Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 1

Reno Final American, New York stocks See page 32 Evening Gazette NINETY-NINTH YEAR NO. 139 RENO, NEVADA, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1974 PHONE (702) 786-8989 15 CENTS Sectionalism? Yom just can't count on it! Du MnDlI A A rj rrT Rose won bi2 in Washnp Onuntv nAarlv fnnr.tn.nno ht it's worth noting that he also edged Bilbrary decisively in the latter's Clark County home territory. This was in spite of the fact that Bilbray is better known statewide from his days as a university regent and his election campaigns One of the lessons that Nevada candidates might learn from the state primary election is that they can't depend on one section of the state for victory. While the results were a mixed bag, some were strongly indicative that Nevadans tend to vote foe the person and not for his residency. Usually in election campaigns, one hears a good deal of talk about the Washoe County vote, the Clark County vote, and the cow county vote.

These are certainly factors, but perhaps not nearly so importantly as some political speculators supposes. One of the few surprises was Washoe County Dist. Atty. Bob Rose's easy cruise over Las Vegas attorney Jim Bilbray. Clearly, the vaunted Clark County home-town vote did not surface in this race.

Another revealing contest was that between Las Vegas businessman Phil Carlino and incumbent William Swackhamer for secretary of state. Previous to the election, many of Swackhamer's friends around the state were openly expressing their concern that the "Las Vegas vote" could sink Swackhamer. The feeling was that Carlino's residence in the most populous county in Nevada could win it for him against small-town, cow-county candidate Swackhamer. Remarkably, though, the incumbent carried every county, including Clark. Voter sophistication seems apparent, too, in the clash between Maya Miller of Washoe Valley and Lt.

Gov. Harry Reid of Las Vegas in the Democratic U.S. Senate race. IMPRESSIVE Mrs. Miller lost substantially, but by a similar ratio in both of the two urban counties.

She drew about 15,000 votes in Clark to her opponent's 22,317. This was an impressive showing considering the fact that Reid comes from a well-known Las Vegas family and is lieutenant governor, while Mrs. Miller came virtually out of nowhere. Republican Shirley Crumpler of Las Vegas handily defeated Bill Bickerstaff of Sparks in the race for governor in Washoe County as well as in Clark. Analysis, Page 2, Col.

7 Nevada political analysis against former Rep. Walter Baring and Rep. David Towell two years ago. Rose, meanwhile, is a virtual unknown in Clark County compared to Bilbray. Whu mteresults were slow Slick computer cards with ink that rubbed off and a slow card-reading device delayed Washoe County's election returns Tuesday night, but David Howard, registrar of voters, said the bottleneck did not concern him.

"Let's make it clear that my thrust from the very first has been an accurate count and in no way did I ever predict a faster count," Howard said. "There were several races last night that were a few votes apart up until the end and this morning I am quite confident that the votes in those races have been counted accurately." 50 PCT. TURNOUT Unofficial totalling of the statewise races by the Gazette showed a turnout of just over 50 per cent of the state's 222,000 registered voters with 930 of 933 precincts counted. On a statewide basis. Secretary of State William Swackhamer said he had no way of telling the turnout.

His office must receive returns from the various counties within 10 days and will be able to give a statewide percentage at that tiem. This was the first election Swackhamer has been involved in as secretary of state and he said he had no gauge of whether it was average. In Washoe, 32,494 ballots were cast, a turnout of 54.2 per cent. Howard called that "an excellent primary turnout" and said his prediction of 60 per cent had been optimistic. A complete listing of Nevada election results by county in the statewide races is on Page 2 of today's Gazette.

A listing of Washoe County races appears on Page 3. Ron Wolfe, operations manager with the Management Information System (MIS) for the county, said the computer cards which were specially ordered for the election were slicker than the demonstration cards used to test the system. When put into the county's 300-card-per-minute reading device the ink came off on the rollers and jammed the machine causing delays, Wolfe said. Wolfe said he personally feels the county should spend whatever is necessary to have a minute reader installed and tested. Howard, however, said he would not support such a proposal.

NOT DISAPPOINTED "I am not interested in a faster reader," Howard said. "Especially if it would cost extra taxpayer dollars. I think 300 cards-per-minute is fast enough I'm not in the least disappointed." In the MIS office this morning there is.a pile of white boxes of ballots. The pile is eight feet long by four feet high. These cards, one for each voter, had to be fed through a machine the size of a small desk top televison set.

