A conversation with John Marvel

LAS VEGAS-The 2008 election may be a landmark year for Nevada, with control of the state senate and a possible Democratic assembly supermajority both hanging on only one seat.  Perhaps more important, however, assuming term limits hold, is that 2008 will be the last election for eighteen  veteran state legislators, including the assembly's longest-serving member, Republican John Marvel.

Marvel, 80, has represented his home of Battle Mountain and Assembly District 32 for thirty years and reflected on his career and his last reelection with PolitickerNV.com earlier this week.

PolitickerNV.com: Assemblyman Marvel, it looks like you've drawn a whole slew of Republican challengers this election cycle.

John Marvel: I think every registered Republican in Washoe County and Sparks are in the race. 

NV: What do you think about the race? Are you concerned?

JM: You never know.  I tell you what, I'm going to be termed out this time.  This is my last time around, and I'm the senior member of the assembly and the senior member on ways and means, on the money committee, so I feel I have a lot of responsibility.  I'd like to go out, you know, but having that amount to something.

NV: How do you see the race playing out?  I would assume the rural areas of the district will come out strongly for you.

JM: We hope so.

NV: With five Republican challengers, all from Sparks, would you expect them to split the Sparks vote between them?

JM: I'll do well in Sparks, I think.  I have a lot of support even in Sparks and that area.  I have a lot of good friends in Winfield Springs and Spanish Springs and I'm close with the mayor and the city council.  I've worked with them very closely, and the Sparks city manager.  So, I have a good range throughout the government.

NV: The Democrat who ran against you in 2006 argued that the representative for AD32 should be from the Sparks area, where most of the population of the district is-

JM: You know, when you're in the legislature you represent the state of Nevada.  You don't represent just one area; you represent the whole state.  One of the things the guy was talking about last time, he was in favor of getting somebody from out of Battle Mountain.  Well, it's not where you hang your hat; it's a matter of who wears the hat.  That's why you need to look at a candidate's qualifications.

NV: You've served in the Assembly for nearly thirty years, when was your toughest reelection?

JM: Probably last time, in the primary.  It was just Mike Webber and me.  He actually got a few more votes in Sparks than I did, but I carried the rural counties really heavy.  Then I didn't have any troubles in the general.

NV: Mr. Webber is challenging you again this year.  Do you think he'll be able to improve on his showing this time?

JM: I don't know.  I think there's going to be a lot of people in the race now who will take away a lot of his votes.

NV: How will you campaign this season?  Do you still knock on doors?

JM: We try to do a lot of mailers.  And you know that Sparks district is so immense right now, you just wouldn't have time to cover every door.  So we try to reach everybody by mailers, by phone banks, by television and by radio and the newspapers.  And I do have teams that walk for me.

NV: What do you plan on running on this time around?

JM: My record.  I think I've got a pretty admirable record.

NV: What would you hope to accomplish in your final term?

JM: I think this is going to be one of the toughest years, the toughest legislative sessions we've ever had.  The main thing is just to concentrate on keeping the state solvent and to spend the money where it's going to do the most good.  There won't be any deficit spending this time.  Everything's going to be needed.  It's not what you want; it's what you need.  I'm also on taxation, I've always been on that committee and on natural resources because we have so much public land in Nevada, it's a good one to stay on.  Water bills go through there too.  Water's one of the most important, critical resources we have.

NV: With so much population growth into Clark and Washoe counties, you are one of the last rural legislators left.  How has that population boom affected rural representation?

JM: We set out with the proposition with the last reapportionment to up the size of the legislature, but then the Democrats wouldn't go for it.  So, what happens is they cut into the rural districts and they diluted it.  So we lost a lot of representation.  I hope they will increase it.  The assembly can accommodate four more and the senate can accommodate two more.  We have enough room to do it. 

NV: Are you afraid the rurals are losing their voice in the legislature?

JM: Yes, very much so.  The reason I'm running is the fact that with my seniority I still can get a lot of what I want through the legislature.  Anything like land ideas they need to get out.

NV: What do you think about the term limits?

JM: I don't like them and I'll tell you why.  You know who's going to run the legislature?  The lobbyists.  They have the institutional knowledge and there will be people that don't have any background.  So you basically have the lobbyists and the bureaucrats running the legislature.

NV: In your thirty years, who has been the best governor to work with?

JM: I've had a good relationship with all of them.  I really have, regardless of party.  I've never had an issue with the politics of it.  If you disagree, you just disagree, but you don't become disagreeable.  So you have to get along with them, you have to work with them.  So, I just couldn't say who was the best.  Each governor has had his positives and each one has his negatives.  I never stopped to weigh them.