Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

What will GOP do with its new power in Nevada?

Nevada Republicans Election Night Watch Party

L.E. Baskow

Gov. Brian Sandoval enters with his family as Nevada Republicans gather to celebrate the winning vote counts in New Nevada Lounge on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014, at Red Rock Resort.

Gov. Brian Sandoval and Nevada’s Republican Party will call the shots in the Legislature.

They will drive the hard decisions on the state’s $20 billion budget, Clark County’s failing public school system and the rising costs of health care.

But the Republican Party also must deal with itself.

The GOP scored an Election Day victory that was as unexpected as it was unprecedented. The party united for the win but now must remain together during the legislative session. It won’t be easy.

Ideologically, Nevada Republicans cover the spectrum.

After the Tea Party wave of 2010, the majority of Nevada Republicans followed Sandoval’s lead and moved center. But in February, 15 Republican rookies will step into the Legislature, many of whom ran on far-right platforms. At the same time, a cadre of the Legislature’s more conservative Republicans unhinged themselves from the fringe with more moderate policies and promises.

If the moderates and far-right can stick together, the GOP will be in a position to hang onto its power in 2016. But the question is whether that’s possible.

Internal politics

Political insiders were shocked when Republicans elected Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, as chamber speaker. Pat Hickey, R-Reno, the current Republican Assembly leader, was next in line for the job.

Hansen’s politics fall right of Hickey’s, and the move was the first sign of a split between GOP moderates and conservatives.

Two weeks later, jaws dropped when Hansen stepped down from the speaker post. He resigned after columns he wrote for the Sparks Tribune were unearthed; the columns included racial epithets and degraded women and other minority groups.

Hansen said the frenzy that erupted was a calculated attempt to empower someone more moderate.

“The powers that be are planning a massive, more than $1 billion tax increase, and I stood in the way as speaker,” Hansen said.

If the party’s two factions can’t get along, the governor could end up vetoing a bill sponsored by his own party. Assembly Republicans are scheduled to pick a new leader Tuesday.

Education reform

A tax increase is one option for boosting one of America’s worst public school systems, but Republicans say there are better choices.

The midterm election suggested voters aren’t in the mood to pay more. Nearly 80 percent voted against a tax on businesses that would have benefited schools.

Assemblyman Wesley Duncan, R-Las Vegas, said the Legislature could implement reforms without raising taxes by adding charter schools, changing collective bargaining laws or allowing parents to choose their children’s schools.

The budget

Legislators in both parties are awaiting the governor’s recommendations on sunset taxes, passed as a temporary measure in 2009 after the economy crashed. They were supposed to go away, but the Legislature renewed them in 2011 and 2013. They add more than $600 million in revenue for the state.

With an improving economy, many wonder whether the sunset package will phase out.

“The sunsets have to be dealt with,” said Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka.

Sandoval will release his budget in January.

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