Elect Sheila Leslie

The candidates for Nevada Senate District 15, Republican Greg Brower and Democrat Sheila Leslie, both served as assemblymembers in the 1999 and 2001 Nevada Legislatures.

Thereafter, Brower was defeated for reelection and then returned to the 2011 Legislature as an appointed senator.

But those first two sessions when Leslie and Brower served side by side are enlightening.

During those two legislatures, Brower won enactment of four measures. One dealt with hospital districts. Another gave legislators who were also attorneys greater entitlement to stays of court proceedings during legislative sessions. Another dealt with how bills are paid by fire protection districts. And the last declared “Silver State Fanfare” the official state march.

During those same two legislatures, Leslie won enactment of measures dealing with detox treatment, stalking, requirements for utilities to disclose information to consumers, requirements for school districts to accommodate parental involvement in schools, providing home energy assistance to low-income Nevadans, screening of newborns for hearing problems, allowing arrests for domestic abuse to be made at any hour (state law previously limited such arrests to daylight hours), expanding workers injury insurance coverage to contagious disease exposure in the workplace, providing increased access for patients to their medical records, allowing employers to obtain court protection orders against harassment in the workplace, providing loans for nursing students and also requiring planning for increasing the capacity of Nevada nursing training, expanding admissibility of expert testimony in domestic abuse cases, prohibiting intimidation and harassment in public schools and providing information to students, major changes in Nevada gambling regulation, providing aids to members of the public making anatomical gifts, prohibiting racial profiling and ordering statistical study of profiling.

What’s at issue here is not just volume of legislation. It’s also the nature of that legislation. Leslie was concerned with matters of greater moment, of more direct impact on the lives of Nevadans.

When Brower returned to the Legislature a decade later, he won enactment of two resolutions memorializing deceased Nevadans, a measure covering distribution of fees for veterans’ license plates and a measure dealing with vending stands in regional transportation facilities.

At that same Legislature, Leslie won enactment of legislation on eminent domain, state policy on the disabled, car ignition interlock devices in drunken driving cases, availability of records of abused and neglected children, alternative energy, prison mediation, designation of autism protocols, coordination of energy projects with wildlife concerns, protection of children in foster homes—well, you get the point and we’re running out of room to list all of Leslie’s accomplishments.

The stark contrast between Brower and Leslie is no accident. Leslie functions well in a parliamentary process where members must work well with colleagues. Brower is distant and detached.

This race isn’t even a close call. Brower was appointed to replace legislative giant William Raggio, and if Washoe County is to reclaim the kind of influence Raggio brought to the seat, there is only one choice.

We urge the election of Sheila Leslie. Nevada cannot afford the loss of such a tireless achiever.