Columnist Jon Ralston: Second chance at drawing maps

Friday, June 8, 2001 | 5 a.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the public affairs program "Face to Face" on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the Ralston Report. His column for the Sun appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com

GOV. KENNY GUINN smartly is keeping the special session simple. But the politics are extraordinarily complex -- in fact they cut 69 different ways.

Or is it only 63?

The governor is calling lawmakers, who fumbled, stumbled and then crumbled at the end of the 120 days, back on Thursday to finish the constitutionally mandated task of reapportionment and redistricting, to ratify bills they passed after a midnight deadline when they pulled a shameless ploy to extend the session by an hour and to approve any languishing budget bills.

That's cut and dried.

But what isn't so obvious is that the session has given Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins a second chance to negotiate with the masterful Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio on drawing the state's political lines. And while Perkins was stymied in his first attempt -- probably ceding too quickly to Raggio's desire to expand the Legislature from 63 to 69 members -- this now has become an object lesson: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

Perkins now has a second chance and this time Raggio can't hold bills hostage, can't screw down his party or caucus members and must face the prospect of Southern Nevadans bolting as they are pummeled for allowing Sir Bill of Reno to get his way again.

Oh, the public couldn't give a whit about the arcane process whereby politicians try to ensure the perpetuation of themselves and their allies by manufacturing favorable districts. But from a partisan standpoint, this is critical. And in the long run, how reapportionment and redistricting plays out could determine the power brokers in Nevada for the next decade.

Perkins gave Raggio what he wanted most -- the expanded Legislature -- in the expectation that he could get what he needed in the 3rd Congressional District. After all, the expansion doesn't really hurt Southern Nevada or the Democrats, except that it allows senior northern and rural Republicans to keep their seats. But making it likely that a Democrat (probably Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera) gets elected to a congressional seat and keeps it -- that's a prize worth expanding the Legislature for.

But once Perkins gave on the expansion, Raggio tried to roll him -- as he has done to many foes at the end of so many sessions. Or was it that the Senate's major-domo couldn't get his caucus to come along, as he struggled to do all session, as too many members wanted to protect state Sen. Jon Porter's congressional ambitions?

And when Perkins held firm in the last 24 hours -- refusing to give in to an even registration in the new district -- the GOP effort to create a district for Porter caused the special session to become inevitable.

Indeed, the most ironic aspect of this week's special session is that it was called because of Porter and now the incipient congressional candidate probably will lose the most. Perkins cannot go home without one of two things -- a status quo Legislature, that is one with 63 members -- or a congressional district heavily slanted toward the Democrats.

Raggio can spin all he wants that an evenly divided state means an evenly split (in registration) district. But that doesn't take into account greater GOP turnout, performance and growth patterns in the area and other political minutiae that only the legislative cartographers understand.

When we last left the Gang of 63 dithering in Carson City, the Democrats wanted an 8,500-voter advantage and the Republicans would have settled for a slight Democratic advantage in the new congressional district, maybe 500 voters. But now all bets are off -- and Perkins may well ask for more than 8,500 voters if Raggio still wants the expansion.

Perkins knows that Southern Nevada senators will feel the heat on the expansion now. And some Republican lawmakers who felt they had a gun to their head brandished by Raggio during the session may feel the rhetorical bullets from the media could do more damage.

They've already started negotiating, of course. If they wait for the not-so-special session to start Thursday, they may never leave again. So they will try to get the deal done before the session starts -- it's gone from legislative backrooms to different backrooms -- and then just rubber-stamp the deal, pass the bills in limbo and go home.

That would be just fine with Guinn, who wants them to get in and get out as quickly as possible. In that, the Gang of 63 well knows, the governor and the public are on the same page.