Assembly candidate to speak at Democratic luncheon
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sun, 06/09/2024 - 4:33am
Event Date:
June 10, 2024 - 1:00pm The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Katherine Ramsey, candidate for Assembly District 40, which includes all of Carson City. AD40 incumbent PK O'Neill faces challenger Drew Ribar in the June 11th Republican primary.
Katherine Ramsey is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination, and will face the winner of the Republican primary in the November 5th general election.
The following account of the AD40 race appeared on the website of Reno's two Sinclair Group affiliates, News 4 & Fox 11:
Nevada Assembly minority leader P.K. O'Neill has served 3 terms in the statehouse and is vying for his 4th in 2024.
The incumbent Republican faces one GOP primary challenger and one Democrat in the deep red district — Republican Drew Ribar is running against him in the primary and Democrat Katherine Ramsey will face the winner of that primary in November.
Nevada Assembly District 40: Incumbent O'Neill vying for 4th term faces GOP challenger
District 40, includes all of Carson City and Storey County as well as the southeastern part of Washoe County. Communities such as the east part of Washoe Valley and the Virginia Foothills are included in AD 40.
Republicans have a 15% voter registration advantage over Democrats in AD 40 —a Republican has represented it since at least 2010, according to Ballotpedia.
News 4-Fox 11 interviewed both primary candidates for our Know Your Candidates 2024 series. We asked why they're running, the most important issue facing Nevada and more.
P.K. O'Neill
O'Neill was first elected to the seat in 2014 and served one term - he won again in 2020 and 2022. He served 40 years in law enforcement, retiring as a division chief at the Nevada Department of Safety.
"We need a (diverse) economy. We need to improve our educational services K-12 and how they're delivered. We need to get the parents more involved with their children's education. We need to enhance our community service organizations and support them. We need to address that. We have low taxes and we want to maintain those low taxes," he said.
O'Neill said he wants Republicans to revisit Gov. Joe Lombardo's election integrity bill in 2025. The measure included requiring voter identification, among other reforms.
"That was one of the more disturbing things to me, and one that we honestly need to address. People have to feel secure with their individual vote. Voting is the absolute basic foundation to our democracy, to a republic, to a representative form of government that we have."
Drew Ribar
Ribar is a longtime local business owner who described himself as a 'frustrated businessman.' He took issue with O'Neill's previous vote in support of establishing a commerce tax in 2015.
"The incumbent has raised taxes in the past, so I'm 100% against that. I would never vote to raise taxes. I don't see a need for that. And if you look at his voting history over the years, I don't really think that he's accomplished much that's helped a majority of the people in the state. I look at our housing prices, the homeless situation. I look at the cost of goods," he said.
Ribar said he's a registered Republican but believes in libertarian values.
"Most everybody needs some type of license to have their job that the state can take away. So the state can affect your ability to earn income. So how is that liberty if you can't go make money without the government becoming involved? I don't understand that the right to travel is a privilege with your driver's license. Shouldn't the right to travel be a liberty as opposed to a privilege? So there's just things that that I see that are wrong."
—
This event is scheduled for 1:00 PM on Monday, June the 10th, and can be attended either in person at Black Bear Diner, inside Max Casino, or online via Zoom. Ramsey's presentation will begin after all the lunch orders have been taken, around 1:30. Those wishing to be on distribution for luncheon Zoom links should contact Rich Dunn at richdunn@aol.com.
