Nevadans toppled an incumbent congressman, but it wasn't Dean Heller. UNLV professor Dina Titus finally found work by defeating Jon Porter in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District. Carson Valley resident Jill Derby's challenge of Heller, in a classic Douglas-Carson match-up writ large, fell 10 points short. Derby received 135,911 votes to Heller's 169,636.
James Settelmeyer hung onto his seat by a wide margin, though he lost a couple of points to Independent American David Schumann this year. With 61.07 percent of the vote in the multi-county District 39, Settelmeyer has a comfortable margin. JoEtta Brown lost a half a point since she challenged Settelmeyer in 2006, with 34.1 percent of the vote. Schumann polled 4.83 percent of the vote, taking a little away from both candidates.
Former state school board member Dave Cook is former no more. Cook defeated incumbent Barbara Myers in what must be the third iteration of that race at least. Cook had 43,863 votes to Myers' 38,634, putting him on top for the first time in the century.
Indian Hills voters returned incumbent Laura Lau and former trustee Dianne Humble to their seats. Lau was the top vote-getter with 816, with Humble receiving 731 votes. Art Baer received 607 votes and Brian Buffo got 562.
Incumbents also won in the Gardnerville Ranchos and Gardnerville. Cade Baligad was returned to the Gardnerville Ranchos General Improvement District. Firefighter David Bourne will join him on the board as a new member. In Gardnerville, board member Paul Lindsay won re-election. Robin Bernhard won the second seat.
Genoans are meeting at 7 p.m. tonight in the town hall. The Nature Conservancy will be making a presentation on the Carson River Project, and the county will discuss the Genoa Lane River Access.
The weather should be sunny, though cool until the weekend, when another storm is expected to arrive. Right now the Weather Service is betting 20 percent that we'll see moisture on Saturday. Today the high will be in the 40s, so bundle up.
