Just stupid enough to succeed

Once again, I’m guilty, as President Bush might say, of “misunderestimating” Nevada’s über-right. Before the ink was dry on the Nevada Legislature’s final decisions to end the state’s tax-and-spend impasse, the Hansen family was at work. Their goal was to start an initiative petition that would forbid public employees from running for office. I chuckled when I quoted Janine Hansen in early September: “These legislators don’t represent the people, but their own self-interests. Foxes, get out of the hen house.”

I thought people would see right through this transparent move.

And then the idea caught on. Hey, if governophobic Republicans see a chance to rid the Nevada Legislature of its last handful of Democrats and rogue (thinking) Republicans, they’re going to jump.

If you don’t know the Hansens, you know of them. They are the Independent American Party and Nevada Families Eagle Forum. They are the Nevada Committee for Full Statehood. They are the Nevadans for Sound Government.

The Hansens and their cohorts run for office every chance they get. In 2002, Janine Hansen ran for a seat in Congress; Christopher Hansen ran for Nevada secretary of state and Jonathan Hansen ran for attorney general. Four other Hansens ran in local races. They don’t win, but they have amazing stick-to-itiveness.

The Hansens started this push to take constitutional rights away from public employees like teachers or social workers. That’s how the whole dialogue about “double-dipping”—earning money as a state legislator and as a public employee—got started.

Now, two legislators, both Democrats, in Las Vegas lost their county jobs for collecting about a week’s worth of sick pay during the second special session in July. For the regular session, they’d taken leave without pay. And the Nevada secretary of state, Dean Heller (a Republican), has asked the attorney general (a Republican) to issue an opinion on whether government employees can serve in the Nevada Legislature. Heller’s intervention came at the request of John Wagner of Carson City, a lobbyist for the far-right secretive society (membership by invitation only) known as the Burke Consortium of Carson City. This group seeks the abolition of government services, from public education to garbage collection—and especially social services. Self-sufficiency is touted by the BCCC as the solution for dealing with the disabled, working poor and struggling single parents.

This is out of control.

Our state lawmakers are a diverse bunch. We have ranchers like Sen. Dean Rhoads (R-Elko) and radio station managers like Sen. Mike McGinness (R-Central Nevada). We have realtors, health care administrators, dentists and college professors. Sen. Ray Rawson (R-Las Vegas) is a dentist and a college professor, according to his bio on the Nevada Legislature Web site.

And it’s entirely likely that a person elected to office will have some bias in favor of, say, raising or lowering taxes. Teachers who work on the front lines with our kids, for example, might see a need to fully fund Nevada’s schools. A Nevada business owner who lives out of state and sends his kids to a private school might see absolutely no need to pay taxes for schools or parks or uninsured sick kids.

Teachers and parents might elect someone who understands education. Business folk can elect those sympathetic to the struggles of keeping a company profitable. Democracy is a beautiful thing when we the people elect lawmakers to represent us.

As far as I can tell, the Hansens won no elections in 2002. Nor did Karl Neathammer, founder of the Burke Consortium, who ran in 1998 for a seat in the Nevada Assembly against Bonnie Parnell, a Democrat. And a teacher.