WORKING-CLASS HERO
Mel Kalagian's blue-collar background makes him Assembly District 3's ideal choice

Finally, there's a pro-business Democrat who Liberty Watch can endorse without hesitation. His name is Mel Kalagian, and he's a 40-year resident of Las Vegas who grew up in District 3. It's a district of lower- and middle-class folks who live in homes built from the '60s to the '00s. Once located on the edge of town, this area is now centrally located due to the construction boom of the last 15 years. 

"I meet a lot of people while canvassing my district," says Kalagian over a salad at the Coffee Pub on West Sahara Avenue. "And it turns out I went to school with their kids. So it's nice to talk with them and catch up."

Throughout high school, he worked at Wonder World (the Wal-Mart of yesteryear). He worked for the Bureau of Land Management for a summer in a now-defunct program launched by the Carter administration. After graduating from Bonanza in 1981, Kalagian worked as a truck driver for a news agency for several years before trying his hand at construction and warehouse forklifting. Indeed, he earned plenty of real-world experience before deciding to attend college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 

At UNLV, he majored in criminal justice. He realized he could probably do more in politics if he concentrated on policy issues. So after college, Kalagian went to work for Sen. Richard Bryan in '97. 

"It was incredible," Kalagian says of his experience in Washington. "I was tasked with maintaining all correspondence, managing the interns and, more significantly, directing a few different projects for Nevada. There was the Local Legacy project, which documented cultural projects pertaining to Nevada, and we managed to get 10 of these projects inducted." Kalagian also handled a project involving the donation of office computers to needy schools in Nevada.

After Bryan retired in 2001, Kalagian went on a 22-city tour of the United States on behalf of homeless veterans. He returned to Vegas in 2003 and started a consulting business designed to help nonprofits organize and launch events. But right now, he intends to win the seat for State Assembly District 3. And he's got the vision to achieve this.

First, there's his educational reform plan. As a state assemblyman, he intends to reorganize the priorities of the state's educational budget, cut administrative costs by 20 percent and team up with state businesses to reduce the dropout rate, producing internships for high school students in their vocation of choice.

"Kids are always told they have to go to college," says Kalagian. "But you can learn a trade and still be successful - maybe more so. I want to give kids opportunities so they know they're just as valuable in a vocation as they are sitting in a college classroom. I didn't go to college right away. Instead, I entered the workforce, and when I went back to school, I knew what I wanted to do."

With the issue of transportation, Kalagian wants to create incentives for the use of alternative fuels and vehicles rather than be at the mercy of foreign countries or risk despoiling our environment.

"We need to shore up our highway funds in order to better move commerce through the state," he adds. "That's where a portion of our budget surplus should be going."

On the issue of water, he believes we have installed a responsible growth pattern that makes importing water from the northern counties a viable option. That plan, he says, was opposed by District 3's current representative, who co-sponsored a bill designed to thwart Vegas from access to rural water.

And illegal immigration? Kalagian believes it's wrong. 

"We should not reward people for breaking the law, and that goes for everyone. We should take care of the core of America first. Legal immigration is what made this country strong, not rule-breaking."

Kalagian admits that his stand on this and other issues makes him a Democrat with conservative values. Still, he doesn't have much use for labels. 

"It's not about Democrat versus Republican for me," he says. "It's about what you believe in, and it's about balance. But mostly it's about vision. I have a vision and a plan, and my opponent does not."

Kalagian has always been involved in politics. At the age of 10, he walked his neighborhood for a candidate's mayoral campaign. Kalagian seems just as pleased being endorsed by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce as he is by the fact that City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian praised him as "a man of tremendous integrity." 

"We need a leader, a statesman who will look out for his district and the state as a whole," he says. "I think that's what people are looking for." LW