RENO — Almost 200 local business professionals lent an attentive ear to candidates for state and local offices Tuesday over lunch at the Peppermill Resort Casino.

The Professional Saleswomen of Nevada (PSN) hosted the event where business people, both men and women, could interact with candidates, eat lunch and then hear a short pitch from each of the 42 contenders who attended.

“It gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of people and they all come to you,” said Amy Harvey, candidate for Washoe County Clerk, as she mixed and mingled. “You don’t have to go door to door. And what’s more, these are professionals so they are involved in the community. They are active voters.”

However, the event came about because the women members were not active voters.

“In speaking to a lot of my membership, a lot said they did not vote the in primaries,” said PSN president Angie Fairbanks. “When I asked why, the answer was, ‘Well I am a busy sales woman and I don’t have time to do the research.’ ”

Other women said they might not even vote for certain offices in the general election, Fairbanks said of the group’s members — again because they were too busy to do what they felt was sufficient research.

“As a business owner, we do get busy,” Fairbanks said. “Then, after you leave your business at the end of the day, you have family. The last thing you are thinking about is researching candidates.”

In reaction to that sentiment, Fairbanks did her own research and asked every candidate she could find running for a Nevada office to come to the Tuesday members’ meeting.

“They all got an e-mail from me,” she said. “We wanted to make sure we contacted all the candidates and then leave it up to them to respond.”

About half of those contacted not only responded but also presented their political pitches to the group.

Representatives from the highest federal offices to the most local of city and county positions made their case for election, regulated by a strict time limit. The long-winded were met with an unplugged microphone if they waxed philosophical beyond the time limit.

While U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and his opponent Sharron Angle were not at the event, representatives from their campaigns squared off.

“Sen. Reid understands that in these hard times, we need to work together,” said campaign representative Maria Urbina after giving Reid’s campaign pitch.

She ran down her quick list of Reid’s high points including a stance on gender equality for the women’s group, stimulus funding for Nevada jobs, support for the small-business jobs bill and reform for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s lending policies.

Sharron Angle’s representative, Ralph McMullen, bent his remarks on reigning in federal debt loads for future generations, reforming tax policy for increased personal wealth and reforming, rather than eliminating, Social Security. McMullen, the northern Nevada director for Angle’s campaign, also spoke to the mostly female audience about its gender-equality concerns.

“Nevada has never had a U.S. senator that is a woman,” he told the crowd. “It is about time that Nevada had a senator who is a woman, and a great woman at that, and that woman is Sharron Angle.”

Lining up next to make their five-minute stumping stops were the city candidates, including Sparks mayoral racers Geno Martini, the incumbent, and Ron Schmitt, a sitting city councilman.

“As I am an incumbent, people say that I want another term because there is more to do,” Martini said. “In a progressive city, there is always more to do.”

His opponent agreed.

“As a business man, the first thing we learn in sales is that time is money,” Schmitt said. “As mayor, I would like to get you out there making money.”

Schmitt had to cut his comments short as he was later attending his daughter’s wedding.

Sparks city council candidates Bob Lopes and Ed Lawson also took their turns at the lectern, pushing their small-town backgrounds and “common sense” approaches.

“I am an 11-year resident of Ward 2,” Lopes said. “I have been a small-business owner for 14 years. I know what it is like to change the light bulbs myself, to mop the floors on my own. I understand small business. I will do my very best to serve the residents of Sparks.”

Lawson also took the understanding stance.

“I am not a politician,” he said. “I understand people and their problems.”