Barbara Buckley

Governor Jim Gibbons (R-Sparks) will not have an easy re-election from either party.  Molly Ball at the R-J has penned an excellent story that covers the major players entering the race so far.

Clark County Commission Chair Rory Reid (D-Las Vegas) and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) are the most talked about early entrants on the Democratic side.

The biggest surprise so far this year is the early entrance of North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montanden (R-North Las Vegas).  His is the first announcement from a major player on the GOP side.  

Reid is the current Clark County Commission Chair, is dealing with crisis after crisis at the county level and will receive significant assistance from his father, U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-Searchlight).

Buckley has increased her Assembly numbers to a supermajority and is normally a strong campaign force.  However, she gets the big picture and has to see that the Reid senior will apply immense pressure to clear the field for his son.

Montanden is considered a serious threat on the GOP side because of his centrist, consensus-building approach that has allowed him easy victories in traditionally Democratic North Las Vegas.

Montanden and Reid will have a fundraising advantage, as members of the legislature will be prohibited from fundraising until July of 2009 because of restrictions surrounding the legislative session.

The Associated Press is reporting that proposed budget reductions that require legislative approval may force a special session in early December.  The state has a gap of nearly $300 million in the budget for this year, and rumors speak of a December 8th special session to take the legislative action necessary to close it.

In a sweeping ruling handed down Friday by the Nevada Supreme Court, 21 elected officials in the state have been ruled ineligible to run for re-election because of term limits. In a separate ruling, 13 others, including the state Assembly speaker and state Senate majority leader, were ruled eligible to run for re-election.

Nevada voters approved term limits in 1996. Friday's ruling examined when exactly they kicked in for local officials and state lawmakers.

Term limits are ruled constitutional. Seperate opinions were issued on the legislative challenge and all others.

For the lazy: Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio and all legislators are still on the ballot, Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury and elected officials other than legislators are off the ballot.

WALLY MEMO

TO: Honorable members of the Nevada Supreme Court

FROM: Wally Edge

RE: Term Limits Decision

It has come to my attention that a final decision has not been announced in the term limits case, although arguments started weeks ago.

Two possibilities may exist:

(1) You may not be aware of the election calendar this year and the fact that early voting for some involved in the case starts Saturday.

There's still no news yet on the Nevada Supreme Court deliberations that could kick Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), and dozens of other elected officials off the ballot.

Clark County Commissioner Brian Scroggins? Senator Sharron Angle? Assemblyman Kevin Child? The race for all three candidates may get a boost today as the Nevada Supreme Court continues to hear arguments in the term limit cases.

Potentially at risk are Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, state Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley. Many others originally elected at the same time could be caught up in a sweeping purge if the court rules a strict adherance to the 12-year intent of the term limit initiative.

The Nevada Supreme Court heard arguments today in the term limits cases of two groups of elected officials: legislators, who are deemed elected the day after the ballots are cast, and everyone else, who are deemed elected when they take their oath of office in January.

The court is expected to take its next action on or shortly after July 14th.

From www.lectlaw.com:

SINE DIE - Latin. The final adjournment of a legislative session, without adjounring to a specific time or date. Adjournment without definitely fixing a day for reconvening; literally "adjournment without a day." Usually used to connote the final adjournment of a session of a State Legislature.

No one who actually works in the Legislature could tell me what that term means, so now we all know. And Sine Die, they are done.

The special session finished with more of a whisper than a bang. Sen. Hosford kept to himself for the rest of the session and even offered an apology: not for his trick amendment, but for how he submitted his trick amendment at the last minute in a sneaky manner.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley showed a lot of class when she laughed off the Minority Leader's accidental incusion of her in his anti-education attacks. She seemed to pass it off as Horsford being green, a fact that no one will dispute after his performance today.

Once the Senate decided to stop giving speeches and vote, the session ended quickly with the vast majority of the $275 million in spending cuts agreed upon.

The inexperience of Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford showed tonight as he started a partisan war with the Senate GOP and managed to attack his own Speaker in the process.

Oops.

Reports are coming in that Horsford offered a sneak attack on Raggio & Company by making them vote against a K-12 accountability amendment that was introduced without warning. Sen. Horsford was probably feeling pretty smart about the fact that he forced all GOP Senators to vote against school accountability.

The problem, and Horsford's freshman mistake, came next when he stood up to defend his actions. "He would have gotten away with it if he didn't love to hear himself speak so much" said one politico messaging from inside the building. Horsford apparently defended his actions with some fiery rhetoric, announcing that the other side wanted to balance the state budget "on the backs of Nevada schoolchildren."