Ray Reed of MIS said in previous elections final tallies were not available until absentee Slow, Page 2, Col. 5 The culprit This computer card reader is designed to read 300 cards per minute. Tuesday night, because of slick computer cards and ink coming off on its rollers, it did not read that fast. (Gazette Photo) 'Call Shirley agean cowed by 0 win "not so much as a personal victory, but as an expression of confidence in the policies and programs of my administration." He said his general election would be waged on contemporary issues and on his record of accomplishment, not personality disputes. During his campaign, the governor cited gains made by his administration toward clean air and water and improving education.

He said he would press for cost of living raises for state employes and for greater property tax relief to the elderly. O'Callaghan said he supports the Equal Rights Amendment and reacted to criticism from some blacks by saying the state has hired considerably more blacks during his term of office. At one point during the campaign, the controversy over the Democratic Legislative Fund, an account O'Callaghan and Democratic Lt. Gov. Harry Reid controlled for 1972 legislative hopefuls, was expected to handicap the governor.

However, he apparently emerged unscathed politically from the dispute without meeting demands to turn over names of candidates who got money from the fund. The issue is still pending in state Supreme Court. The third entry in the general election will be James Houston, 29, the Independent American Party candidate from Las Vegas who had no opposition in the primary Houston predicted O'Callaghan would face a difficult opponent if Mrs. Crumpler won because "much of the O'Callaghan vote would be split." Houston said liberals like to support women to show they aren't prejudiced and that could throw some of O'Callaghan's voter weight to Mrs. Crumpler.

Mrs. Crumpler has said she hopes to form a coalition composed of solid Republican support, women of both parties and a great many Democrats who "are disillusioned with the O'Callaghan administration, but are afraid to say so." She said Tuesday O'Callaghan has lost touch with the people and surrendered to insiders. Gov. Mike O'Callaghan will face a woman in the November general election for governor. O'Callaghan easily won the Democratic primary against five political lightweight opponents.

Las Vegas tax accountant Shirley Crumpler with 17,039 votes edged out Sparks businessman and freshman Assemblyman Bill Bickerstaff, who received 13,579 votes, to win the Republican nomination. Presenting almost no threat in votes to Mrs. Crumpler and Bickerstaff were Ryall Bowker and Gilbert Buck. O'Callaghan's 70,015 votes steamrolled his opponents, Olga Covelli, Harry Springer, Ken Varndell, Albert Viller and Eugene Welsh. Despite O'Callaghan's vast vote margin in the primary compared to Mrs.

Crumpler's she said the governor's victory left her unimpressed. "He didn't have any real competition," the 39-year-old mother of four said. "He's going to be surprised at the amount of competition he'll get in the general election." O'Callaghan, a 44-year-old former Henderson High School teacher and war veteran, interpreted his landslide Laxalt vs. Reid MIKE O'CALLAGHAN SHIRLEY CRUMPLER She termed insiders as "the typical special interest groups that have made inroads into the governor's office. We will start defining them as we go along," she added.

a not convinced Against Santini TowelFs record key in November May outsiders can't do it 1 I mmLam'JLmm Nevada Republican Congressman David Towell says he wants to keep up a good record, and his Democratic challenger promises to focus on that record in campaigning prior to the general election. Towell and Santini, fresh from victories in Tuesday's primary election, talked today about their campaign ROBERT ROSE BILL RAGGIO A( 1 concerns. Tuesday, Towell collected better than 87 per cent of the Republican votes cast, while nearly-complete returns showed Santini with about 54 per cent on the Democratic With 930 of 933 precincts Towell, Page 2, Col. 6 PAUL LAXALT Maya Miller said this morning she's not quite convinced that someone outside the political mainstream can't get elected in this era of mass media. "I'm sure that someone with more going for them than I could have done it," she said.

"Maybe I had some serious defects that gave me no chance. Perhaps I was too old perhaps being an "oil heiress' was a factor." She lost the democratic Erimary for U.S. Senate to t. Gov. Harry Reid.

with 930.5 precints of 933 reporting. Dan Miller of Las Vegas pulled 5,889 votes. In the Republican camp, former governor Paul Laxalt, expecting an easy victory over Sam "Big Sam" Cavnar and Jim Talbert, made it, but not without scars. "I feel as if I just came out of a garbage dump," he said. Laxalt survived two incidents in the primary campaign that could have spelled political death.

