Looking ahead: Buckley could be formidable candidate for governor

By J. Patrick Coolican

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

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.