Brothels, police money, name recognition in local races

Both of Churchill County's brothels are closed, but voters say if somebody wants to reopen one, it's all right with them.

A ballot measure to ban prostitution in the county was trounced, two-to-one in one of scores of local issues and races decided in the general election.

Churchill County voters approved legal prostitution in the county 30 years ago, also by a margin of about two to one.

In Clark County, voters narrowly approved an advisory question to raise taxes for more police officers, leaving it up to elected officials to determine whether the vote constitutes a mandate for higher taxes. The nonbinding measure passed 52 percent to 48 percent.

Carson City voters returned to the past, rejecting Ray Masayko's bid for a third term by electing former two-term mayor Marv Teixiera with 51.5 percent of the vote, a 654-vote margin out of 22,116 votes cast.

In Clark County, a second Bonaventure will be behind the bench after Joe Bonaventure, the son of District Court Judge Joseph Bonaventure, won his race to become the newest judge in Las Vegas Justice Court. He captured 56 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Deputy Bernie Zadrowski in the race for newly created Department 9.

Name recognition was not helpful in Reno, where former mayor and current county commissioner Pete Sferrazza lost his bid for family court judge to Chuck Weller. Weller captured the $130,000-a-year post by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent after a sometimes rancorous campaign.

Sferrazza's daughter Jessica easily won re-election to her City Council post by a margin of 72 percent to 27 percent over political gadfly Sam Dehne.