District Attorney won't challenge candidacies

Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson said Friday he won't challenge the candidacies of five local office-holders who are seeking re-election.

In a letter to Matthew M. Griffin, deputy Secretary of State, Jackson said he reviewed Griffin's written challenges and found "fatal flaws" in the five affidavits.

Citing the state's term limits law, Griffin challenged the candidacies Randy Slater, Gardnerville Town Board; Ray Wilson and Bruce Jacobsen, Minden Town Board; and James Beattie and Robert Cook of the Kingsbury General Improvement District.

Jackson said Griffin failed to meet the state requirement that he live in the district or county where the challenge is filed.

"While I do not have personal knowledge of your actual residency, I find it difficult to believe that you actually reside contemporaneously within the jurisdictional boundaries of the towns of Gardnerville and Minden, as well as the Kingsbury General Improvement District of Douglas County ... It is my opinion that your affidavits are fatally flawed," Jackson wrote.

In 1996, Nevadans approved a constitutional amendment limiting the terms of service for certain public officers to 12 years.

Jackson said he joined with several other county district attorneys arguing that the term-limit amendment was ambiguous as to its effective date. He added that then-Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa issued an opinion that the law would not apply to those candidates who were elected in 1996 until they filed for re-election.

"The mischief caused by your interpretation of Section 3 of Article 15 of the Nevada constitution would result in the appointment of at least five board members in Douglas County, thereby defeating the real will of the electors in the towns and districts within the county," he said in his letter to Griffin.

Jackson said he would not file a challenge to the candidacies in District Court.

The Nevada Supreme Court is set to hear the issue June 13 in Las Vegas. Jackson said he was waiting to learn if Douglas County Clerk Barbara Griffin would be named in the petition before he decided whether to go to Las Vegas.