Lynette Boggs

Lynette Boggs (born 1963) was a Republican politician in Clark County, Nevada, and a former winner of the Miss Oregon scholarship pageant.^[1] She went by the name of Lynette Boggs McDonald for most of her political career and returned to her maiden name after a 2007 divorce.

Early life

Boggs was the sixth of eight children and the third to graduate from law school. In the seventh grade she was junior high president at her school in West Germany. In high school, she was president of her sophomore, junior and senior classes. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1985 with a degree in business. She worked as director of marketing and admissions at the now-defunct Merritt Davis Business College in Eugene, Oregon. In 1989, she was crowned Miss Oregon and began a two-year journalism career.^[2]

At the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper, Boggs concentrated on police and the courts. One article she wrote for the Register-Guard was about a 1990 contestant for Miss Oregon, focusing on the fact that the contestant (Lisa Verch Fletcher, a future television news journalist) was an animal advocate.^[3]

While at the Portland Associated Press bureau, she wrote about government and contributed as a back-up sports writer. She also covered government and the courts at the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas. She moved to Las Vegas in 1991.^[2]

Political history

Boggs was appointed to a fill a vacant seat on the Las Vegas City Council on June 28, 1999.^[4] She was elected in the Ward 2 primary election, receiving 70 percent of the vote.^[5] Under Nevada election law, a person can be elected to a position in a primary election, without the need to run in a general election if certain conditions are meet.

Boggs was a Republican candidate for the U.S. Congress in 2002, running against Shelley Berkley in Nevada's First Congressional District. She lost, had she won she would have been the only Republican African-American female in the House.

On April 20, 2004, Boggs joined the Clark County Commission. She was appointed to the position by Governor Kenny Guinn to fill the seat for District F previously held by Mark James.^[4] She was elected to that position in November 2004, defeating Nevada Assemblyman David Goldwater.

Boggs was investigated by the Nevada Ethics Commission in 2005 for a complaint alleging that she tried to use her political influence to save her husband's government job.^[6] The allegations proved false.

On June 5, 2007, Boggs was the subject of an arrest warrant over charges that she committed four felonies related to her reelection bid in 2006.^[7] These warrants were quashed by the Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle, of the Clark County District Court. The charges, according to Boggs and numerous commentators, were "political payback" rooted in her vocal opposition to a 40% pay raise for police officers in Las Vegas and because of her former service on the Board of Directors of Station Casinos, a non-union hotel corporation. She was originally sued in civil court by both the Police Protective Association and the Las Vegas Culinary Union. Both unions were key endorsers of the 2006 re-election effort of Clark County District Attorney David Roger.

In 2008, two of the felony charges were dismissed by Judge Donald Mosley. In 2009, she accepted an Alford plea to a single gross misdemeanor to resolve the case, maintaining her innocence throughout the ordeal.

Education

Boggs is a 1985 graduate of the University of Notre Dame where she received a Bachelor's of Business Administration degree from the Mendoza College of Business. At Notre Dame, she was a member of the Liturgical Choir and a cantor at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on that campus. She was twice a member of the Fighting Irish cheerleading squad.

Boggs attended the University of Oregon Graduate School of Journalism for two years in Eugene, Oregon. Ultimately, she received a Master's degree in Public Administration, cum laude, from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1998. She is a member of Pi Alpha Alpha National Honor Society for Public Administration and Public Affairs.

Boggs has resided in the state of Texas since 2008 and is an honor graduate of St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio. She received her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in May 2012 and was honored by the Faculty Advocacy Committee as the recipient of the 2012 Judge Jack B. Miller Award. She was a Dean's Scholar and served as an Associate Editor of the St. Mary's Law Journal. She received a Pro Bono Certificate at her graduation for having donated more than 700 hours of free legal services to residents who could not afford lawyers in San Antonio and on the Texas-Mexico border. She was one of 10 graduating law students inducted into the Order of Barristers, a national organization that recognizes law students who have distinguished themselves in courtroom advocacy and appellate brief writing.

Legal Career

Boggs has worked as a judicial extern to Chief Judge Piper Griffin of the Orleans Parish Civil District Court in New Orleans (2010) and as a judicial intern to Justice Rebecca Simmons of the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals (2011). She has also served as a law clerk in the Trial Division of the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia (2011).

Writing Career

Lynette Boggs is the 1991 recipient of the Katie Award for Excellence in News Feature Writing presented by the Press Club of Dallas. Boggs launched her MY JOURNEY blog in 2012 where she writes about her personal interests in faith, family, law, sports, and entertainment. She is currently writing a memoir about her experiences in Las Vegas.

References