Columnist Erin Neff: Lobbyists will rush in to fill the void

Erin Neff

Friday, Sept. 6, 2002 | 5:39 a.m.

REMEMBER YOUR freshman year in high school? The opening days were probably filled with trepidation and wonderment about how you'd find English class and if you would look cool in the lunch line.

Imagine how you'd feel if you not only had to maneuver around a new building and perform well, but also watch out for bullies and solve the state's biggest budget crisis in history.

That's how the 2003 Legislature is shaping up after Tuesday's primary.

At the bare minimum there will be 13 new Assembly members and four new senators next session -- meaning at least one of every four in the 63-member body will be new. And if Tuesday's loss of four incumbents is a precursor, there could be even more new faces after Nov. 5.

In 2010 term limits will begin to kick in for state lawmakers -- a process voters supported to clean house and keep certain people from creating fiefdoms.

The turnover, however, is already beginning thanks, in part, to the electorate. And that only means that the feared amassing of power has begun as well -- just to those who are supposed to sit behind the gallery glass.

Change is good, but if you glance at most buffet lines around town, you can see the results of too much of a good thing. And with lobbyists serving up their version of empty calories, the freshmen will bulk up quickly on more than 15 pounds of untruths and spin and forget the vegetables and fiber needed to balance their diets, let alone the budget.

The 2001 session's three freshmen had it hard enough getting to understand the entrenched caucus politics, the crush of bills and lobbying squeezed into 120 days.

Debbie Smith, a Democrat from Sparks and freshman in 2001, said it will be particularly hard for people to come into Carson City without having spent time at the Legislature.

With four of her Assembly colleagues leaving to seek other offices, five retiring and four losing Tuesday, Smith said lobbyists will have to work harder to develop relationships with the newcomers.

David Brown, a Republican from Henderson and fellow class of 2001 member, said his first session was "like ready, set, go, we're on a 120-day schedule, just keep up."

That's where the lobbyists come in. When once there might have been elder committee members to ask for institutional knowledge, now there will be even more power bestowed on lobbyists to remember, and perhaps revise, history.

Imagine the power vacuum in the 13-member Assembly Government Affairs Committee, the panel that created charters for local governments and must bless any change a city or county wants to enact for itself.

Both Chairman Doug Bache and Vice Chairman John Lee are gone. So too, are election victims Merle Berman and Bob Price and retirees David Humke and Kathy Von Tobel.

Democrats are already clawing over each other to run the committee, but given the loss of practically half of the members, Clark County and the city of Las Vegas lobbyists may as well share the gavel.

After all, those entities usually have the most at stake in business before the committee -- everything from pay-raise bills to annexation proposals and the dreaded unfunded mandates.

Lobbyists already write the bills and tell lawmakers how to vote on them. If you're brand new and are struggling through your first bill affecting counties with greater than 400,000 residents, that friendly face is sure to guide you over a drink at Adele's.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins says he isn't too worried about a big freshman class. In the late 1980s and early 1990s it was common for 20 seats to change hands each session.

And Perkins thinks the 2003 newcomers will just make his job in leadership more powerful.

Perkins will have more sway telling his new caucus members why they should back the party and, thus, will likely be able to better control votes and explain his position to the governor and Republicans, just like a lobbyist.

That's fine in a party that's had control for years already.

But imagine what will happen in the other house if Democrats get their wish and win two of the seats in play to put them into the majority for the first time in decades. And, if Erin Kenny somehow pulls out the lieutenant governor's race, you'd have a new president, a new majority leader, new committee chairmen and four new members to boot -- all in a 21-person house.

In addition to writing the bills and telling lawmakers how to vote, the lobbyists may as well sit in the chambers and push the green button.

Who needs the term limits on the horizon? They're already passing more power to the lobbyists one freshman lawmaker at a time.