Jon Ralston tells of incestuous relationships between politicians and special interests, and why Nevada needs full-time lawmakers

Friday, Aug. 17, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

Mark Amodei is one of the smarter and funnier people operating in a place that is too often not smart and not (intentionally at least) funny.

The announcement that Amodei, the veteran Republican state senator, has accepted the position of president of the Nevada Mining Association diminishes Carson City and the legislative process. It also heralds a new era while reinforcing old problems, and illuminates why a citizen Legislature has become an anachronism in Nevada.

Amodei's decision, although it was not accompanied by a resignation announcement, signals an exit strategy from political life for the capital senator facing term limits in 2010. Others hearing the term limits bell toll for their elected life will be looking to ensure their futures while they still have leverage.

Amodei's case is more nuanced, but still gets to the central point. He is a lawyer by trade, having practiced for nearly a quarter-century. He has brought those skills to bear as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee with often-piercing analysis, regularly leavened by humor. His activism, along with Democrat Terry Care 's , during the horror that was the 2003 session brought him much unwanted controversy. He infuriated casino lobbyists and Gov. Kenny Guinn but argued passionately for alternatives to the Guinn/gaming tax plan.

Even Amodei has to know that three years ago, when the megafirm Kummer Kaempfer asked him to open a northern office, his title might have had something to do with the offer. And although eyebrows were raised because of the firm's multifarious interests in Carson City, Amodei went beyond the usual call by hiring a lawyer, the inestimable Rick Wright, and asking for an opinion on what his conflicts might be.

He disclosed a lot during the past two sessions but rarely abstained, allowing those on the other side of Kummer Kaempfer issues to raise conflict issues.

This goes to the heart of a problem with a citizen Legislature, where too many of the participants are not considered regular citizens because of their jobs and too many have jobs that have nothing to do with them being citizens and everything to do with them being legislators.

And that brings me to Amodei's new position.

The senator says that during the last session, he heard that NMA President Russ Fields was planning to retire. So he told mining lobbyist Be Be Adams, "I might be good at that." After the session he applied for the job, as did others.

I admire Amodei's candor in relating that story. But once he tells a mining lobbyist of his interest, couldn't the rest of the session be seen, cynically or not, as an audition? I am not suggesting that Amodei openly or quietly carried water for the association - he has always been supportive of the industry. But just look at how ... it looks.

It looks like an industry trade group, such as the Associated Builders and Contractors, having Warren Hardy, a state senator, at the helm. It looks like a major union, the Southern Nevada Building Trades, having Steve Ross, a Las Vegas city councilman, as its head . And it looks like folks with titles getting put on corporate boards or being hired by clients or for jobs they have no apparent qualifications to acquire.

I don't suggest that Amodei isn't talented enough to get the mining job on his own. Nor do I imply that he isn't a good choice for the association. But anyone who tells me that his positions and relationships as lawmaker didn't make him a shoo-in once he applied is living in fantasyland.

It happens here . It happens in other state capitals. And it happens in D . C.

The revolving door moves and years of service are repaid. But you generally have to go out the door before the payoff occurs.

It's one thing to be helpful to a special interest as an elected official for principle or for payback; it's quite another to be a paid representative of a special interest.

Amodei can't be the mining association president and be a legislator, too. He says he will take his time to consider his decision about resigning, which will drive the Democrats batty but probably ensure the seat remains in GOP hands.

In the end, this is a smart choice for Amodei and for the miners. But few people are going to find this move, emblematic as it is of legalized incest that governs Nevada, very funny.