RENO, Nevada (PNN) - November 19, 2012 - Lance Gilman is a thriving businessman with dozens of employees. That those workers include a good many prostitutes didn't faze the people of a rural Nevada county who recently elected him as a Storey County commissioner by a wide margin.

The Mustang Ranch brothel owner is the first such owner to win election to public office in Nevada since prostitution was legalized here in 1971, Nevada historian Guy Rocha said; and he's believed to be the first to do so in the state's 148-year history.

Gilman, 68, a self-described "dye-in-the-wool Republican who loves Amerikan values," said he encountered few objections to his Mustang Ranch ownership during his campaign in the county of 4,000. He won with 62% of the vote on Nov. 6.

His current operation, which includes the two houses of prostitution, two restaurants and a nightclub, now operates under the Mustang Ranch name.

"His election speaks to the acceptance of prostitution in rural Nevada, where it's just understood," said Rocha. "It goes back to a long standing libertarian tradition, and laws reflect that. It's different in urban Nevada, where prostitution is a mixed, controversial bag."

Gilman maintains prostitution is rampant across the country, and it makes more sense to legalize and regulate it. He said bordellos pay significant taxes to rural counties and the women are regularly checked by doctors.

"I use the term caregivers for our industry," said Gilman. "The public has no idea, but so many of the men we deal with are damaged or widowed or in need of kindness. The industry is so much more about providing care and human nurturing than anything else."