Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Defiant Fiore declares she’s still Assembly majority leader

A Day with Michele Fiore

Las Vegas Sun

Michele Fiore takes part in Alan Stock’s radio program May 8, 2014.

Updated Friday, Jan. 2, 2015 | 3:05 p.m.

A Day with Michele Fiore

Michelle Fiore meets with legal counsel Craig Mueller May 8, 2014. Launch slideshow »

Assemblywoman Michele Fiore said she was wrongly removed from her leadership position and a number of Republicans still consider her the majority leader, according to a letter she sent to Assembly Speaker Designate John Hambrick.

The letter is the latest punch in what’s been a whipsawing post-election fracas for Assembly Republicans.

In what Fiore called an “open letter,” she said there is no legislative rule giving Hambrick the authority to remove her from the leadership post. She said Assembly Republicans should take a vote on her role in leadership.

“You need to know that a sizeable portion of the members of the Caucus still consider me the Majority Leader, as do I,” she wrote. “I will be occupying my Majority Leader office January 5th.”

Assemblyman Paul Anderson is currently slated to be the majority leader in the upcoming session.

Hambrick twice removed Fiore as the Assembly’s majority leader and chairwoman of the powerful Assembly Taxation Committee.

The first time was on Dec. 10, days after news reports broke that Fiore had more than $1 million in tax liens filed against her.

Fiore followed Hambrick’s announcement by saying there was a war on women in the Assembly, and Hambrick reinstated her the next day.

Fiore addressed her tax troubles on a conservative radio program Dec. 16. On the program, she said an ex-husband and rogue employee were to blame for her tax problems. She also criticized fellow Republicans for inciting division among the party’s members.

Two days later, Hambrick again removed Fiore from the majority leader and Taxation Committee posts.

He said her explanations for her tax troubles weren’t good enough and rebuked her comments about party members.

Hambrick could not be immediately reached for comment.

The letter also takes a jab at Assemblyman Pat Hickey.

After the Nov. 4 elections that swept the GOP into control of the Legislature, Hickey was the likely candidate for assembly speaker. He was the minority leader in the 2013 session.

But the influx of new lawmakers and ideological divisions kept Hickey out of the top spot. Assemblyman Ira Hansen won the job after his Republican Assembly peers took a vote on leadership.

Hansen, however, didn’t last long.

He left after Gov. Brian Sandoval asked him to step down because of insensitive columns Hansen wrote for the Sparks Tribune.

Hickey has been looking and commenting from the sidelines.

In a column he wrote for the Elko Daily Free Press, he equated the Republican hullabaloo to a “second-rate Vegas lounge act.”

In her letter, Fiore asked Hambrick if Hickey’s “sort of offensive and personal attack on our caucus by a caucus member acceptable under your leadership?”

Hickey also could not be reached for comment.

Fiore said she posted the letter to her website and sent it to the Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office and legislative legal counsel.

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