Monday, June 20, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

GRADING THE LEGISLATORS: Buckley, Raggio top rankings

Angle, Tiffany voted worst members of Assembly, Senate

Bill Raggio Barbara Buckley

CARSON CITY -- Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley has been selected as the best Assembly member for the fourth consecutive legislative session, while Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio was picked as the best senator at the 2005 Legislature.

"I guess they took pity on an old guy," quipped Raggio, R-Reno, who is 78 and has been a state senator since 1973, the longest tenure in legislative history.

He last was selected best senator during the 1997 session but has ranked near the top in every poll conducted since then by the Review-Journal.

"It is a tremendous honor to be named best Assembly person, especially four (sessions) in a row," Buckley said. "My philosophy is to work hard, be fair to everyone and look out for what is the best for the state as a whole. If you do that, people respect you."

Buckley, D-Las Vegas, is noted for her consumer protection bills. She was the primary author of the laws that regulate the payday loan industry and outlaw "yo-yo car deals," or situations where car dealers con buyers into paying high interest rates.

In addition, she authored the bill to assist Nevadans who want to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada.

A total of 130 lobbyists, press members and legislators were given ballots and asked to make their choices. Fifty responded. Review-Journal reporters did not vote. More than half of those surveyed selected Buckley and Raggio as the best legislators in their respective houses.

Eric Herzik, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Nevada, Reno, agreed with the selections.

"Raggio got business done," he said. "If Buckley is a liberal, she hides it well. She is best at working the caucus and the rules."

Named as worst Assembly member was Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, who announced her candidacy last week for the Congressional District 2 seat being vacated by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.

Selected as the worst senator was Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson.

Angle was the only Assembly member to vote against the bill that lowered tax increases on owner-operated residential property to 3 percent and 8 percent on commercial property.

Tiffany's ethics were questioned by several voters. To end a growing controversy, Tiffany severed a $10,000 state contract in March that allowed her to sell surplus government vehicles on eBay.

A state law forbids legislators from holding contracts with state government unless they are the sole source for a service or product. Tiffany had been designated by the state Purchasing Division as the sole source for Internet auto sales, although many people sell vehicles on eBay.

Buckley, 44, is a Philadelphia native, a lawyer and has served as executive director of Clark County Legal Services since 1996. She was elected to the Legislature in 1994 and became the first female majority leader in 2001.

With Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, leaving his position to run for governor, Buckley is in line to become the first female speaker in 2007. Perkins himself tabbed Buckley as his replacement in a speech just before the Legislature adjourned.

Raggio is a Reno native, a Marine Corps veteran who served in World War II and a lawyer. He spent 12 years as Washoe County district attorney before being elected to the Legislature. He has been the Senate majority leader in nine different sessions and the minority leader in five sessions.

Neither Perkins nor Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, fared well in the poll. Both are candidates for governor in 2006. Each ranked among the five best legislators in 2003.

Titus conjectured people who back Perkins in the governor's race deliberately graded her low. Her supporters also may have decided against ranking Perkins high, she added.

"Perkins' rating makes sense," Herzik said. "He didn't have a bad session or a good session. His power faded as the session went on."

Titus might have been hurt because of her "acerbic comments in poking fun at Perkins," Herzik added. "They both spent too much time working on how they looked with thoughts to the governor's race."