The Nevada Supreme Court should not permit a sore election loser such as Henderson’s Rick Workman to sandbag a duly elected official a year after the election, especially when he knew he could have brought a challenge earlier.

That’s the main thrust of a brief (posted below) filed by Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen’s attorney, Todd Bice, to a case in which Workman is seeking to remove Hafen from office, claiming he wasn’t eligible to be elected to his current term. The Nevada Supreme Court will consider the case, after Workman’s attorney, Stephanie Rice, has a chance to reply.

Rice is the lawyer who successfully argued the case of Lorton v. Jones, which held earlier this year that members of certain city councils — whether serving as a member of the council or serving as mayor — were limited to 12 years total, not up to 12 years as a council member and another 12 years as mayor. As a result, some term-limited members of Reno’s City Council were barred from running for mayor.

Workman later engaged Rice to challenge Hafen, who had reached his 12-year limit before running for and winning the Henderson mayoral primary last year. His action asks the Nevada Supreme Court to either allow him to challenge Hafen directly, in a proceeding known as quo warranto, or to force the attorney general to do so.

But Bice says Workman is out of luck, for several reasons.