Assembly candidate Hof found dead at 72

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

Assembly District 36 candidate Dennis Hof died in Nye County, Nevada on Tuesday, October 16.  The famed brothel owner, 72, was found dead at his property, the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nevada, just north of Pahrump, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Department.

A Love Ranch employee reportedly found Hof not breathing and unresponsive at around 11 am, Nye County Sherriff officials said. No other information was available about Hof’s cause of death.

The incident immediately raised questions about the status of Hof’s run for the State Assembly seat. Hof was running to represent District 36 which includes a huge swath of rural Nevada including Nye County, Lincoln County and a small portion of Clark County including Moapa and Logandale.

According to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, Hof’s name will remain on the upcoming general election ballot.

“According to state law, if a candidate on the general election ballot dies after the fourth Friday in July, the name stays on the ballot,” explained Wayne Thorley, Deputy Secretary of State for Elections, in an interview with the Progress. “So Mr. Hof’s name will appear on the ballot.”

Thorley explained that any vote cast for Hof will still count in determining the results of the election. If Hof should posthumously get the most votes in the election, he would be declared the winner. This would immediately trigger a vacancy in the Assembly, Thorley said.

“That vacancy would be filled like any other vacant legislative position gets filled,” Thorley said.

Vacancies in state legislative seats are filled by the County Commissioners from the district. In this case, since District 36 covers three different counties, the appointment would be done by a conference of all three county commission bodies, Thorley said. He explained that each commission would first meet separately to nominate their proposed appointee. Then all three commissions would convene to vote on the final appointee.

Should Hof’s name win the election, the county commissioners would be bound to appoint a Republican to replace Hof, since he was running as a Republican, Thorley added.

This appointment process would be triggered the day after the general election, if Hof’s name should get the most votes, Thorley said.

The appointment would be expected to be complete by the first week of February when the State Legislative session begins, he added.