Fallout grows from Beers e-mail

Erin Neff

Monday, Feb. 10, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Lobbyists, lawmakers and residents are still talking about an e-mail that Assemblyman Bob Beers sent to a constituent in which he decried casino service workers for failing to value education.

The buzz inside the Legislative Building, which included condemnation from both sides of the aisle, is now focused on whether other anti-tax representatives such as Beers will be painted in a negative light.

One joking moment prior to the Senate's floor session Friday gave a glimpse of the reach of Beers' comment.

Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, another anti-tax conservative, asked Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, when she could expect to see something he was working on.

"I'm having Bob Beers write it for me," he joked in the private moment overheard in the press row.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, glanced toward the fiscally conservative O'Connell and added: "Have you been writing (Beers') material?"

While Raggio can joke about the anti-tax members of his caucus, some political observers think Beers' comments have served only to isolate the whole bunch, including O'Connell and Republican Sens. Sandra Tiffany of Henderson and Barbara Cegavsky of Las Vegas.

"His credibility is gone," one Republican Assembly member said.

Beers, who apologized for the e-mail when first confronted by the press, has appeared less contrite now that some time has passed between the initial leaking of the message.

"I'd say the response I've gotten is 60-40," Beers said.

"About 60 percent of the people agree with me."

However, the gaming industry is mobilizing to use Beers' comments as a rallying cry to service workers.

With the Culinary Union numbering in the tens of thousands, gaming can easily flood lawmakers with pleas to tax other businesses -- the primary goal of the gaming industry in the tax debate.

Glen Arnodo, the Culinary Union's political affairs director, said Beers' comments "were an insult to thousands of workers who are the heart and soul of our community."

Arnodo said he thought "there is no room in any debate for such insensitive comments."

Mike Sloan, an executive with Mandalay Resort Group and a member of the Nevada Task Force on Tax Policy, helped organize e-mail responses to Beers last week.

Beers called the correspondence "e-mails from Sloan's managers" and said he is paying them little mind.

Before the discovery of Beers' e-mail to constituent Betty Pardo, in which he rails that children of service workers drop out of school and have children out of wedlock, the assemblyman had been the most vocal critic of Gov. Kenny Guinn's tax proposal.

Now Guinn's staffers privately say they don't have to worry about Beers anymore because "he's taken care of himself."

Beers is adamant his comments will not affect the value of his anti-tax position.

"It's not going to affect me one bit," he said.

Former Nevada GOP Chairman Bob Seale agrees.

"His comments were clearly unfortunate," Seale said. "But the manner in which it distracts from his debating is yesterday's news.

"By the time the tax discussions get going in earnest, there will be a whole bunch of new issues that come up."