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Dec 24, 2023

Nevada voters don’t deserve what they got

"Memo from the Middle" is an opinion column written by RGJ columnist Pat Hickey,

"Memo from the Middle" is an opinion column written by RGJ columnist Pat Hickey, a member of the Nevada Legislature from 1996 to 2016.

Seated in the Assembly Chamber behind the expensive taxpayer funded leather chair I once occupied, I can't help but think that Nevada voters were short-changed in the recent legislative session.

Watching lawmakers gather in yet another special session, deciding whether or not to play "Moneyball" with the Oakland A's, I couldn't help but wonder if the brand of political hardball that's being played every two years in Carson City is causing Nevadans to conclude their government is whiffing on our other national pastime (politics) by failing to be "of, for, and by the people" it's elected to serve.

Political partisanship has replaced even the most basic mutual toleration of one's political opponents. Harvard political scientists Daniel Levitsky and Steven Ziblatt describe this exactly in "How Democracies Die," writing: "Constitutional hardball is the exploitation of procedures, laws and institutions by political actors for partisan gain in ways which violate pre-established norms and push the bounds of legality."

Which is exactly what you saw at the end of Nevada's regular legislative session. Crunching critically important bills through last-minute shenanigans by suspending the rules they’ve made for themselves has turned governing into something akin to a mud wrestling match in which the majority party in charge controls both the water and the dirt to soil their minority opponents.

Such frustration was echoed by the usually calm minority Senate leader from Reno, Heidi Seevers Gansert, who said in the final minutes of the regular session that "the majority's response to our list (of priority issues) has been disregard, disdain and dismissal." Such is the result of playing the political hardball game and one of the reasons why Nevada voters are increasingly registering as nonpartisans and independents, instead of with the two traditional parties.

While most voters will soon forget about the messy mishmash of bills living and dying at the end of a legislative session, many — along with lawmakers themselves — are beginning to question if such intentional chaos at the end of a legislative session is in the interest of the public good.

It's not. The suspension of rules, including the Open Meeting Law at the 11th hour because of political brinkmanship and gamesmanship makes for going over the brink and an ugly game to watch, as legislation is amended without scrutiny while producing "Christmas tree" bills and other pork-laden legislation that otherwise wouldn't survive the sunshine of the ordinary legislative process. It's so often said that sausage-making and lawmaking of this sort are similar, and should never be viewed given the questionable ingredients that go into both.

It's also why it's so frequently done in virtual darkness near the midnight hour of the Legislature's last day in session. As Meredith from the popular TV drama "Grey's Anatomy" once said; "Under the cover of darkness, people do things they never do under the harsh glare of day." Ain't that the truth, when it comes to politics.

In such an atmosphere of hyper-partisanship in which election results swing wildly in directions both left and right, the ensuing political pendulum becomes more like a guillotine than a bellwether of our legitimate differences.

A current example of where tackling a troubling issue would have been better served by partnership over partisanship is the with the critical issue of growing violence in Nevada's K-12 schools. Previous partisan legislation extolling the virtues of "restorative justice" (eliminating most suspensions and expulsions of students) was modified this session, and was one of the rare examples of both the governor and Democrat leadership coming together legislatively.

Not many other compromises were reached — again, one of the reasons why Nevada voters are increasingly "voting with their feet" against membership in the two traditional political parties.

Douglas Goodman of Nevadans for Election Reform thinks the political gridlock that occurred this session will be good for ballot Question 3 on open primaries and ranked-choice voting in 2024; "The political status quo of having to please the ‘base’ to enable re-election remains entrenched. If voter registration is any indication, voters are fed up. Voters have reached the point where they want the games to end."

One-party rule — regardless of what party it is — is not what Nevadans want. It's why they voted for a Democrat legislature and a Republican governor. Nevada voters overwhelmingly favor partnership over partisanship. They favor people over party.

It's high time Nevada's politicians start understanding this fact, because voters deserve better than what they got in this legislative session.

"Memo from the Middle" is an opinion column written by RGJ columnist Pat Hickey, a member of the Nevada Legislature from 1996 to 2016.

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