As they do every Labor Day, residents of Fallon, Churchill County and other communities in Northern Nevada enjoyed the downtown Kiwanis pancake breakfast, Lions parade, Cantaloupe Festival events and rodeos at the fairgrounds, boating and swimming at Lake Lahontan, and the dunes at Sand Mountain.
But for Fallon visitors Mark Amodei and Kate Marshall, there was more pressing and serious business to attend to this week.
Amodei, a Republican and former state legislator, and Marshall, a Democrat and current state treasurer, traveled to Fallon seeking votes in Tuesday's special 2nd Congressional District election to fill the House vacancy created by Dean Heller's appointment to replace Republican U.S. Sen. John Ensign, who resigned in disgrace amid an escalating sex and ethics scandal. Speaking with pancake breakfast attendees and spectators along the parade route, Amodei and Marshall, who are both attorneys and nearly the same age (he is 53, she is 52), indicated they also agree on many issues facing Nevadans.
Both candidates said that if elected to Congress, they would seek to overturn the U.S. Postal Service's tentative plan to shut down several post offices in rural Nevada such as Fallon's Pony Express station, the office in Schurz, and a half-dozen others throughout the state.
"Rural post offices are important, particularly to senior citizens and others who cannot drive far away to other post offices. The Postal Service needs to economize, but not at the expense of our rural Nevadans," said Marshall.
Amodei agreed, noting that his great-grandmother served many years as the postmaster in Silver City.
"Rural post offices are the fabric of our society in Nevada. If elected, I will do my best to see that they are kept open," he said in a Lahontan Valley News interview.
Marshall and Amodei also hold similar views toward U.S. policy in Libya and throughout the Middle East.
"The U.S. must stop terrorism directed toward us from such countries as Iran and Syria," Amodei said. "The Obama administration has been ineffective and inconsistent in its foreign policy across the Middle East. We must continue to support Israel. It is the only democracy in the Middle East and our staunch ally."
Marshall, although she does not necessarily agree with Amodei's criticism of Obama's foreign policies, nevertheless said the U.S. must counter Islamic terrorism and give more support to Israel because "it is a democracy, has values similar to ours, and it a true friend of the U.S."
Both candidates also showed near-agreement on protecting Social Security and Medicare from cuts, but Amodei said the federal government must not spend more money than it has.
Marshall says the budget deficit and the nation's downward economic slide can partially be alleviated if "we close the tax loopholes for the rich."
"The rich should pay higher taxes than they do now," she added.
The Labor Day visits to Fallon by Amodei and Marshall will be their last major public appearances leading before Tuesday's special election.
The Nevada secretary of state's office reported last week that 32,000 more Republicans than Democrats are registered to vote in the 2nd Congressional District and that Republicans outnumber Democratsby more than two-to-one in Churchill County.
