth or for the livelihood in our communities, then who is some bureaucrat in Washington to say that we can’t do it?”
In dealing with national healthcare issues, Song-Sutton believes that a return to competition and free market principles would be much better than a single-payer system.
Song-Sutton is also a proponent of second amendment rights. She says that her father taught her to use a firearm when she was nine years old. “I didn’t just learn to shoot, though, but also all those elements that come with it, firearm safety and responsibility,” she said. “I’m a huge advocate of those things, especially for women.”
Song-Sutton recognizes that a strong priority at this time needs to be rebuilding the American economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. “With my small business and entrepreneurship background, I’m best positioned to help our federal delegation and President Trump to rebuild this economy and help build the America First agenda.”
