Up North, a game of mistaken identity

Friday, Feb. 16, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

Carson City — A lobbyist who has worked the Nevada Legislature for years, nay, decades, was testifying at a hearing this week when he referred to Assemblyman William Horne as "Wendell," by which he meant Wendell Williams, who hasn't served in the Legislature since 2003.

Horne, meanwhile, is no newbie. He has been around since 2003.

What do Horne and Williams have in common? Well, they're both black, but that's about it.

In fact, Horne also gets called "Kelvin," for black Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, as well as "Moose," a nickname for black Assemblyman Morse Arberry, and "Steven" for black Sen. Steven Horsford.

Arberry and Atkinson both get confused for Horne.

OK, everyone. Turn this page. Study the photos. (We'll wait.)

C'mon. Do they really look the same?

"Our skin is dark, but we're not alike," Arberry said.

Aside from the physical differences, they all have different mannerisms and legislative priorities.

(Assemblyman Harvey Munford is both too tall and long in the tooth to be misidentified).

The legislators themselves don't get too upset about it, and in fact, a few were reluctant to talk about it for this story, which only arose when a reporter noticed that another longtime lobbyist confused Horne with Atkinson.

Instead, they mostly laugh it off, as they did Wednesday on the Assembly floor. (Atkinson was in the sergeant-at-arms office when someone confused him with Horne.)

The comparison to Atkinson, Horne quipped, "is insulting. You got good-looking here," he said of himself, "and then you got Kelvin.

"You got strapping here, and you got Kelvin."

Plus, Horne and Atkinson noted, Arberry has a receding hairline.

Arberry, the powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, once took to the Assembly floor when Williams was still a legislator, and said, "Wendell is the black guy without the glasses."

Arberry said that when he's near the Senate offices, "I get ready for it. 'Hello, senator,' " they say to him, confusing him with Sen. Maurice Washington.

The legislators are a little baffled by the confusion, which they don't encounter when they're in Las Vegas.

Perhaps it's a northern thing.

Horne was at the inaugural ball in Reno last month when someone complimented him on his invocation.

Washington had given the invocation.

Horne recalled his first day as a legislator, when he came through the back door of the building and a security officer said, "Hello, William," getting his name right even though they'd never met.

"He took the time" to learn his face and name from the legislative guidebook, Horne said admiringly.

So take some time and study their faces and get their names right, for Pete's sake.

And be warned. Next time, we name names of those who confuse Nevada's black lawmakers.