The Political Hat

     In November, the Republican Party in Nevada swept every statewide race and retook the state Senate.  Unexpectedly, they also gained ten seats in the forty-two seat Assembly to gain a 25-17 majority in that chamber for the first time since the mid-80’s.  The conservatives in the Assembly also gained a majority of the Republican delegation.

     This victory ironically set-up the conservative Republicans to failure for one reason: Gov. Sandoval (re-elected with over 70% of the vote) wants to raise taxes to fund education.  The state Senate, where Sandoval’s hand-picked moderates won all three swing seats, is comfortably in his pocket.  However, with a majority of the Republican caucus, the conservatives were poised to not only elect a Speaker but anti-tax Assembly members as chairs of the tax and other committees necessary to pass any tax hike.  Under legislative rules, the chair of a committee has near absolute power to kill any legislation that goes through their committee.

     An anti-tax conservative, then would never be allowed by Sandoval to be in a position to kill his tax hikes.

     Speaker-designate Ira Hansen was forced to step down due to controversial writings from decades ago were bandied about with the “tsk-tsking” of Sandoval.  Hansen was replaced by John Hambrick, another conservative, and the moderate Majority leader designee John Anderson was replaced by conservative firebrand Michele Fiore.

     However, a “nuclear option” has been raised, wherein the moderate pro-tax Republicans would vote with the Democrats to elect a Speaker, and committee chairs, who are more inclined to support Sandoval’s tax.

     Fiore was replaced as both chair of the tax committee and as Majority leader with pro-tax Republican replacements. And now hardcore anti-tax crusaders are threatening to recall Hambrick and any other Assembly Republican who won’t back Fiore or do enough to stop the inevitable tax hikes

     This situation is constantly changing, and exactly what will happen when the Assembly convenes next year is unclear.

     This is a no-win situation for conservative Republicans: Either Assembly Republicans allow a full vote in the Assembly for the tax hikes, or the moderate Republicans with Democrat help will allow a full vote in the Assembly.

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