THE LEGISLATURE:

Looking ahead: Buckley could be formidable candidate for governor

Saturday, June 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Leila Navidi

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, right, with Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel, speaks at a Henderson Democratic Club meeting Wednesday at the Painters Union Hall. Buckley says the need for a two-thirds majority for any tax hike made things tough for Democrats.

Looking back: Horsford earns praise for performance

Barbara Buckley

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Archive of Sun politics stories

Buckley looks back on session at town hall (6-3-2009)
Barbara Buckley (2-6-2009)
Could speaker be the next governor? (7-8-2008)
Jon Ralston on Buckley's leadership in the Assembly and her political future (6-13-2007)

She survived.

Given the economic calamity and the state government’s fiscal crisis, that should offer comfort to Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, who is being forced from office by term limits.

But no one expects the Las Vegas Democrat to just go away.

Buckley is widely presumed to be running for governor. If she is as ruthlessly effective in her campaign as she was as speaker, she will be formidable.

Legislative veterans marveled at her ability to enforce discipline in her veto-proof majority; her skilled use of lieutenants to move legislation; her knowledge of policy, players, process.

A prominent business lobbyist said he is happy to see her go.

But her skills as legislative tactician are in many ways unrelated to the acumen required to win a statewide race, which will entail raising vast sums of money, putting together a grass-roots operation, and selling Nevadans on a vision for the future.

As she leaves the session, some Nevada Democrats have mixed feelings. At a town hall meeting in Henderson this week, she won big applause and thanks for her service and questions about when she would announce.

Buckley shepherded about $1 billion in new revenue through, but the Legislature also made deep cuts in education and higher education and other programs and cut state worker pay 4.6 percent.

Buckley was challenged for not doing more this session. She has faced intense criticism from the liberal wing of her party for not making fundamental changes to the tax system or winning more revenue from the gold mining industry, which is making record profits in one of the friendliest tax environments in the world.

In a Las Vegas Sun interview, Buckley defended her record this session, which, she said, included a difficult political reality: To get any tax plan passed, Democrats needed at least two Republicans in the Senate to join them to win the necessary two-thirds, as the state constitution requires.

“We worked day and night to try to prevent disaster from coming to our state, and it would have if the governor’s budget had been implemented,” she said, referring to Gov. Jim Gibbons’ plan, which would have cut state worker and teacher pay 6 percent and reduced higher education spending 36 percent.

Buckley said she was happy to have given the tax system a little more progressivity by giving the modified business tax, which is a payroll tax, two tiers so that smaller businesses pay less.

“I think what people have to realize is that changing our tax structure won’t happen in a day,” she said. “It’s going to take hard work, collaboration and broad public support.”

Legislators and lobbyists defended Buckley, who was extraordinarily cautious in her approach to the budget, using public hearings to show why the governor’s plan was untenable while refusing to concede that a tax increase was coming.

By the time she introduced the tax increase, which came mostly in the form of hikes in the modified business tax and the sales tax, she had marshaled widespread support among business groups and legislators.

“The fact that in a down economic time they were able to get near unanimous consensus from business I thought was, in these times, monumental,” said Billy Vassiliadis, CEO of R&R Partners, the advertising and public affairs firm.

Still, the flak from Buckley’s left could upend a campaign for governor that was beginning to shape up as a repeat of the 2006 Democratic primary: Activist liberal woman with inspiring story. Moderate Mormon man from Nevada political royalty.

In 2006, Rep. Dina Titus, who was then a state senator, crushed Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, son of a one-time senate majority leader.

Buckley is hoping for a replay in a race against Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, who is also expected to run as a Democrat.

But Reid could have an opening by running to Buckley’s left. He could point to a speech last year on the heels of a special legislative session to cut yet more from the budget, during which Buckley said, “For more than 20 years, every Nevada governor has faced serious financial crisis. It’s time to admit that a 1960s state financial structure no longer works. It’s time to step into the 21st century.”

The theme of the speech, and the memorable line: “Never again.” She would never again allow Nevada to find itself in this type of crisis.

And, yet, the Legislature used a Band-Aid approach this year and passed tax increases that sunset so that, once again, the state will face a fiscal crisis in two years.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, one of Buckley’s top lieutenants and one of the Legislature’s most liberal members, acknowledged that Buckley will need to reach out to the party’s liberal base.

“There are some on the left who don’t understand the political reality,” Leslie said. “I think the speaker will have to show why she made pragmatic decisions.”

Leslie pointed to Buckley’s legislative record, including work on strengthening state programs and laws on consumer protection issues, child welfare and health care.

This session, Buckley also passed legislation that will allow homeowners to enter into court-supervised mediation to renegotiate their loans if they are in danger of foreclosure.

