Pat Hickey, Political Pundit
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sun, 06/07/2015 - 2:36pm
"Republicans own the education issue in Nevada right now. Let's cash in on that ownership!"
-Pat Hickey on Ralston Live, June 3, 2015
Pat Hickey always begins his blog entries with a quote that resonates with the theme, and I've learned from the master. I've become one of Pat's fans, both because he talks more like a human being than a politician (e.g. calling KOH's Dan Mason's Show "right wing" before pretending to correct himself), and because he has an extremely wry sense of humor.
This particular bit of political satire is about SB483, Gov. Sandoval's tax plan to fund education, which (per 1994's Question 11) needed a 2/3rd's supermajority to pass. Here are the numbers on that bill's final passage...
In the Senate, all 10 (100%) of the Democrats voted Yea, only 8 (73%) of the 11 Republicans voted Yea. All 3 Nays were Republican: Pete Goicoechea, Donald Gustavson and Mark Lipparelli. Without Democratic support, SB483 would have failed in the Senate, with 8 (38%) Yeas and 13 (62%) Nays.
In the Assembly, all 17 (100%) of the Democrats voted Yea, only 13 (73%) of the 23 Republicans present voted Yea. All 10 Nays were Republican: Jill Dickman, Chris Edwards, John Ellison, Michele Fiore, Ira Hansen, Brent Jones, Victoria Seaman, Shelly Shelton, Robin Titus and Jim Wheeler. Without Democratic support, SB483 would have failed in the Assembly, with 13 (33%) Yeas and 27 (67%) Nays. Had anti-tax-pledge-signing Republicans Victoria Dooling and John Moore been present, the vote would have been even more skewed, at 31% Yea and 69% Nay.
No matter how one tries to skew those numbers, there's no way 13 Republicans (representing less than a third of the Assembly's 42 members) can claim ownership of education in Nevada when they needed a 67% vote to fund it. When the smoke cleared, 43% of Republicans present had voted against their own party's governor, while 100% of Democrats in both houses supported him. If anything, that proved that Democrats put sound public policy ahead of partisanship.
Republicans are free to try taking credit for the Democrats' solid support of the Gov. Sandoval's education plan. The ideal place to roll that argument out would at a comedy club on open mic night.
