Democrat

A few years ago, I sat in on a meeting of local Carson City Democrats and their guest speaker for the night, Republican State Sen. Mark Amodei.

CARSON CITY – A bill allowing the state Treasurer to invest up to $50 million in education trust funds to support economic diversification efforts and generate more money for public schools was signed into law today by Gov. Brian Sandoval.

RENO – For the three leading Republican candidates seeking the Congressional District 2 seat vacated with the appointment of Dean Heller to the U.S. Senate, it was all about qualifications and experience in a debate held here Wednesday.
State Republican Party Chairman Mark Amodei, a former state senator, state Sen. Greg Brower, appointed to fill the seat formerly held by retired Sen. Bill Raggio, and retired Navy commander Kirk Lippold, faced off ahead of a GOP meeting Saturday in Sparks that could determine which candidate will get the party nod.

CARSON CITY – Some GOP lawmakers say a bill introduced late in the just-ended 2011 session appears to be an attempt to move the Nevada Legislature more toward a full-time operation in the period in-between the biennial sessions.
Republican lawmakers critical of Assembly Bill 578 also say it would limit participation on interim policy panels by many of the 63 state lawmakers.

CARSON CITY – On Assemblyman Harvey Munford’s desk lies his teacher’s edition of an American government textbook.
The former high school history and government teacher said he brought it as a guidebook to the legislative process. But he has not used it much.
“It wasn’t applicable to a whole lot of things,” he said.
Munford, a Democrat from Las Vegas, describes himself as “disillusioned” with the Legislature.

Sharron Angle, who previously said she was going to run for Nevada's 2nd District Congressional seat, decided today to skip the race.

Her exit was good news for establishment Republicans who worried her presence would split the vote and open the door for a Democrat to win this seat for the first time.

The following is a statement put out by her campaign:

Carson City native and Nevada GOP Chairman Mark Amodei filed this morning to run for the open Nevada Congressional District 2 seat previously held by now-Sen. Dean Heller.

CARSON CITY — It’s starting to look at lot like campaign season.
Three Republican candidates for Congressional District 2 tried to sell their candidacies to about 100 members of the Nevada Federation of Republican Women at an event at the Plaza Hotel today.

CARSON CITY – The argument goes like this: every Nevadan would only pay 50 cents per person for a great renewable energy program.
Energy lobbyist Ted Ko even held up two shiny quarters during a legislative hearing to make the point.
But legislators are considering more than a dozen renewable energy bills this session,  and some lawmakers fear that a few dollars here and there will add up to significantly higher utility bills for their constituents if all of these bills pass.

CARSON CITY – A bill authorizing the state Treasurer to use up to $50 million in education funds to support economic diversification efforts and generate more money for public schools passed the Senate today despite questions about the constitutionality of the measure.
Senate Bill 75, amended twice before the vote, passed 12-9 with 10 Democrats and two Republicans in support. It will now be considered by the Assembly.
The bill is being sought by state Treasurer Kate Marshall.

CARSON CITY – A proposal by Gov. Brian Sandoval to transfer the state share of operating the mental health courts to the counties was rejected by Democrat lawmakers today, creating another $6 million hole in the upcoming two-year budget that starts July 1.
The party-line vote by members of the Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees came after repeated testimony from advocates for the courts since the session began that they would close without continued state support because of fiscal problems facing the counties.

CARSON CITY – Memo to Nevada lawmakers: If you don’t finish up your work on June 6 as the constitution requires, don’t expect Gov. Brian Sandoval to call you back to work right away in a special session.

By Andrew Doughman
CARSON CITY — The political power game of drawing political boundaries escalated today as Nevada’s Democratic legislators passed their plans for new political districts.

By Andrew Doughman
CARSON CITY – Assemblyman John Ellison had a choice.
He wanted to push the red button, but he was supposed to push the green button.
The seconds ticked by on the floor of Nevada’s Assembly. In the wide angle shot, the other 41 members eagerly cast their votes. In the close-up shot, Ellison’s hand hovered over the green and red buttons. He hated it, but he punched the green one.
He had made a promise to vote ‘yes,’ and he voted ‘yes’ this time after voting ‘no’ the day before.

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – Legislative Democrats unveiled the elements of their highly anticipated tax plan today, saying they will work every day until the end of the session to craft a proposal that restores many of the cuts in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget without choking off a nascent economic recovery.

