Assembly GOP had wild ride
From speaker fight to tax debate, successes alternated with bickering
CARSON CITY — The Nevada Assembly’s new and surprising majority ended the 2015 session the way it started: in chaos.
Republican candidates for the Assembly woke up Nov. 5 to discover they had a 25-member majority, taking control of the chamber for the first time since 1985.
Giddy and euphoric, the members picked their leadership and got ready to go to Carson City and make a difference on their issues, which ranged from Second Amendment measures to tort reform to restricting collective bargaining rights for public sector unions.
Oh what a difference seven months makes.
While successful and cohesive on
PLUS a number of policy issues, the caucus fractured on several controversial measures, from bills designed to give the state supremacy over federal lands to restrictions on the use of school restrooms by transgender students.
Some Republicans broke ranks, and those measures died.
Other proposals, to allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry guns on college campuses and to require parental notification for an abortion, passed the Assembly with unanimous GOP backing but ran into trouble in the GOP-controlled state Senate. Neither measure made it through.
But the real fracture came on the issue of taxes. A core group of 12 GOP lawmakers was opposed to Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval’s tax plan, including a new commerce tax. In a debate on the bill implementing the plan Sunday, the tax opponents called into question the character of their colleagues who were supporting the plan, which eked out a 30-10 victory with two anti-tax members absent.
Sandoval called the GOP supporters of his tax plan “the mighty 13.”
Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, who opposed the tax plan, alleged that Sandoval’s staff and others, including gaming lobbyists supporting the plan, were putting intense pressure on members to vote in favor. It worked, but Hansen said Republicans will pay the price come
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