Dini, Raggio return as legislative leaders

Friday, Nov. 8, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Familiar faces, including two veteran Northern Nevadans, will rule the roost in the 1997 Legislature.

Assembly Democrats, who hold a 25-17 advantage, unanimously elected Joe Dini, D-Yerington, Thursday as speaker for a record seventh time. Dini named Assemblyman Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, as majority leader.

Senate Republicans, who enjoy a 12-9 edge, re-elected Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, as majority leader. They re-elected Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, as assistant majority leader and Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, as president pro tempore.

The speaker and majority leader are important because they control the flow of legislation and provide philosophical direction for others in the party.

In separate caucus meetings today, Senate Democrats were expected to re-elect Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, as Senate minority leader. Assembly Republicans, were expected to name Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, as minority leader.

The parties will meet later this month to fill out leadership positions and make committee assignments.

Assembly Democrats became the majority party during Tuesday's election, when they picked up four seats in Las Vegas. That broke a first-ever 21-21 deadlock that had Democrats and Republicans sharing leadership positions during the 1995 session.

At a meeting in the Luxor hotel-casino attended by 20 of the 25 Assembly Democrats, Dini was returned to the speakership post he last held alone during the 1993 session. With the 1995 deadlock, he shared the job with Hettrick. Dini is entering his 16th term.

Raggio, re-elected to a seventh Senate term, will be leading the upper chamber for the fifth time in six sessions. That string was broken in 1991, when Democrats controlled the Senate.

Raggio was returned to his leadership post at a meeting in the Sawyer State Office Building. Only Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, was absent from the meeting.

Senate committees, many of which favored Republicans 5-2, will be reshaped so that Republicans have four members and Democrats have three. That's because the GOP, which held a 13-8 advantage in 1995, saw their majority shrink by one seat when Democrat Valerie Wiener defeated Sen. Sue Lowden, R-Las Vegas, in District 3.

Lowden chaired the Senate Taxation Committee, but it's uncertain whether Sen. Kathy Augustine, R-Las Vegas, the committee's vice chairwoman, will replace her.

Also uncertain is how Assembly committees will shape up. The Republican losses, combined with retirements, left several committees with only one or two returning Republicans.

Most of the Assembly Democrats who had to share chairmanships with Republicans last session are expected to be named chairmen of their respective committees.

The only two Assembly committees without returning Democratic co-chairmen are the Commerce Committee, because of the retirement of Assemblyman Larry Spitler, D-Las Vegas, and the Economic, Development and Tourism Committee. Mike Schneider, who served as co-chairman of that committee in 1995, defeated Metro Police Lt. Dennis Cobb for the District 8 Senate seat left vacant by retiring Sen. O.C. Lee, D-Las Vegas.