As for the possibility that Rory Reid will run to the left of Buckley on economic issues, Leslie was incredulous. “It would work only if it was true,” she said. “I don’t know enough about Rory’s position to comment on that. I think progressives will see the speaker has the experience, the values and the ability to lead the state.”

Buckley seems intent on making sure progressives come home. In the Sun interview, she offered up an aggressive agenda if she wins: Diversifying the economy, more money for schools and universities and health care, tougher enforcement of consumer protection and labor laws.

And so, the 2010 race is on.

Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz contributed to this story.

Discussion: 11 comments so far…

By atdleft

6/6/09 at 7:45 a.m.

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Yeah, Barbara Buckley could have done more to solve the the never-ending fiscal insanity. She could have done more to protect school funding. She could have done more to advance more inclusive civil rights legislation (why couldn't SB 207 include transgender people?).

But in the end, she didn't leave empty-handed. We got domestic partnerships, some new (if temporary) revenue, and some better regulation. I guess I'm not as excited about Barbara Buckley running for Governor as I used to be, but I'm won't be buying the "Rory Reid is more progressive" line until I actually hear good policy from him.
By afveteran

6/6/09 at 9:50 a.m.

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Both Buckley and Reid are good candidates for governor. Better than the candidates the GOP will produce: Jim Gibson or Jim Gibbons.
By OpenRange

6/6/09 at 10:08 a.m.

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I lost respect for Buckley over her calls for Obama not to "forget our old friend Isreal". I am not anti-semitic, but I cringe whenever politicians expose a side for special interests. Especially when the special interest is not a constituent. Will her priority be an issue or individual in Timbuktu, NV, or the Isreali conflict?
By Optimistic

6/6/09 at 10:15 a.m.

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Barbara Buckley will not be Governor.

It is possible that she could win a primary against Rory Reid. But she went on TV a year and a half ago and emphatically said "never again." (I'm glad Patrick is pointing it out!) Yet, she spent this session leading us down the same old road we've always been on. When Steven Horsford brought new ideas to reform education and our revenue structure, it was Buckley who fought the change.

I appreciate that she has the ambition to be Governor. But for moderate Democrats and Republicans, she just doesn't have the credibility. If the 2010 campaign becomes about moving Nevada forward, making significant change to areas that are deficient like education and tax structure, then what can Buckley say to gain support? "Don't trust what I've done, just trust what I'll say?"

On the other hand, if she can sell people on loving what we have...e.g. poor education for our kids and getting worse, a revenue structure as uncertain as an individual who was just laid off, reactive transportation policy that is years behind...then she will probably be the front runner and a prohibitive favorite.
By Optimistic

6/6/09 at 10:21 a.m.

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One addition:

Barbara Buckley is a very nice person. Despite her reputation for being mean, I have always found her to be personable, likable and engaging.

She has sponsored changes in the legislature that have been good and helpful for Nevada. But on the big issues, the strategic issues, the issues that require vision and courage, she has been absent.

Check that...she has not been absent. She has been on the wrong side. And that's why I don't think moderates will be able to support her.
By advocat

6/6/09 at 8:44 p.m.

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Governor?? No chance. Buckley trying to act as a responsible fiscal leader!! Laughable. One only needs to go back a few sessions and look at her voting record. She is largely responsible for many of the very costly changes made to the Public Employees Retirement system which helped get us into this mess. And that is only the beginning. I have been in the legislature for a number of years (as a lobbyist) and Buckley's record does not lie. Reid will clean her clock. At least the D's should hope so, otherwise there will be another Republican governor.
By afveteran

6/6/09 at 9:41 p.m.

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I don't see a GOP governor standing a chance of being elected in Nevada at anytime during this century. (All 91 years yet to go).
By ksand99

6/6/09 at 11:35 p.m.

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She'll have to withstand a heavy assault from the Reid political machine and she lacks the name recognition and fundraising abilities to defeat Rory (and his father).

As has been pointed out, she had a landmark opportunity in this legislative session to show the citizens of Nevada how she would prepare Nevada to join the 21st century. Instead, she largely allowed Raggio to set the agenda and the terms, and stayed in the background while Horsford fought the hard fights... all to protect her gubernatorial ambitions.

She won't survive the primary.
By Sun_Down

6/7/09 at 12:07 a.m.

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Buckley IS the liberal base.

She raised taxes on every living soul in Nevada.

And that is a BS line about small businesses getting a tax break (unless maybe you own a hotdog stand that operates 1 day a month)
By MysterMr

6/7/09 at 10:07 p.m.

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She just destroyed the state.

She needs to go quietly into the night.
By Optimistic

6/7/09 at 11:04 p.m.

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@ksand99:

She "stayed in the background while Horsford fought the hard fights... all to protect her gubernatorial ambitions."

Well said.

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