Late game hit

Two years ago, Las Vegas real estate man Danny Tarkanian entered the race against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, but lost the Republican primary to Sharron Angle. Tarkanian came in third.

Tarkanian’s mother, Lois, had supported her son in that primary but then switched to Reid. At one news conference she criticized Angle for her views on stay-at-home parents. “I was not a better mother when I stayed home full time,” Tarkanian said.

So she was taken aback toward the end of this year’s campaign when Reid tore into her son Danny, then running for the U.S. House.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to seize assets from the Tarkanian family against a $17 million judgment in a failed land deal of Danny Tarkanian. Reid called a news teleconference to tell reporters, “The question is how can voters trust him to tackle major issues in Congress—our nation’s debt is an example—if he can’t handle his own finances?”

Lois Tarkanian decided to respond herself, saying that she had once urged her son to seek counsel from Reid on the case.

“He [Danny] felt that Harry would try and hurt us,” she said. “And I was the one who said Harry wouldn’t do that.”

But the younger Tarkanian lost again, to Democrat Steven Horsford.

Lois Tarkanian, sometimes considered the “real” Tarkanian, has an education doctorate and has been a teacher and speech pathologist. She was elected to three terms on the Clark County School Board and now serves on the Las Vegas City Council.