<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Seekins wins assessor primary, who she’ll face still unclear

Republicans Van Nortwick, Horowitz separated by 849 with many votes left to count

By Laura McVicker
Published: August 18, 2010, 12:00am

Clark County assessor candidate Janet Seekins, the only Democrat and only assessor’s office employee in the race, easily advanced to the Nov. 2 general election. But Tuesday night, it was too soon to tell which Republican opponent she will face.

Initial results from Tuesday’s primary election show Peter Van Nortwick leading David Horowitz by only 849 votes, with thousands of votes still left to be counted. Daniel Weaver finished a distant fourth.

Of the 58,111 votes counted, Seekins, 53, received 44 percent of the votes.

The senior residential appraiser credited her 30 years with the assessor’s office for her lead.

“I think experience and knowledge matter,” Seekins said, shortly after hearing the results at Clark College’s Gaiser Hall. “To lead people, it’s important to know the job.”

Van Nortwick, 43, picked up 23 percent of the votes. A licensed appraiser since 2003 and a certified general real estate appraiser since 2007, he’s run a visible and vocal campaign. Tuesday night, though, he stopped short of declaring victory over Horowitz, who earned nearly 22 percent of the votes.

“It’s too close to call now,” Van Nortwick said. Whatever the results, the general election will be about a “business professional and someone who has been in government for 30 years,” he said.

Horowitz, 64, is a financial consultant who specializes in real estate, a business he started in 1988. Previously, he was vice president of finance and administration for Realvest Corp. in Vancouver and also a managing partner in a small home-building business.

Horowitz said “I’m not really optimistic” about topping Van Nortwick.

Weaver, 64, received just 10 percent of the votes. He is a retired business executive who serves on the Board of Equalization, which hears appeals on assessed values of property, and also serves on the Clark County Railroad Advisory Board.

The winner on Nov. 2 will succeed Linda Franklin, a Democrat who chose not to run for a third term. Franklin, who had been Assessor Ben Gassaway’s chief deputy assessor for 23 years, was first elected in 2002 after Gassaway said he would not seek a seventh term.

Both Franklin and Gassaway have endorsed Seekins.

The assessor is responsible for determining the assessed value of 165,000 county parcels to try to make sure people owners pay their fair share of property taxes. The assessor doesn’t determine how much revenue will be generated by property taxes, but does try to distribute the tax burden equitably.

The job currently pays $92,364 a year. The assessor supervises 46 employees and 2009-10 budget of $7.9 million in the assessment department, plus 21 employees in the Geographic Information Systems department, which has a 2009-10 budget of $4.5 million.

Loading...