First, Las Vegas odd-smaker Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder alledgedly DAVID TOWELL JIM SANTINI told Washington columnist Jack Anderson he had conversed with Laxalt about a reported $500,000 offer from an unidentified third person to Laxalt, while he was governor, to obtain Laxalt's aid in obtaining a gaming license. Laxalt said he had turned down the offer, adding later that he treated it as a joke. But though he never reported it, state officials determined he had not committed any crime. Second, a last-minute advertisement in a Las Vegas newspaper by Talbert raised a series of questions of influence-peddling. Laxalt denied the allegations and Talbert conceded later he had little evidence to back them up.

Talbert said after the primary he would support Laxalt. Laxalt won 33,519 votes against Cavnar's 3,744 and Talbert's 3,943. One thing Mrs. Miller is sure of, she said, is that Reid got an unfair leg up from "Democratic Party officials" who were supposed to be neutral and the party's "satellites," such as the AFL-CIO, which endorsed the lieutenant governor. It doesn't make for party unity for them to support one Democrat against another, and no talk of unity at this point can override that." She said the race left her more convinced than ever Maya, Page 2, Col.

6 Mi Loser Ahlswede wants Hicks grand jury probe thinks he won because of a combination of things. Lieutenant governor Washoe men meet in state race The Nov. 5 election of a new Nevada lieutenant governor will be between two men who served as district attorney of Washoe County. Bill Raggio and Robert Rose Tuesday won their parties' nominations. The election also resulted in announced temporary state political retirement for Rose's chief opponent, Las Vegas attorney James Bilbray.

Today Rose and Raggio said they would bring stability to state government if elected in November. "I think it will be a close race, but I will win that also," Rose said today. He outdistanced rival Bilbray with 930.5 of 933 precincts reporting. Third candidate Edwin Kmak of Las Vegas had 2,343. Raggio, who preceded Rose as Washoe district attorney and currently is a state senator, had a tougher time with Rex Bell, son of a former Nevada lieutenant governor.

Raggio polled 22,438 to Bell's 18,470. Rose said electing a lieutenant governor of the same party as Gov. Mike O'Callaghan would steramline state government. But Raggio disagrees. He said a governor and lieutenant governor from different parties would provide needed checks and balances.

Raggio wouldn't say O'Callaghan's opponent in the general election, Shirley Crumpler, had no chance, but he said he will concentrate on his own race. "I'll run my own campaign and not involve myself in other campaigns," he said. Rose said he is elated by his showing in Clark County, which proves that Nevadans judge a man for what he is, not by where he comes from, he said. Rose plans to meet with O'Callaghan in a few days to discuss general election campaign strategy. Raggio said voters had a difficult choice in the Republican primary.

He said, "Bell is a good candidate and certainly his is a respected name." HARRY REID Herbert F. "Rick" Ahlswede continued to call for a grand jury investigation of allegations he made against Acting Dist. Atty. Larry Hicks this morning despite his more than two-to-one loss to Hicks in the Republican primary. The unofficial final vote in the contest was 9,495 for Hicks to 4,476 for Ahlswede.

Hicks also called for an investigation into what happened to a missing document in a murder case once tried by Ahlswede and later retried by Hicks. The missing document and allegations by Ahlswede that Hicks misused county police cars in a filmed political commercial sparked the last days of the otherwise dull campaign. Hicks said this morning he "I think the voters were impressed with the fact we kept our campaign clean even though we were under personal attack ourselves," Hicks said. "I think that the voters looked into the qualifications of myself versus my opponent." He also said a campaign relying on donated manpower rather than money was effective. Ahlswede said he doesn't know what caused his lopsided defeat.

He said he is still analyzing the election. "I thought it was going to be a very close race from the polls which were available which only goes to show the polls are not that accurate." Ahlswede, Page 2, Col, 6 Index to 6 Sections 68 Pages SECTION ONE Editorials 4 Family living 8-9 SECTION TWO News SECTION THREE Amusements 30-31 Deaths 33 Markets 32-33 Public notices 30 23-26 Sylvia Porter 33 Vitals ....33 Gazette Weather 33 SECTION FOUR Ann Landers 36 Bridge 36 Classified 37-43 Comics 36 Crossword puzzle 41 Doctor column 35 Earl Wilson 36 Television log 36 SECTION FIVE Wards 12 pages SECTION SIX Valu-Mart 12 pages t-r Weather Reno, Sierra-Tahoe: Fair through Thursday, afternoon and evening winds. Westher table on Page 33. i LARRY HICKS fx'.