Friday, Oct. 3, 2003 | 4:37 a.m.
Gov. Kenny Guinn is leaving Gleneagles restaurant in Carson City one evening. As he walks out with his bodyguard at his side, Guinn encounters none other than Assemblyman Bob Beers, who has spent the sessions portraying the governor as a budget dunce. The following colloquy ensues:
Beers (extending his hand): "Governor, how are you?"
Guinn does not shake his hand.
Beers (acting crestfallen): "Come on, governor. You were my Pop Warner football coach. You signed my high school diploma."
Guinn: "I never should have done that. (Pause) OK, Beers, you're such a math whiz, what's 11 times 11."
Beers (not missing a beat): 121. OK, governor, I have one for you -- what's 11.3 percent of a $3.75-billion budget?"
Guinn glares at Beers, glances at his bodyguard, then back at Beers, then looks at his bodyguard and says: "Shoot him."
I'm still not sure the governor was joking. But now, at least metaphorically, Guinn will have his chance.
Beers' apparent decision to challenge state Sen. Ray Rawson in a primary next year sets up a dynamic that not only will engage the governor but will draw in a gaggle of special interests who will attempt to revisit The Not-So-Great Tax Debate of '03. What's more, if Beers goes through with his bid against Rawson, it could dramatically affect the leadership of the upper house in Session '05, further jeopardizing Majority Leader Bill Raggio's already tenuous supremacy.
During a year in which the three federal races promise to be soporific, the battle for legislative control will be center stage. And the Beers-Rawson primary will provide a microcosm of all that has come before, including the argument over whether the state needs more money for education, health care and other services.
How delicious it could be as the two combatants on the ballot will be dwarfed by the other players.
Gaming vs. the chamber revisited. Rawson's LDS base vs. the anti-tax zealots. And there's much more.
For instance, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which ludicrously played Beers' "announcement" at the top of Page One as if WMD had been discovered in Iraq, has deified Beers and the other members of the Mean/Fearless Fifteen. The Assembly Republican Caucus revolutionaries, now Fourteen after John Marvel voted for the $836 million tax plan, have been portrayed as greater freedom fighters than those brave souls confronting the redcoats in 1776. No matter that at least two-thirds of them, based on their public and private statements, would have voted for the largest tax increase in history -- just at $600 million, or $700 million, or even $800 million.
Beers drove Guinn and legislative Democrats bonkers during the session with a website that assailed the administration's budget numbers. His anti-Guinn-budget rhetoric grew more inflammatory as the session progressed -- at one point he called it "obscene" -- and his e-mails to those who provoked him became more and more incendiary. (Expect to see some of those reprinted during the campaign.)
But Beers, unlike some of his colleagues in the Mean/Fearless Fifteen, knows the budget, even if some of his assumptions and declarations can be challenged. He may have become more enamored with his 15 minutes than being one of 15, but it's clear he enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the media and can make a cogent case for his point of view at the door.
He will present a contrast to Rawson, who is a dedicated, knowledgeable lawmaker but whose charisma often is derided as being on a par with some of the cadavers he examines as a forensic dentist and whose fiscal record resembles a Kennedy more than a Gingrich.
The gamers, who attacked Beers over an e-mail assailing their employees, will join with Culinary to try to erase him from the legislative map. But primaries often are won more with shoe leather than greenbacks. So this could be a fascinating contest, especially with all the money pouring in from interested parties.
One of those is Raggio, who surely will expend a lot of cash trying to save Rawson, who, ironically, years back was seen as the Southern Nevada candidate to replace Sir Bill of Reno as majority leader. Raggio will believe Beers will not be his friend and could join an ever-growing faction of his caucus that thinks it's time for him to abdicate the throne or be forced out in a coup.
Sens. Ann O'Connell, Sandra Tiffany and Barbara Cegavske already have formed the Legislative Business PAC, which held its first event last week and might as well be called the Lynch Bill PAC. There will be 12 or 13 Republican senators next session (the Democrats could defeat Ray Shaffer), so Raggio will need at least six votes. He can count on Rawson, but not Beers, especially after he tries to save the incumbent. Put Beers in the Senate and the anti-Raggio forces may only need a couple more votes to force a change -- and they may already be there.
Beers still has plenty of time to change his mind -- filing isn't until next year. And I still think his preference is to chair Ways and Means, so if he thinks the GOP will take the Assembly, he might yet run for re-election.
Either way, Guinn & Co. will have their guns trained on him. And either way, they will be shooting to kill.
archive