Both Democrat Shelley Berkley and Republican Dean Heller today called on their fellow House members to drop the push to resurrect the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump project.President Obama, keeping a ...

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – Work on closing Nevada’s two-year $6 billion general fund budget will begin in earnest tomorrow after the Economic Forum today finalized its tax revenue projections for the coming two years.
But legislative Democrats and Gov. Brian Sandoval remain far apart on an acceptable spending plan even with a $218 million general fund revenue increase.

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – The Assembly worked late today meeting as a Committee of the Whole to review Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed budget for health and human services.
The review by the entire 42-member Assembly followed a similar session held in the Senate earlier this week.

Gov. Brian Sandoval announced today that he is appointing Congressman Dean Heller to fill the unexpired term of John Ensign in the U.S. Senate.

Heller, a long-time resident of Carson City and Carson High School grad, will join the U.S. Senate on May 3, when Ensign's resignation takes effect. Heller was elected to the Nevada's 2nd district congressional seat three times. Before that he served as Secretary of State and represented Carson City in the state assembly.

The Nevada Senate Monday approved two bills designed to stop discrimination against gays and transgender individuals.But the third piece in the package was defeated when Democrat John Lee of Nor...

CARSON CITY – As Gov. Brian Sandoval today said it is premature to speculate on who he will appoint to replace GOP U.S. Senator John Ensign, Democrats in the Nevada Legislature said they will seek a resolution urging a “fair, open, and transparent process for appointing a temporary replacement.”

CARSON CITY – Lawmakers took time some away from the budget and other pressing issues today to honor former Sen. Bill Raggio, a fourth-generation Nevadan and the longest-serving member of the state Senate who retired earlier this year.

CARSON CITY — Changing one word in a law could save Nevada up to $11 million.
Secretary of State Ross Miller has sponsored a bill that would change who is exempt from Nevada’s business license fee.
Right now, home-based businesses making less than $27,000 a year in net earnings are exempt from the requirement.
Miller would change the language to “a natural person” rather than the current “person,” since businesses have used this as an excuse to declare themselves exempt.

CARSON CITY – Efforts in the Legislature to amend Nevada’s constitution failed for the most part to move forward today as a deadline hit to get measures passed out of committee.
Measures creating a lottery, repealing the minimum wage and allowing tax dollars to be spent on religious schools all failed to advance.
One of the most significant failures came on the issue of vouchers for religious schools. Two measures, including one introduced by Gov. Brian Sandoval, did not make it out of committee by the deadline.

Alameda attorney E. Clement Shute, Jr., was appointed today by California Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board.

Shute is a founding partner of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP where he has represented numerous environmental organizations, including the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, since 1980, according to the governor's office.

Previously, Shute was a deputy and assistant attorney general for the California Attorney General’s Office from 1964 to 1980 and was in charge of the Environment and Consumer Protection Section from 1975 to 1980.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Tax revenues, or more specifically the lack thereof, have been topic No. 1 during the 2011 legislative session.
Thus far it’s been mostly talk, with GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval saying no to any new taxes or fees and some Democrat lawmakers saying additional revenues are essential to preserve education and critical social services. Republican lawmakers thus far are standing with the governor.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Ask people living near the strip in Las Vegas who their state senator is and, if they know, they might say Sen. Mark Manendo or Sen. David Parks.
They would both be right on both counts. Parks and Manendo represent one of the state’s two dual districts, which each have two senators.
They are a relic from a past era, and Parks says there is a “strong likelihood” they will soon be a thing of the past.

According to Nevada News Bureau, Republican Mark Amodei will announce soon that he is running for the Congressional District 2 seat currently held by Rep. Dean Heller.

The speculation is that Heller will make a run for the U.S. Senate seat held by John Ensign, who announced earlier this week he would not seek reelection to avoid an ugly campaign after his well-publicized sex scandal.

Two reliable sources have confirmed that Congressman Dean Heller said this week he is definitely committed to running in the U.S. Senate race. Heller’s office would not confirm the news this morning when contacted.

I watched from the gallery as Sen. Harry Reid called for an end to legal prostitution in his speech to the Nevada Legislature yesterday.

This part of the speech got wide coverage all over the world, overshadowing everything else he said. But there is one thing you should know. This was all an act, political theater that will have no effect on anything. So for all you folks riled up by this issue, just settle down and enjoy the show.