On Monday, the 2008 election season officially began with a filing period solely for judges.
Judges' races typically are the most expensive to run and in order to reduce the amount of money in the races, the Nevada Supreme Court has prohibited them from raising money unless they have an opponent.
According to the supreme court, 60 percent of judges draw no opposition, but had to start collecting money before the filing period just in case they ended up with an opponent during the May filing period.
Now judges may not begin collecting money until after the filing period is over and then only if they have an opponent.
We agree with the plan to reduce the influence of campaign dollars on judicial races and we feel the idea that offices have their own filing periods may have merit on its own.
There was a time not so long ago when the filing period in Nevada started on Jan. 1 and lasted five months.
However, the filing period was reduced to two weeks in May because people thought the campaign season was too long.
We've found that reducing the filing period has done nothing to slow down the campaign season, since candidates typically signal their intention to run before the May filing period.
With an August primary, giving candidates more time to run could increase participation and perhaps reduce the burden on busy county clerks during election season.
