Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

jon ralston:

Raggio’s exit leaves a big vacuum

Bill Raggio is the only elected official who almost made me cry.

It was June of 1997. I had written a column accusing Raggio and others of lying in an attempt to smear a Democratic state senator who had settled a court case with the majority leader and others. For a couple of weeks, Raggio, with whom I frequently interacted, froze me out. And then he sent word he wanted to see me.

Like many lawmakers and lobbyists who met with him over the years, I was not prepared for what was coming. He expressed his disappointment in me, compared me to people he knew I despised, pushed all my buttons. He had carefully thought it through, I later realized, but it was devastating.

I held back tears, but my eyes were moist as I walked out of his office. Like many a legislator, lobbyist and, yes, Southern Nevada, I had been taken to the woodshed by the master of subtle incisions — you didn’t know you were bleeding until you left the room.

As he departs the scene, unimaginably, after 56 years in public life, Raggio leaves behind an unmatched legislative legacy, much of it palpable in the form of laws, buildings and programs but much of it invisible to the naked eye. The man who left his mark on more bills than anyone in state history probably should be immortalized in a biography titled, “Never Leave Fingerprints.”

Thus, there is a palpable sense of mourning, especially in Northern Nevada, that no other elected official could achieve upon retirement. Bill Raggio is not dead, but an era is. And I come not to bury him but to praise him.

Raggio was the Master of the Game, in every facet. He worked harder than anyone. He knew the budget better than anyone. He had better relationships with lobbyists and the media than anyone. And he was smoother, funnier and classier than anyone.

The cliche is as appropriate here as anywhere I can think of: Sixty-two members of the Legislature every two years were playing checkers; Raggio played chess, and he was a grandmaster to boot.

Put another way: Raggio walked into the legislative labyrinth every two years as the only one who knew the way to the exit. And before he led the rest of the denizens there, he had almost always accomplished what he wanted — anything from education accountability measures to an ornament on the end-of-session Christmas tree to some business-friendly measure.

I often referred to him as Sir Bill through the years. He truly was the courtly lord of the manor, albeit now an octogenarian who may have lost a few steps — yet still miles ahead of his peers and still possessed of a freakish endurance that allowed him to outlast everyone.

There will be those who say he symbolized everything wrong with Nevada — the consummate good old boy who thrived in the state’s incestuous politics, helping his law partners and cronies, serving on company boards. But while there may be a patina of truth to that characterization, it is so overwhelmed by his good works as to render it all but irrelevant.

Too, the notion that he was not a conservative is just silly, more evidence that the word has lost all meaning. Raggio may not have been invited to the Tea Party, but he did more for conservative causes than any of the nouveau right. He staunchly opposed many labor initiatives and was adamant that state employees should not have collective bargaining rights. Business interests had no better friend than Raggio, and he single-handedly squelched thousands of Democratic initiatives.

But Raggio was flexible enough, not in the pejorative sense attributed by litmus-testing, tea-swilling folks, to realize that circumstances change and that sometimes programs needed funding and taxes need to be raised. He funneled millions to the North, but he was also a statesman in the truest sense of the word.

The past few cycles took their toll. He was furious that Sharron Angle challenged him in a primary in 2006. And despite putting the best face on it, he was shattered when Mike McGinness ousted him as minority leader, ostensibly because he snubbed Angle for Harry Reid in the Nevada Senate race (as many, many Republicans did privately).

Yes, Raggio has an inoperable, severed Achilles tendon that limits his mobility. But while he is a proud man and would not want to hobble around the building, I think he would have put up with the pain if he were still leader.

I have always considered it a political tragedy for Nevada that Raggio never got to do what he did in Carson City in Washington, D.C. He tried and failed to become a U.S. senator. He was easily that good and would have been a leader there, too.

A day after that unforgettable meeting 14 years ago, Raggio called and asked me to dinner, as if nothing had happened. But now, something has happened that has changed everything. When we walk into the Legislative Building on Feb. 7, Bill Raggio will not be there.

It makes me want to cry.

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