The Democratic candidates to become Nevada's next governor have more in common than not, including the fact that neither are all that well known in Northern Nevada.

But Steve Sisolak and Chris Giunchigliani — both 63, both longtime members of the Clark County Board of Commissioners — are working hard to change that.

In separate editorial board meetings with the Reno Gazette Journal, each played up their shoe leather campaign efforts outside of Clark County, noting nearly a dozen combined trips to Northern Nevada over the past six months.

The pair — who agree on many questions surrounding education, gun control, health care, pot and immigration — also politely passed up most chances to bash their opponent’s stance on policy matters.

Except, that is, when it comes to the Oakland Raiders controversial move to Las Vegas.

Sisolak, a committed backer of the $2 billion taxpayer subsidized stadium that finally lured the team to Sin City, stuck by the project, telling the RGJ it would create jobs, attract visitors and fuel the economy for years to come.

Giunchigliani, who cast the lone vote against the divisive proposal when it came before Clark County commissioners, accused Sisolak of using the issue as a campaign cudgel.

The longtime special education teacher said she wanted to support a Las Vegas Convention Center revamp attached to the Nevada Legislature’s approval of a $750 million public funding package for the stadium.

Sisolak, the board chair, prevented her from doing so by refusing to hold a separate vote on the convention center during stadium deliberations, Giunchigliani said.

“I think he wanted to use it against me in the campaign,” she said of the stadium vote. “I’ll point out to people it’s because the building trades wanted construction jobs, which I totally understand, but we’re booming right now.

“I knew there was a risk I would not get my usual union support with that position, but I always vote my conscience, no matter what. I still believe it was bad public policy.”

Sisolak admitted he didn’t have to introduce both proposals simultaneously, but chose to do so because he felt they were similar enough to be grouped together.

“She chose to vote against the convention center and the stadium and that’s her prerogative,” Sisolak said. “The other commissioners and myself, six of us, thought both of those were worthy projects.”

Other policy similarities — and differences

He, like Giunchigliani, has come out against efforts to divert funding from public schools to private schools. Both Democratic governor’s office hopefuls have also supported expanded medicaid coverage in Nevada and decried President Donald Trump’s move to repeal amnesty protections for immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents.

The pair helped lead the charge to research and regulate statewide use of marijuana and they both fear Nevada does too much to help large corporations, such as Tesla, but not enough to support mom-and-pop local businesses.

Each candidate wants beefed up background checks for gun buyers and reduced classroom sizes, though they did part ways on the formula Nevada uses to fund those classrooms.

Sisolak, a former member of the Nevada Board of Regents, stopped short of calling for changes to the state’s decades-old method for divvying up school funding — a system Giunchigliani said is long overdue for reform.

The two also split on the death penalty, a perenially thorny issue that’s only grown more divisive amid a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. Giunchigliani, a Catholic, said she would support a moratorium on future inmate executions. Sisolak said he wasn’t a believer in moratoriums, but said he was generally opposed to the death penalty except in extreme cases.

Looking ahead to the general

Neither candidate seemed to think their quibbles over those topics would decide next year’s primary race.

They suspect that contest may come down to their electability in a general election against Adam Laxalt, Nevada’s attorney general and a frontrunner in the GOP primary race for the governor’s seat.

“I feel I’m the only candidate that can beat Laxalt in the general,” Sisolak said. “My polling shows I can beat him and I don’t think there’s another Democrat that can.”

For Giunchigliani, it’s more a question of experience.

“I’ll let Steve talk about who he is,” she told the RGJ late last month. “He’s on the commission because my husband ran his race.

“For me, I know Nevada better than any of the candidates running. But I think because of my qualifications, my knowledge of the legislative process, I can walk in on the first day and know how things go.”

Democratic voters will decide between Giunchigliani and Sisolak in a primary election scheduled for June 12, 2018.