Tiffany loses her spot on finance panel

Friday, Nov. 12, 2004 | 9:14 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, announced Republican Senate committee assignments Thursday, and his one-time opponent Sandra Tiffany of Henderson has lost her seat on the powerful Finance Committee.

Raggio said that Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who moved from the Assembly to the Senate this election, will be the vice chairman of the Finance Committee, which fashions the state budget.

The committee in 2003 had five Republicans and two Democrats. When the Democrats picked up an extra seat in the Senate, the Republicans lost one position on the committee.

The GOP holds a 12-9 margin in the Senate, making the division on the committee is four Republicans and three Democrats.

"I would have preferred to be on finance," Tiffany said. "But I'm OK with this." She said the option was not given to her to be on the money committee.

Tiffany had been one of the Clark County lawmakers who felt Raggio should not be majority leader and finance chairman. But Raggio won the majority post in a caucus of GOP lawmakers and named himself as finance chairman again.

Other Republican holdovers on the Finance Committee are Barbara Cegavske of Las Vegas and Dean Rhoads of Tuscarora.

Tiffany is the only GOP member, outside of Beers and freshman Sen. Joe Heck of Las Vegas, who did not get a committee chairmanship.

Raggio named Warren Hardy of Las Vegas as chairman of the Government Affairs Committee to succeed Ann O'Connell, who was defeated in the election, and Maurice Washington of Sparks will head the Education and Human Resources Committee that was led by Ray Rawson, who also was defeated.

Dennis Nolan will be chairman of the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee succeeding Ray Shaffer of North Las Vegas, who lost his bid for re-election, and Cegavske will be in charge of Legislative Operations and Elections, succeeding Washington, who moved to head Education and Human Resources.

GOP Senate assignments:

Commerce and Labor: Randolph Townsend of Reno, chairman; Hardy, vice chariman, Heck and Tiffany.

Finance: Raggio, chairman, Beers, vice chairman, Cegavske and Rhoads.

Government Affairs: Hardy, chairman, Tiffany, vice chairman, Raggio and Townsend.

Education & Human Resources: Washington, chairman, Cegavske, vice chairman, Heck and Nolan.

Judiciary: Mark Amodei of Carson City, chairman, Washington, vice chairman, Mike McGinness of Fallon and Nolan.

Legislative Operations and Elections: Cegavske, chairman, Raggio, vice chairman, Beers, Hardy.

Natural Resources: Rhoads, chairman, McGinness, vice chairman, Amodei and Beers.

Taxation: McGinness, chairman, Tiffany, vice chairman, Rhoads and Townsend.

Transportation and Homeland Security: Nolan, chairman, Heck, vice chairman, Amodei and Washington.