Kathy Augustine - Political Career

Political Career

From 1993 to 1995, she served one term in the Nevada Assembly. During the 1992 campaign, she was criticized for a campaign advertisement featuring a bad photograph of her African-American opponent (the same photograph, however, was used by her opponent in her own campaign literature). Above descriptions of the two candidates' positions on various issues was a caption reading "There is a real difference." She served in the Nevada Senate from 1995 to 1999. In the 1994 state senate election, she defeated incumbent Lori Lipman Brown, and once again drew controversy for a campaign advertisement in which she accused Lipman Brown of being against prayer and opposing the Pledge of Allegiance. In fact, Lipman Brown, who is ethnically Jewish (though an atheist theologically), declined to participate in a prayer led by a Christian minister, and the accusation regarding Lipman Brown's opposition to the pledge was false. In 1998, Augustine was elected as the state's first female State Controller, serving in that post until her death. In January 2004, White House officials advised her that she was a finalist to become Treasurer of the United States.