New Clark County GOP Chair Sees Hope in Local Races

Las Vegas- Clark County Republicans met earlier this month and elected a new chairperson to replace outgoing chairman John Hambrick.  Their choice fell on Bernie Zadrowski, 41, a Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney, to head the party going into the 2008 election.

Zadrowski takes the reins during a troubled time as the Nevada GOP has struggled to counter voter registration trends favoring Democrats and a lackluster performance in the 2006 midterm elections.  Clark County, with its 14 senate and 29 assembly districts, will certainly be a battleground in Republican attempts to regain momentum in the Silver State.

“When I ran for chairman,” said Zadrowski Monday, “I told everybody that my focus would be on local races.  I think it’s important to spend as much time as possible on local races, specifically the assembly and the senate.”

“What I think is most important for us to do is to gain seats in the assembly, and we will, and to hold our majority in the state senate.”

Zadrowski expects the party to be actively involved in races within U.S. Rep. Jon Porter’s (D-NV) congressional district in suburban Las Vegas as well as other key races throughout the county.  The district covers a wide area and will include such high-target races as Sen. Joe Heck’s and Sen. Bob Beers’ reelections in the 5th and 6th districts and Republican Sean Fellows’ challenge against Assemblywoman Susan Gerhardt in the 29th district.

“We’ll help the assembly and the senate candidates locally,” said Zadrowski, “which, in turn, will have an effect on Congressman Porter’s ability to get reelected.”

Zadrowski also expressed optimism in Republican efforts to unseat William Horne in the 34th district.

Despite a Democratic release today showing that 70 percent of 2007 Nevada Spanish voter registration forms were filled out for Democrats, Zadrowski, a one-time president of the state Latino Bar Association, sees hope in Republican efforts to woo Hispanic voters.

“We can’t help but to seek out my fellow Hispanics who are Republicans and those who are Republicans and just don’t know it yet,” said Zadrowski.  “It’s not going to be a difficult thing and I’ll tell you why.  The values that are important to the Republican Party are values that are important to Hispanic families.”

Zadrowski, whose mother is Mexican, was raised largely by his maternal grandparents and credits them with pushing him to speak only English at home.

“I know what the Hispanic values are because I know what they were growing up, living them.  The values of my mother, my grandmother, my grandfather, my family, I know what they are and I know that those values stick with the Republican Party.”

With President Bush’s final State of the Union looming, Zadrowski was hopeful that the president would be able to rally what has appeared at times to be a dispirited national Republican Party.

“President Bush has some serious strengths that we should never forget as Republicans.  From a law and order and a conservative perspective, look at what President Bush has given us.  He’s given us two of the greatest Supreme Court justices we could ever have in Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.  That’s a positive message that we need to be presenting to the Republicans.”