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stewardess. She seemed to enjoy flying back and forth across the country, but it soon became clear that her being gone all the time had begun to take its toll on her first marriage, which was short-lived and ended in divorce. According to her brother Phil, Kathy seemed naïve in handling her relationships, particularly when they involved marriage. But she married again and, like with the first marriage, she found herself in divorce court a short time later. Those close to her seemed to think that it was the job that made it difficult for her to hang on to a husband, and while it certainly may have been a contributing factor, the problem lay deeper in reality.
    Her brother Phil characterized her as being too trusting of others at times, which often ended up with her dating, and marrying, guys of questionable repute, often on impulse, only to have deep regrets later. She soon became a single mother and found herself raising a daughter, alone. Like all challenges that came her way, she took the responsibility in stride and did the best that she could.
    In 1988, when Kathy was thirty-two, the job took her to Las Vegas, where she met Delta Airlines pilot Charles Augustine, sixteen years her senior. The two instantly hit it off, and after a year of dating they decided to get married. Charles, with three children of his own from two previous marriages, legally adopted Kathy’s young daughter, Dallas, and they all lived together in a large house in the upscale Huntridge Circle community in Las Vegas.
    At first Kathy’s marriage to Charles Augustine seemed to be a good fit. For several years they lived the good life in Sin City and seemed truly happy, and as Las Vegas’s real estate prices began to escalate, they soon found that their beautiful home had a market value of nearly $1 million. Part of what made her and Charles’s relationship work for as long as it did could be attributed to his attitude—he frequently referred to her as “she who must be obeyed.”
    But Kathy wasn’t satisfied at simply being a housewife and mother. She wanted more than that out of life, and her fiery enthusiasm for politics was soon reignited. In no time at all, it had taken center stage in her life once again. Kathy dreamed large, and it was no secret that she knew how to work a crowd, either to her own benefit or to the detriment of an opponent. Her charismatic persona, at least at her career’s outset, was difficult, if not impossible, to match.
    “She would walk into a room and light it up,” said Phil Alfano, her brother, who works as an educator in Modesto, California. “She had that kind of charisma.”
    Although she knew years earlier that she wanted a political career, it wasn’t until 1992 that she really managed to get things under way when she decided to run for a term in the Nevada Assembly, which is the lower house of the Nevada Legislature. It consists of forty-two members, elected to two-year terms without term limits, and each member is from his or her own respective district. Assemblymen and assemblywomen are not paid much, typically only receiving a small per diem fee for the first two months of a particular session. But it is a good place for politicians to begin a political career, particularly for those who want to effect change in their district, and is often considered a stepping-stone of sorts to bigger and better things within the political arena.
    It was during Kathy Augustine’s 1992 campaign for assemblywoman of her district that she first made waves and used dirty tricks to win her first position to elected office. Trailing in popularity with the voters, she sent out a political advertisement via the mail that depicted a side-by-side comparison of the two candidates. On the left side of the mailer, Kathy appeared in a clear, bright, and well-focused photo, smiling largely, with her clear white skin accentuated. Opposite her photo was a low-quality photo of her opponent, who happened to be African-American. The