If Nevada Republicans are ever to have ANY electoral or legislative success in the state Assembly after this disastrous, meaningless 2007 session, they need to do one thing immediately…preferably minutes after sine die: Get rid of Garn Mabey.
Recall that after predicting he’d pick up three seats in last year’s elections, the Republican Assembly Minority Leader actually managed to LOSE another one instead.
He then proceeded to “dis” the new Republican governor by blowing off his swearing-in ceremony at the Capital, took freshman Republican Assemblyman Ty Cobb to the woodshed for not voting for DEMOCRAT Assembly-liberal Barbara Buckley for Speaker, calls Buckley “awesome” every chance he gets, continually told Republicans that he wouldn’t aggressively challenge the Democrats’ liberal agenda while pursuing a personal special interest agenda of his own which benefits his profession, and led his troops into a stupid vote in which every member of his GOP caucus ended up voting AGAINST a water conservation bill…in the DESERT!
And that’s just scratching the surface.
He has virtually no working relationship whatsoever with the Republican Senate Majority Leader and has held all of ONE lousy press conference this entire session…a press conference in which he voiced opposition to merit pay for teachers, a core Republican policy position.
In addition, Mabey publicly said in a TV interview that he was open to breaking his campaign promise to vote against any and all tax hikes, while simultaneously voicing support for a possible gas tax hike and an increase in the fee you and I pay to the DMV for our driver’s licenses.
With great Republican leaders like Garn Mabey, who needs Democrats?
But the straw that SHOULD break the backs of even the most ardent Mabey supporters/apologists has got to be how he’s thrown fellow Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons under the bus on the governor’s recent proposal to pay for recommended highway construction projects WITHOUT raising taxes.
First, Mabey gave only “tepid” support for the plan when it was announced at a major press conference last week. “Parts of it can be supported; parts of it won’t,” profile-in-political-courage Garn “Maybe” Mabey told the Las Vegas Review Journal. I guess the parts Maybe Mabey can’t support are the parts where there won’t be any tax or fee increases. What a great Republican leader, huh?
But what Maybe Mabey did yesterday really tears it.
In order for the governor to get his no-tax-hike highway construction proposal considered by the Legislature this late in the session, he needs one of the legislative leaders to introduce it as an “emergency” measure. When Republican Minority Leader Garn Maybe Mabey was asked if he would do so on behalf of the Republican governor, Republican Maybe Mabey told the Republican governor to pound sand.
“I don’t see any reason to waste one of my emergency bills on something that’s not going anywhere,” this great Republican leader told Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston.
Thank goodness I’m no longer a Republican so that no one can say I’m being a “bad” Republican for pointing out what a lousy Republican Maybe Mabey is, as well as a disaster as “leader” of the Republican Assembly Caucus.
If caucus Republicans don’t vote to oust Maybe Mabey immediately after this session, they’re hopeless…and probably should be challenged in primaries themselves next year. As Newt Gingrich says, real change requires…real change.
If you agree that “Garn’s Gotta Go,” please sign our online petition addressed to Maybe Mabey’s 14 Assembly Republican caucus members urging them to dump Maybe Mabey and elect a new leader as soon as this 2007 session finally and mercifully comes to a close. Just click here to add your name to the list.
Posted on May 19th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Leave a Reply