|
| Affiliation | Republican |
|
| Name | Tierney Cahill |
| Address | 632 Thoma Street
Reno, Nevada 89502, United States |
| Email | tierney@cahillforcongress.org |
| Website | None |
| Born |
October 07, 1962
(61 years)
|
| Contributor | User 215 |
| Last Modifed | 411 Name Removed
Oct 07, 2010 05:33pm |
| Tags |
Catholic -
|
| Info | Party: Democrat
Residence: Reno
Marital Status: Divorced
(Prev.) Occupation: Teacher
Education: BA Univ. of New Mexico, 1990
Birthday: October 02, 1967
Birth place: Decatur, IL
Religion: Catholic
When Tierney Cahill ran for Congress in 2000, it made for a warm, fuzzy story: Elementary-school teacher runs for office as a lesson for her students--and gets 30 percent of the vote to boot.
The story became even warmer and fuzzier when Cahill's opponent, Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons, made a post-election appearance at Cahill's school, Sarah Winnemucca Elementary in Reno. Cahill's candidacy even helped lead to her being the cover subject of a book, Teachers: A Tribute to the Enlightened, the Exceptional, the Extraordinary.
Tierney Cahill will be signing copies of Teachers: A Tribute to the Enlightened, the Exceptional, the Extraordinary on Feb. 23 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 5555 S. Virginia St. Call 826-8882.
Well, the story may be entering another chapter. Cahill, a Democrat, says she's considering running for the District 2 seat again--and if she runs this time, she'll be running to win.
"I have a strong desire to run for Congress again," says the 34-year-old divorced mother of three children, ages 12, 9 and 7.
Cahill, who has formed an exploratory committee to determine whether she can be a viable candidate, pledges to make her decision within days, by the end of February. She's probably the Democrats' best--and maybe their only--hope against Gibbons, who has ridden his status as a Gulf War veteran to overwhelming victories in three consecutive elections despite an underwhelming record and a milquetoast reputation.
By now, the story of Cahill's first run for office is widely known in Nevada political circles. During a lesson about democracies and republics throughout history, one of her sixth-grade students posed a question: Aren't elections all about money these days? Cahill told the students that no, anybody could run for office. Then Cahill received a challenge from the girl.
"She said, 'Why don't you prove anybody can run for office?' " Cahill recalls.
And that was the start of her congressional campaign. (The students actually wanted Cahill to run for president, but that office has a minimum age requirement of 35.) Since no other Democrats signed up to run against Gibbons, Cahill made her way into the general election.
With a campaign war chest of $7,000 compared to about $500,000 for Gibbons, Cahill--aided by her students--ran a necessarily low-budget campaign. The participation of her students drew some criticism from people who charged she was trying to engage the students in partisan politics, but Cahill emphasizes she focused not on issues with her students, but rather on the process. Most observers heralded Cahill for sticking her neck into the political wringer.
"I worked extremely hard," Cahill says. "If it was just a matter of filing and getting my name on the ballot, that was easy. It only cost $300. ... I think I outperformed expectations."
That she did. The only other Democrat whom Gibbons has faced in a congressional race, Spike Wilson, spent more than $600,000 to garner 35 percent of the vote in 1996. If the 2000 election had been a matter of money spent per vote, Cahill would have been a clear winner. But that's not how elections work these days. Cahill successfully taught her students that anybody could run; she didn't teach them that anybody could win.
That leads to what Cahill is trying to decide now: Can she do enough to win in 2002? She admits that she'd have to raise six figures in contributions; Gibbons already has $621,000 in the bank, according to Federal Election Commission documents. She'd also need more support from the Democratic Party than she received in 2000, when, as a political newcomer, she understandably got almost no financial assistance from the party's coffers.
"If I choose to run, I know it will be with the support of the party," Cahill says.
Cahill would also face another tough task: converting a number of Republicans and conservative independents in District 2, where Republicans enjoy a strong plurality. District 2 encompasses almost the entire state, including significant chunks of Clark County, making it one of the largest congressional districts in the country.
Not surprisingly, Cahill's campaign highlights issues that have appeal across party lines. She says she'd fight for serious campaign finance reform and women's privacy rights. Although Cahill says she's a staunch Irish Catholic who would never personally choose to have an abortion, she doesn't believe it's an issue for the feds.
"People look at Roe v. Wade as something other than it is, which is the government staying out of people's lives," she says. "I can't make those decisions for other people."
Another important issue to Cahill is the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. Cahill, like all of Nevada's representatives in Washington, is opposed to the project. However, she makes an interesting point: In Congress, Shelley Berkley has been leading the anti-Yucca charge, not Gibbons--whose district includes Yucca Mountain.
"It's pretty amazing to me that the congressman who has Yucca in his district is awfully quiet now--mysteriously quiet," Cahill says.
But the most salient issue to Cahill is, understandably, education. Cahill says she fears that test scores are taking priority over learning and preparing students for the future.
"I am nervous about the climate of testing kids to death and only looking at that one aspect of achievement," Cahill says. "Just too much is being weighed on tests right now."
She also is concerned that not enough money is being spent on students, especially in Nevada. She worries that alternative education programs, including occupational programs, could get cut.
Finally, Cahill believes in fighting voter apathy. If she runs, Cahill says, grassroots support will be an enormous part of her campaign as she tries to compensate for the difference in funding0 between her and Gibbons.
"The public needs to feel like it's a part of the government," she says. "Apathy in the populace can't happen now. There's too much at risk. ... So much is happening in Congress right now that impacts us."
Ironically, Cahill's decision about whether to run could contribute to--or help fight--voter apathy by determining whether there will be a major-party choice in the District 2 race. And while Cahill's talking like a candidate, it's clear that she doesn't just want to run a good race--she wants to win this time.
"[In 2000, the media] thought it was so incredibly cutesy to run as a teacher," she says. "But I want to win, and I hope people will see me as a bipartisan candidate."
|
 | BOOKS |
 |
|
| Title |
Purchase |
Contributor |
|
| Start Date |
End Date |
Type |
Title |
Contributor |
|
| INFORMATION LINKS |
|
|
|
