Hometown: Gardnerville
Contact information: www.JamesforAD39.org
Incumbency: None
Record of Service: Chairman, Nevada State Conservation Commission, appointed and re-appointed by Governor Guinn
• Chairman, Carson Valley Conservation District, Elected by the landholders of Carson Valley
• Volunteer Teacher, Jack's Valley Elementary School, I help my daughter's Kindergarten class every Friday.
• Graduate, Leadership Douglas County 1998, I have also been a facilitator of this program every year since graduating
Honors: • Outstanding Young Farmer, Nevada State, 2003, awarded by the American Jaycees.
• Eagles in Agriculture. I have been presenting this program since its inception
• Coach, FFA Livestock Judging Team
• Coach, 4-H Livestock Judging Team
• Founding father, Farmhouse Fraternity, Nationally known non-alcoholic fraternity
• Member, California Agricultural Teacher's Association
• Cal Poly Dean's List
• American Farmer Degree, FFA
• Western Zone Treasure, FFA
• Carson Valley Chapter Officer, FFA
• Presidential Academic Fitness Award
Education: California Polytechnic State University, San Louis Obispo, Bachelor of Science, March 1994, Agriculture Education.
Concord Law School, completed Contracts, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law Criminal Procedure, Torts and Property Law courses.
Platform: James Arnold Settelmeyer was born in Carson Tahoe hospital on March 6, 1971 to Arnold and Patricia Settelmeyer. James is a third generation Rancher born in the United States. His great-grandfather migrated to Gardnerville in 1880 with his brother from West Falla, West Germany. After working on the Allerman ranch in Gardnerville for ten years, his grandfather was able to raise the money to purchase the land. The Settelmeyer family since this time has been prominent in agriculture, politics and the community.
His wife, Sherese Settelmeyer owns her own business locally, December Hair Design. She is the President of the Sierra Nevada Republican Women's Club. They have two children, Caitlyn age 6 and Sabrina who is now 15 months old.
In High School James was very active in the Future Farmer's of America organization. He served as both chapter and zone officers. He currently helps coach the livestock teams and helps the 4-H with various activities. He graduated in 1989 from Douglas High School with a class of 180 students. He recalls how his father said his class was 30 and his grandfathers graduating class was three.
He attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. While there, he was a founding father of an agricultural, academic, non alcoholic fraternity known nationally as Farmhouse. During the summers and vacations James returned to work on the family ranch. He graduated in the winter of 1994 with a bachelor of science in agricultural education. Since then, he has taken several courses in the legal field.
In 1998 he graduated from the Leadership Douglas County Program. This program taught him a great many things about the political workings of his community and state, not to mention make valuable contacts along the way. He continues to be active with that program by facilitating the ag/environment day.
In 1999, James was elected by the landowners of Carson Valley to the Conservation District. The first year he served as Secretary, since then he has served as the chairman.
Through his role at the CVCD, he tried to help pass a 1/4 cent sales tax initiative in Douglas County for the purpose of buying development rights from willing sellers. In order to obtain enacting legislation for such a measure, he searched and found a population specific law that could work to other counties advantage if he could get the bill amended by dropping the low end of the population cap. With the aid of Senator Jacobsen and Assemblyman Hettrick this was accomplished.
In 2001 James was appointed by Governor Guinn to the Nevada State Conservation Commission. He was elected as the Vice Chairman. Since 2002 he resides as Chairman.
In 2003 he won the outstanding young farmer award for Nevada, while attending the awards congress in Louisville, KY.
In 2006 he was elected by the landowners of Douglas County to the United States Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency, County Committee and resides as the vice chairman.
Brief platform, for more information please visit my Web site www.jamesforAD39.org
To me there are certain challenges to Nevada's future, some of which are:
1. Government size-It seems that every time we turn around, it is growing at a rate in excess of the population. To grow it only needs food, your tax dollars.
2. Taxes-The government keeps increasing taxes. If elected I will do my best to keep government and taxes down and eliminate waste in the system.
3. Surplus- The State will likely have another record $500 million surplus. There are those who wish to spend it by growing the government with new employees and new departments. To me we should address existing issues.
4. Unfunded Liability- The state has made obligations that it has not taken care of. An example would be the judge's pension. It is estimated that to fully fund the plan will require 20 million, if not it will cost us 200 million in the future. I feel we should spend a little of the surplus now, to keep from spending more of our tax dollars later. The estimated total unfunded liability of the state, by conservative estimates, is about 10 billion dollars.
5. Conservation efforts-It goes without saying that I believe in stewardship of the land; not just for me but the generations of my blood before me. The state has a great need to manage its precious natural resources. I feel particularly well suited for that task. We can save more land with a pen than a shovel.
