Lieutenant governor’s fourth chief of staff begins work

Monday, Nov. 3, 1997 | 4:16 a.m.

Orgen said she has known Hammargren about 15 years. She says she left her marketing job at the State Industrial Insurance System to join Hammargren because "I felt I could be a friend and be of assistance to him."

Hammargren's first chief of staff was Bob McCaffery, who returned to the aerospace industry following complaints by Common Cause of Nevada that he had used official state stationery to endorse an automotive product.

Dianne Steel resigned after she was elected a Family Court judge in 1996, and former Assemblywoman Jeannine Stroth served during the 1998 Legislature before resigning.

Orgen said she isn't concerned about the turnover rate "because I know him. ... I've known him as regent, I know his family personally. The Lonnie Hammargren in the paper and the Lonnie Hammargren I know are not the same people."

Orgen also was Lt. Gov. Bob Cashell's chief of staff from 1983 to 1987. She said Cashell was another lieutenant governor who, like Hammargren, "doesn't fit into anybody's mold."

Hammargren said he has hired marketing professor Victor Isbell from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to serve as a consultant to review some of the lieutenant governor's economic development ideas.

The Las Vegas neurosurgeon believes if he can demonstrate proposals that would work to improve the state's development, it would help him if he decides to run for governor in 1998.