MUTH’S TRUTHS

The regular 2007 legislative session is in the books, so of course it’s time to engage in the great American tradition of naming some winners and the losers.

THE BIG WINNER: The Taxpayer Protection Pledge. An unprecedented number of candidates – almost all Republicans – signed the no-new-taxes pledge on the campaign trail last year, including Gov. Jim Gibbons. By making it crystal clear that he was going to stick to his pledge, the governor forced legislators to tighten their belts, set spending priorities and pass a budget which didn’t raise taxes. In short: The Pledge worked exactly as intended.

WINNER: Gov. Jim Gibbons. There’s no way to pretend that his administration got off to anything other than a rocky start, but it found its sea legs in the closing weeks of the session. In the end, the governor got almost everything he asked for in his original budget proposal, including funding for a limited number of empowerment schools and a scaled-down version of his highway construction plan. And all without breaking his tax pledge.

WINNER: Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio. The wise old owl sat on an oak… Sen. Raggio had three rookies on his hands this session in the form of a new governor, a new assembly speaker and a new assembly minority leader. Yet he rode herd on a budget deal for education which allowed the session to almost close on time, in addition to giving all the parties a little something to crow about. There’s something to be said for experience.

WINNER: Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley. A true liberal’s liberal who came into the session with an aggressive public policy agenda, much of which was passed by holding her caucus together on key votes. I may disagree with the Speaker on many matters of public policy, but there’s something to be said for knowing what you believe in and then staying true to your convictions. In most cases, the Speaker compromised on process, not principle.

LOSER: Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey. The accidental leader came into the session irrelevant and insignificant, with no legislative agenda for his caucus. He went out the same way he came in, only he found a way to get crossways with both the Governor and Senate Majority Leader in between. Don’t expect a return engagement for the 2009 session.

LOSER: Senate Minority Leader Dina Taxes…er, Titus. Throughout the session, Sen. Titus dripped with sour grapes over losing the gubernatorial election to Jim Gibbons last November. She was “not happy” and petulant throughout the session, and when push came to shove, was part of the obstruction, not the solution.

THE BIG LOSER: Children with autism and other special needs. A bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Cegavske would have allowed parents of children suffering from severe disabilities to place their children in private schools at public expense which might better provide for the needs of these unfortunate and vulnerable members of our community. The bipartisan bill passed unanimously in the Senate, but Assembly Ways & Means Committee Chairman Morse Arberry refused to even allow a hearing on the bill, let alone a vote. Absolutely shameful.

MISS CONGENIALITY: Comma Coffee. The quirky local coffee shop directly across the street from the legislative building was the unofficial meeting place of choice by high-powered and low-powered lobbyists of every size and shape. In addition, the Little-Coffee-Shop-That-Could hosted meet-and-greets for all manner of high-falutin’ political types, including Democrat presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Even Dennis Kucinich made a brief appearance there before being called back to the mother ship.

HONORALE MENTION: The Fab Five. Republican freshmen Assemblymen Ty Cobb, Ed Goedhart, James Settlemeyer, Bob Beers and Lynn Stewart gave every indication of being not only more philosophically driven and politically aggressive than their leadership, but decidedly unsatisfied and impatient with their minority status. If, as Newt Gingrich says, real change requires real change, this core group could provide the foundation for major leadership changes to come in the Assembly GOP caucus, perhaps even leading to (gasp!) a Republican majority just in time for reapportionment.

MOST LIKELY TO BE PRIMARIED: And the award goes to…Assemblywoman Francis Allen. The RINO (Republican in Name Only) from Las Vegas barely won a primary challenge last year by 160 votes against a severely underfunded Republican opponent. But during this session Allen managed to tick off the gaming industry by voting in favor of a state lottery, angered Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio by voting against his judicial reform bill, and infuriated the governor by being one of only two votes against his no-new-taxes highway construction plan (Garn Mabey being the other). If a credible Republican candidate with minimal funding emerges to challenge her again next year, you can probably kiss “Fancy Pants” good-bye.

Posted on June 5th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada