Democrats name assembly leaders

Monday, Dec. 4, 2000 | 11:29 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assemblyman Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, chosen speaker of the House for the 2001 Legislature, named his leadership team today, choosing Wendell Williams of Las Vegas to be speaker pro-tem.

Williams will be the first black to hold that post. He will head the Assembly when Perkins is absent. Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, had already been selected by Perkins as majority leader. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, was named assistant majority leader, putting Clark County in charge of the major posts in the Assembly.

Perkins said Assemblyman Bernie Anderson of Sparks will be whip and the two assistant whips will be Sheila Leslie of Reno and Mark Manendo of Las Vegas.

Democrats hold a 27-15 majority in the House, and only three of those are newcomers. Perkins said he had a "wealth of talent, knowledge and experience to choose from."

"This will be an extraordinary legislative session, with redistricting as well as a number of very important issues that must be addressed in 120 days," Perkins said.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani of Las Vegas was reappointed as chairwoman of the Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee, which will handle reapportionment. She said today she was "confident" the reapportionment task could be completed in the regular 120-day session without a special session.

She was in the Assembly during the 1990 reapportionment, and there was a good working relationship with Republicans then, she said. She expected that to continue in this session. "I'm confident we will not allow politics to interfere," she said.

The only issue, Giunchigliani said, would be whether to expand the Legislature to allow rural Nevada to keep some of its seats. She opposes any enlargement, saying the present 42 members in the Assembly is the "fairer representation."

Expansion, she said, would mean higher costs to the taxpayer for the next 10 years. Rural Nevada lawmakers want to enlarge the Assembly by three or four seats. Those would mostly go to Clark County but would enable the rural counties to retain their present seats.

Democrats in the 1999 session had 10 seats on the influential 14-member Ways and Means Committee. But they will only have nine this session because they lost a member in the election. Perkins said Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas, the second senior member in the party, would be moving off Ways and Means to the Government Affairs Committee.

The only switch in chairmanships came on Commerce and on Health and Human Services. Dini will head the Commerce Committee, replacing Buckley. Ellen Koivisto of Las Vegas will succeed Vivian Freeman of Reno as chairwoman of Health and Human Services. Koivisto headed the interim health study committee.

Here is a breakdown of the Democrats and the committees. The first name that appears will serve as chairman and the second as vice chairman.