GOP candidates for AG both say Masto must go

Both Republican candidates for attorney general cite her refusal to challenge the health care bill as one reason Catherine Cortez Masto must go.

Jacob Hafter and Travis Barrick both want to change the operation of the AG's office.

"Everything she's done is a political ploy," Hafter said. "Our state's being attacked from all levels. We need somebody who is a strong advocate for our state."

As an example, Hafter charged that every other attorney general is going after banks and financial institutions for "predatory lending practices," but that Nevada is not despite having an extreme foreclosure rate.

He said her refusal to take up the constitutional challenge of the health care legislation on behalf of the governor and state is "an abuse of discretion."

And releasing her legal analysis of that issue to the press, Hafter said, is a clear violation of attorney-client privilege.

Barrick accused Masto of being "more than willing to sacrifice individual liberty for her definition of the common good." He said refusing to take up the governor's challenge of health care's constitutionality is a classic example.

He said the office should strive to reduce the excessive regulatory "drag" on business and industry."

"If you want to  free up existing business and industry and spur the economy, create jobs, then the attitude has to be that state agencies are here to serve."

Both Las Vegas lawyers, Hafter and Barrick differ on how they see the current attorney general's office and staff, however.

Hafter said he filed for office out of "a combination of disgust and disappointment, disappointment in the quality of the work product that comes out of the attorney general's office."

He said a big problem is that the lawyers there aren't paid well even compared to local government in Nevada let alone the private sector, so many of the best leave for other employment.

Getting rid of the 20 percent of lawyers not performing well and spreading the money saved among the remaining lawyers, Hafter said, would enable the office to get and keep better attorneys and improve the quality of legal work.

"I'm going to be critical in demanding a quality work product," he said. "There's going to be a pursuit of excellence in that office."

Barrick said he knows a number of deputies in the office and believes them to be competent attorneys. Asked how he would change the office, he said, "I don't know, I'm not sitting in the captain's chair."

He said he would know much better once in office and could definitely improve the agency's efficiency.

"I know the difference between being busy and being productive," he said. "Government cannot be run like a business because it's not a business. But that doesn't mean government is entitled to be inefficient."

He too said low pay is causing too much turnover in the office.

A former carpenter, Barrick said he specializes in construction law as well as veterans' issues. He said Nevada is ready for "a guy like me to be a public servant instead of one of the lords of the ruling class."

Hafter said he handles corporate, real estate and health care cases. He said he took the case of the uninsured woman whose fetus died after she was refused treatment at University Medical Center in Las Vegas and has been fighting the Board of Medical Examiners for their emergency regulations on who can give injections as well as other issues.

"I've been an advocate on these kinds of issues. I'd be able to come into the attorney general's office with a direction," he said.