Beers apologizes for e-mail

Erin Neff

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

Assemblyman Bob Beers apologized this morning for comments he wrote in an e-mail to a constituent in which he rants about service industry workers and what he terms their "legacy" of not valuing education.

Beers, R-Las Vegas, said he was merely repeating an argument he had heard previously when engaging in a "hypothetical debate" with the constituent, Betty Pardo, who is active with the Las Vegas League of Women Voters.

Pardo, who listed a Summerlin mailing address, e-mailed Beers on Jan. 31 encouraging him to stop "playing politics as usual" and to support tax increases.

In his response, he defends his stance and then writes the following:

"The voter database indicates you have lived here for seven years. Based on where you live, I am going to assume you have never worked in the gaming industry. It would surprise you. It provides some of the best jobs in America for people who do not value education.

"Here, such people can own a home, and they flock here from all over the country to get such a job and home. For the most part, however, the many children they sire grow up not valuing education either. These youngsters are prone to dropping out of school, reproducing illegitimate children, often while little more than children themselves, abusing drugs and alcohol more frequently, and even killing themselves more often than people who do value education," he wrote.

"Their failure to value education is a direct legacy from their parents, and there is little government can do to stop it, at any level of spending," he added in the e-mail.

Beers said he wrote that answer after determining that Pardo was not a resident of his Assembly district, and that hers was the only pro-tax message he had received.

"Do I believe that? No," Beers said. "I am sincerely sorry if anyone was offended by it."

A copy of the e-mail found its way to Democrats, who leaked it to reporters on the same day Beers was tied to attempts to oust Democratic Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, from his seat due to voter fraud. Democrats are looking at pursuing sanctions against the people who supported the move to oust Conklin over voter fraud allegations that were never proved.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said she was "completely amazed at the ignorance expressed and the ill will toward working people, the backbone of our community."

"That's prejudice, it's wrong and it's an insult to thousand and thousands of people who make our community work," she said.

After reading a copy of the e-mail, Gov. Kenny Guinn said he was "saddened" by the remark.

"People said I'm bad for raising taxes," he said. "This statement is about as low as you can get."