Derby files against Heller

Saying Dean Heller failed to keep his promise he would be independent and vote for change, Jill Derby on Tuesday filed candidate papers challenging the Republican freshman in congressional district 2.

Derby, former head of the Nevada Democratic Party, said Heller voted more than 90 percent "in lockstep with the Bush Administration" in 2007.

Although she lost to Heller in 2006, Derby said her chances are helped by the changing make-up of the district, which covers nearly all of rural and western Nevada. Where Republicans had a 48,000 vote advantage in the 2006 election, she said they now have just 30,000 more registered voters.

Derby lost the 2006 contest by fewer than 13,000 votes.

She said the big issue is Heller's record in Congress.

"There's a record he has now that really reflects being a Bush clone," she said.

She said that includes votes against funding to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors and against health care funding for the children of those who can't get coverage from their employers.

Derby said that record is despite the fact that more than 80 percent of Americans in national polls believe the nation is on the wrong track and needs to change direction.

With his record, Derby said, Heller can't claim he is the one to make that change.

"The only way to change Washington is to change the people we send to Washington," she said.

Heller recently announced his newest legislation to ban states from printing ballots in languages other than English. Derby said she has long favored English as the national language: "It's really the glue that holds us together."

But she said what to put on the ballots should be up to the states, not the federal government, and she opposes Heller's legislation.

Before her first run for Congress two years ago, Derby served 18 years on the Board of Regents. She and her husband of 35 years, veterinarian Steve Talbot, live in Douglas County.