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Miner upset — Smith elected to Douglas commission

Regina Purcell, Tribune News Service

MINDEN — Two-term incumbent Don Miner barely lost his Douglas County Commission seat to retiring Tahoe-Douglas Fire Chief Tim Smith.

The final vote, from the Douglas County Clerk’s office showed Miner with 7,387 votes or 48.67 percent, and Smith, with 7,791 votes or 51.33 percent in the District 4 race.

“I am really gratified with the outcome and look forward to the challenges ahead,” said Smith of Genoa. “I always thought I had a chance and expected it to be close.”



Miner, who lives in Stateline, said although the race was close, the 500 or so votes that pushed Smith on top, “was all it took to win.” Miner congratulated Smith and commended him for running a low-key and high-level campaign.

Miner, who is a chiropractor in the valley, said his golf game will be improving once he gives up his seat in January.



“I will be available for any organization,” he said. “I am not going away. I am going to be part of this community. I have been for 25 years, and I will continue to be.”

District 4 was once confined to the Lake Tahoe Basin portion of Douglas County. It now includes Genoa and part of Foothill Road due to redistricting.

Gardnerville resident Jacques Etchegoyhen, also a two-term incumbent, won his District 2 seat in Tuesday’s election.

District 2 runs from Johnson Lane going south, to the Minden-Tahoe Airport area, the towns of Minden and Gardnerville, from Highway 88 to the west of Foothill Lane, and south to nearly the California border and Centerville, skirts the Gardnerville Ranchos and south of Gardnerville.

Etchegoyhen garnered 8,918 votes or 59.19 percent, compared to his opponent Mike Hayes, a former Douglas County planning commissioner, who received 6,150 votes or 40.81 percent.

“I was sure Jacques would win,” said Hayes. “I would have liked to be a board member. But if I can’t do it, I am glad Jacques will be.”

Etchegoyhen said it feels good to keep his seat.

“When you have been a commissioner for eight years, every Thursday (commission meeting), you have an opportunity to make a few enemies just by your decision-making.

“In the next four years, growth management will be the issue.”

Nearly 73 percent of registered voters in Douglas County voted, compared to 23 percent in the primary.


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