PolitickerNV Profile: Monica Moradkhan

If Democrats fail to reach the veto-proof majority in the Assembly they've been craving for years, a good bit of the credit for it will belong to Monica Moradkhan. Moradkhan has served as executive director of the Republican Assembly Caucus since 2006, an unlikely vocation for the onetime UNLV hotel administration major.

"I've always had an interest in politics," said Moradkhan, 28. "It started in high school when I was on the student council and student body president."

Moradkhan moved to Las Vegas with her family in 1992 and attended Clark High School before UNLV. She continued her student political career at UNLV, becoming student body president twice, the first woman to do so. Although active with the college Republicans, Moradkan did not imagine a future working with the Grand Old Party.

"I didn't expect to be working in politics; I kind of just fell into it," said Moradkhan. "A few weeks after graduation [in 2004], I was watching the Republican National Convention and was so inspired. I e-mailed one of my friends with the Bush-Cheney campaign and asked ‘what can I do?'"

Expecting just to volunteer with the campaign, Moradkhan was instead hired as voter registration coordinator for the state of Nevada.

"It was a short time, but one of the best experiences I've had," said Moradkhan. "It was a dynamic campaign and obviously the climate was a lot different back then."

After Election Day 2004, Moradkhan considered grad school, but was instead hired by the state Republican Party. First she worked as political coordinator, then voter registration director for the party before being hired by the caucus in Jan. 2006.

"I think, given the national scene, we did pretty well holding onto what we had [in 2006]," said Moradkhan. "The seat that we lost was Brooks Holcomb's seat in Assembly District 24, a Democratic district that we held from 2002 to 2006 and we were able to retain Valerie Weber's seat which is also a Democratic district. We would have liked to pick up seats, but we have a different plan this time around."

As executive director, Moradkhan views her job as facilitating communication between members of the caucus as well as helping with candidate recruitment and fundraising and working with the caucus' paid consultants. This year, she hopes to improve on the caucus' performance in 2006 by picking up targeted seats in Democratic districts.

"We're only targeting a few races. You have to be realistic, especially when you're in the minority, and you have to look at what you have the ability to raise and what districts are actually winnable," said Moradkhan.

The races the caucus will be targeting this year include Assembly District 23, where Melissa Woodbury is running for Assemblywoman Rosemary Womack's open seat; District 29, where Sean Fellows is running for Assemblywoman Susan Gerhardt's open seat; District 24 where John Gwaltney is challenging Assemblyman David Bobzien; and District 5 where Donna Toussaint is trying to hold Assemblywoman Valerie Weber's open seat for Republicans.

Also part of the plan was putting up Republican candidates in seats where they have little chance of toppling the incumbent, like in Assembly District 8, where political novice Jim Jonas is challenging Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley.

"Republicans need to have a choice at the polls," said Moradkhan. "Just because a district was carved out or gerrymandered in Democrats' favor doesn't mean that we're not going to go and recruit a candidate to give Republicans an option."

"Also, if you look at the big picture, it's not just turning out Republicans to help the legislative candidates. We have to get Republicans elected from the bottom up and top down. If Jim Jonas is going door to door in his district and people go and vote for him, that's going to help Congressman Porter, John McCain and all these folks."

Focused on this year, Moradkhan is not making plans for life after Election 2008, saying "only time will tell," what's next for her.

"This is a field that you just, kind of, can't plan for," said Moradkhan. "You just don't know what's going to happen. I never imagined I would be in this position, but I'm so thankful I took the opportunity."