Eleven is a number Lisa Krasner remembers well.
It’s the number of votes the Truckee Meadows Community College instructor lost by in 2014 when she ran against Assemblyman Randy Kirner, a fellow Republican from Reno. Kirner won the June primary, but didn’t garner the requisite majority to seal the seat. Krasner made it close in November, but fell 11 votes short after a recount.
“As a candidate, you work really hard,” she said. “I was walking door-to-door meeting my neighbors, talking to my neighbors, listening to my neighbors, attending events in the community where I could meet people. And it was disappointing not to win, of course.”
Many would have been dismayed at a margin so small, but she decided relatively quickly she was going to run again. There wasn’t a “Eureka!” moment of sorts, but she said after receiving numerous phone calls and emails from supporters, the writing was on the wall.
“I never really stopped campaigning,” she said. Part of that campaigning was simply being involved in the community – school organizations, sports boosters and the like.
She hears about the near loss as she walks Assembly District 26 in south Reno, but she said more importantly she hears about a burning desire for a change in state government.
The contest has been divided on stark ideological lines thus far. Krasner and many of her supporters belong to a fervent anti-tax faction of the Republican Party. She’s centered much of her campaign on the issue – including Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval’s education funding plan. Especially in her crosshairs is a portion of the plan that taxes gross business income of more than $4 million known as the commerce tax. Guinasso is a supporter of the governor’s plan.
It’s made what’s already been a contentious political year even more so. Krasner can be a polarizing figure in Republican circles with a willingness to lob an attack at a candidate and speak freely.
In fact some, like Kirner, said she revels in it as evidenced by the 2014 race.“Her entire race – was a criticism of me and how I voted the last time around. Hers was an attack campaign,” he said. Kirner, who decided not to run in 2016, wasn’t reserved in his assessment of his onetime foe. He questioned whether Krasner made the race close or if public employees mobilized after his outspoken calls for reform to the Public Employee Retirement System, choosing the “lesser of two evils” since PERS wasn’t on her radar.
Kirner said he sees a lot of the rhetoric of the 2014 election creeping into this year’s contest. Since campaign season started ramping up in March, Krasner has repeatedly attacked Guinasso on a number of fronts including saying he does not live in the district.
Krasner doesn’t see it as campaign tactics. Rather it’s just her way of telling the truth. She said she didn’t agree with the judge’s ruling regarding the residency of Guinasso, who is staying in a house in Assembly District 25 while repairs are made on his home.
“I don’t see it as an attack when I let the people see the truth,” she said. “I see it as the truth.”
Her supporters agree. Knecht said all Krasner’s aggressive campaign style shows is passion and commitment to the voters – and, thus, the taxpayers – something of which the Legislature could use more.
“I think her campaign style probably indicates that she is going to make a really good Assembly member,” he said. “She’ll do her homework, she’s well-spoken and very thoughtful and knowledgeable about issues. That’s what we need.”
Treasurer Dan Schwartz said he understands the style as well, especially after the razor-thin margin in 2014.
“She came tantalizingly close,” Treasurer Dan Schwartz said. “She wants the position and I think she should have her turn at bat.”
She’s had her share of controversy to boot. A recent mailer went out with a photo of Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen in his uniform endorsing the candidate, which might be a possible ethics violation on the sheriff’s part. Krasner said she didn’t know the mailer contained a possible violation.
As she talks about that close loss two years ago, she’s upbeat. Nothing has really changed, she said, but she did learn a valuable lesson.
“It just goes to show everybody’s vote counts,” she said. “Every person’s vote really does count and it’s important to get out there and vote.”
