But whether you like their voting ways or not -- in fact, men such as Republican state Sens. Bob Beers (District 6) and Joe Heck (District 5), sober conservatives who have long argued against uncontrolled government growth, are precisely what Nevada needs now more than ever -- these are men of upstanding character.

And Democratic challengers Allison Copening and Shirley Breeden -- respectively, a former PurchasePro flack and a former school district secretary who wasted piles of taxpayer dollars filing a frivolous lawsuit against the district when she heard someone say a bad word -- are not.

The first hint voters get as they seek to judge political candidates is the way they conduct their campaigns. And the first step is to take personal responsibility for those campaigns, just as we hope office-holders will take responsibility for their votes.

Instead, both Ms. Copening and Ms. Breeden have shrugged their shoulders (in their extremely rare public appearances), insisting the ugly and misleading direct-mail campaigns are run by their parties, leaving the ladies themselves blameless.

Nonsense. Candidates have every right and moral duty to denounce misleading campaigning done in their behalf, and to publicly demand that it be stopped.

Instead, Ms. Copening and Ms. Breeden want voters to believe they can ride to Carson City on a septic tank truck -- yet arrive smelling fresh as daisies.

Sen. Joe Heck is a 46-year-old emergency room doctor and Army Reserve colonel who has served his country in Iraq, and whose medical expertise will prove useful in Carson City as the Legislature reviews medical regulations in the wake of the Las Vegas colonoscopy scandal.

He and Sen. Beers understand the state is going to have to carefully prioritize its spending next year.

"And I've got a mastery of the mechanics of the budget process that cannot be matched," Sen. Beers says. "I have created jobs in my small business which still exist today. The only time my opponent mentions jobs on her Web site is where she describes the six of them she's held in the past 12 years."

State Sens. Joe Heck and Bob Beers are experienced, upstanding legislators whose budget and regulatory expertise are particularly needed in these tough economic times. Democratic Party leaders should not be rewarded for staging scurrilous campaigns against them, which have embarrassed even many of their own traditional supporters.

In Senate District 1, incumbent Democrat John Lee has been waging a less active campaign this summer as he (successfully, so far) battles nasal cancer.

Sen. Lee, who owns three local building supply businesses, has a higher tolerance for new taxes than we do. But his real-life business experience has always made him one of the capital's more common-sense Democrats. Stick with John Lee in District 1.

In Senate District 4, the state's Democratic national committeeman, Steven Horsford, is considered a shoo-in for a second term. Mr. Horsford, the Senate minority leader, must shoulder a large share of the blame for his party's unsavory campaign against Republican state Sens. Heck and Beers, but his political talents are undeniable, and neither Republican Sharon Gobel nor Independent American candidate Stan Vaughan mounts a credible challenge. We recommend Steven Horsford.

In District 7, six-term Democratic Assemblyman David Parks seeks to move up to the state Senate. Mr. Parks can in no way be described as a fiscal conservative -- and while favoring more state spending on education, Mr. Parks seems clueless about what taxpayers can or should expect for that "investment."

That said, Mr. Parks is a dedicated, thoughtful lawmaker who takes a live-and-let-live approach when it comes to social issues. David Parks wins our endorsement.

In District 11, despite the fact he insists "our results are pretty decent," state Sen. Mike Schneider continues his quixotic campaign to fund Nevada's public schools "to the national average" -- shrugging off evidence that Utah gets better results with less money, while the profligate public schools of Detroit and Washington, D.C., produce some of the most expensive illiterates in history.

Sen. Schneider also predicts of his pet light-rail trolley along the old rail line from Boulder City to Nellis Air Force Base: "There's going to be a big demand for it, and it'll be successful."

On the other hand, Republican challenger Joe Locatelli -- an affable Marine Corps veteran with a master's degree in government from Harvard University -- says his priorities are to hold down taxes, to restore discipline in the schools, to eliminate "worthless" English-as-a-second-language programs and to aggressively combat illegal immigration, "looking to Arizona" for successful examples of local activism.

In District 11, we recommend a change to Joe Locatelli, who directly addresses issues of genuine concern to today's voters.