(Nevada News Bureau Staff) – Assemblyman-elect Pat Hickey, R-Reno, has called for a return to “electioneering sanity” by moving Nevada’s primary election date back to September.
Hickey is requesting a bill draft to make the change from the much earlier June primary date used for the first time this election cycle.
“Nevadans have just been subjected to eight months of non-stop political advertising lasting longer than the Major League Baseball season,” Hickey said.
Nine other states, including New York, Maryland, Delaware and Hawaii, all have their primaries in early September, he said.
“Nevada voted to move the primary to June so that candidates wouldn’t have to walk door-to-door in August,” Hickey said. “I’m sure Nevada voters would prefer politicians sweat a little in the summer sun rather than having to put up with a never-ending deluge of political advertisements every two years clogging their television and radio airways.”
Hickey said Nevada just experienced the longest campaign season in state history, and voters would prefer to see the primary returned to the second Tuesday in September starting in 2012.
The primary historically has been held in September. It was moved to August for the 2006 and 2008 elections. It was moved to June for the 2010 election cycle by the 2009 Legislature.
Hickey previously served in the Assembly in the 1997 session. He succeeds Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert, who decided not to run for re-election.
