flashpoint:

MGM Mirage boss actually listening to advice?

Fri, Jun 20, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Could it be that MGM Mirage boss Terry Lanni is actually

listening to a Sun columnist’s advice? No, not mine. But remember when Sun boss Brian Greenspun urged Lanni to run for governor a few weeks back? Could he really be thinking about it? I ask after this week’s events — the first broad-based tax proposal in five years and the news, as he told the Sun’s Liz Benston, that he is “trying to find a solution to the bigger problems of the state.” Hey, isn’t that the governor’s job? Lanni has been mentioned in the past as a possible contender for the U.S. Senate in California, where he still maintains a residence. But here? As governor? Big question, though: Could he get any other gaming companies to support him?

Discussion: 1 comment so far…

By vegasboomer

6/23/08 at 1:56 p.m.

Suggest removal

The one major defect in democracy as practiced in this country is the fatal need for extensive compromise. If Mr. Lanni were to run for governor he'd need the support of the elite to fund a run against an incumbent (even against a Gibbon [sic] incumbent) and that support would have a price attached. The only hope that Mr. Lanni could accomplish something that current politicians have not accomplished, haven't tried to acoomplish, is that the support of the Gaming Industry would be contingent on a positive solution which exempted or treated the Gaming Industry less unfavorably than either targeted solutions of the sort proposed by the teachers or more broad based solutions of the sort proposed by Chancellor Rogers. However the political reality isn't quite so neat and clean, and the likely impact of a Lannie administration would more of the same.

What Nevada needs is a charismatic leader who can inspire the kind of broad based participation of individual people along the lines of the 1,400,000 contributors that Sen. Obama has succeeded in enlisting (of course adjusted down to the state level). An administration of such a leader, especially with long 'coattails' would be one that might really accomplish something. Not just an overhaul of the revenue base on which the state relies but the system of governement too, including but limited to, something closer to a full time legislature or, at the very least, the right of the legislature to convene itself without governor approval. Then we'd actually have 3 co-equal branches with checks and balances. What a novel idea!