Martina Bauhaus, an assistant general counsel for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, is challenging incumbent Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells for Clark County District Court’s Department 23 seat, which handles criminal and civil cases. The contest asks voters to weigh professional experience and judicial performance alongside a dispute over how much Lilly-Spells’ past conduct should matter. The Clark County Election Department lists early voting for October 17-30, 2026, and Election Day as November 3.
Experience and the conduct question
Bauhaus has spent 18 years at LVMPD and says her legal work spans civil and criminal law. Her campaign biography says she immigrated from Germany in 1994, earned degrees in political science and public administration, and attended UNLV’s Boyd School of Law; those details appear on her campaign website. Reporting by Nevada Current describes her government legal work and says she has represented the jail for 15 years.
Bauhaus has made jail mental-health care part of her case for seeking the seat. Nevada Current reports that she has cited the challenges of caring for inmates with mental illness, including limits on requiring them to take medication, and says she has asked judges to order medication when an inmate posed a danger to themselves or others. Those are Bauhaus’s descriptions of the issue and her work; they do not establish how Department 23 would handle any particular case.
The candidates also differ over the significance of Lilly-Spells’ 2022 domestic battery case. Nevada Current reports that Lilly-Spells was arrested after an argument with her husband involving a video game console, later entered a no contest plea to one misdemeanor count of domestic battery, and subsequently divorced. Bauhaus has argued that the episode undermines confidence in the bench. Lilly-Spells has said the experience changed her and made her a better judge, according to the outlet.
A record with more than one measure
Lilly-Spells is completing her first term. Nevada Current’s account of case data says she was affirmed in 10 civil appeals and reversed in two, and affirmed in 27 of 33 criminal appeals. In a separate measure, 57.3% of roughly 200 attorneys who responded to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s 2025 Judging the Judges evaluation said she should be retained. Lilly-Spells has described participation in that survey as very low, so the result reflects responding attorneys, not a poll of Clark County voters.
The campaigns also entered the period covered by Nevada Current’s reporting with different fundraising totals: as of July, Lilly-Spells had raised about $209,000 and had roughly $163,000 on hand, while Bauhaus had raised about $21,000 and had roughly $13,000 on hand. The outlet reports that Lilly-Spells has support from dozens of unions and civic groups; Bauhaus’s campaign site lists endorsements including Sheriff Kevin McMahill, District Attorney Steve Wolfson, police associations and Teamsters Nevada. Fundraising and endorsements show the campaigns’ available resources and organized support, but do not resolve the questions of judicial performance and conduct at the center of the race.
