Governor confronts perpetrator of gag bill

Erin Neff

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assemblyman Ron Knecht was called to the office of former principal and current Gov. Kenny Guinn Wednesday afternoon after Knecht admitted he was behind an anonymous bill draft request poking fun at the chief executive.

After the 45-minute talk in Guinn's office, Knecht, 51, emerged repentant and willing to get on with the state's business.

Guinn said the discussion was low key and that it concluded with an admonition: "Let's get on with the issues."

On Wednesday the Sun's online edition reported Knecht, R-Carson City, said he submitted Bill Draft Request 1158 -- a proposal to rename the state East California, make the state song the Beatles hit "Taxman" and designate the RINO as the state animal.

RINO refers to Republican In Name Only and was seen as a shot at Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn for his $1 billion tax proposal.

After Knecht's public disclosure, Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick said he did not fear any lasting political repercussions for the freshman lawmaker.

"I felt that Mr. Knecht needed to respond to the matter himself," Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said he planned on having a serious talk with Knecht about the bill draft request.

"It's not going to be partisan," Perkins said. "I'm just going to let him know we don't tolerate that."

When asked Wednesday by the Sun if he had submitted the proposal, Knecht admitted he had.

"I didn't ask that anybody draft it, and as Lynn Hettrick said, it didn't cost anything," Knecht said. "You asked the right question and I'll be honest. I've got nothing to hide."

The anonymous bill draft request was submitted Feb. 10 and made public Monday on a list of proposed bills.

Gov. Kenny Guinn's office immediately criticized the anonymous bill and spokesman Greg Bortolin said the lawmaker who submitted it anonymously "lacked courage."

Knecht was not pleased with that statement.

"It seems to me that people who call other people cowards and heartless and irrelevant, frivolously, are skating on pretty thin ice to take umbrage at a joke like that," Knecht said.

Many had suspected Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, had submitted the bill draft request due to his recent criticism of Guinn and his comments that many in Nevada long to be like our neighbor state to the West.

Beers steadfastly denied submitting it, and Hettrick said earlier this week he would not divulge the identity of the person who did.

Knecht defended his actions, saying that the bill cost nothing to submit since it wasn't drafted. He said listing the three-line bill on a list of all of the requests probably resulted in "about 15 pages of ink."

"That's something less than a dime," Knecht said, reaching into his pocket and fiddling with his change. "I would be happy to repay it."

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said that lawmakers probably would not take any action to punish Knecht for his actions.

She said the Legislature could pass a law requiring names on all bills, a practice she keeps for her own proposals, or it could ban submitting bill draft requests as jokes.

"Then it becomes you're passing laws regulating common sense," Buckley said. "You either got it or you don't."

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, disputed Hettrick's claim that the joke won't hurt Knecht's career.

"That's a bad way to start your political career because that's what people will remember," Titus said.

Knecht is an economist for the Public Utilities Commission who moved to Nevada several years ago. During last fall's election for the Assembly seat, Knecht said he thought the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain was a done deal and that Nevada should let the federal government build it.

He has a master's degree in engineering from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Knecht serves on the Commerce and Labor, Government Affairs and Transportation committees.

Josh Griffin, R-Henderson, the assistant Assembly minority leader, said he did not think Knecht meant the bill draft request to "cause the storm it did."

"The Republican caucus needs to have a discussion that everything is on the public record," Griffin said.

Griffin was also referring to an e-mail Beers sent a constituent in which he decried service workers for failing to value education.

Beers was also being criticized in some circles for an e-mail he sent Wednesday to several male Assembly members. The subject line said: "There is marriage in nature."

The picture contained in the e-mail was of a male lion cowering up against the side of a cage with a lioness roaring at him.

"We send out jokes all the time," Beers said.