Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley is pictured at her office in downtown Las Vegas. Buckley is set to become the first female speaker of the Nevada Assembly. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

From the way people describe Barbara Buckley, you might expect to meet a linebacker-size she-beast with snakes for hair and laser beams for eyes.

Ruthless. Cunning. Tough. Brilliant. These are some of the words political players from both sides of the aisle commonly use to describe the Las Vegas Democrat who is set to become the first female speaker of the Nevada Assembly.

Genuine respect, tinged with genuine fear, is what most political players -- other politicians, lobbyists, and those who've observed her ascent -- express when asked about Buckley.

The real Buckley is a slim, diminutive woman with jade-green eyes behind rimless glasses, a youthful-looking 46-year-old with an easy smile and a disarmingly frank and thoughtful manner. "Hey, man," is her friendly greeting.

A Philadelphia native with working-class roots who once worked as a Las Vegas hotel maid, Buckley is a paradox of ambition. Those who know her say they doubt her meteoric rise in politics is finished, and she doesn't rule out someday running for higher office, including governor.

To hear her tell it, however, it's almost serendipitous that she got where she is. It usually was others who recognized Buckley's potential and urged her to go to the next level -- a better job, law school, the Legislature, leadership roles.

Perhaps most telling about Buckley's nature, whenever someone told her she could achieve more, she went for it. And she almost always got it.

ROOTS

Buckley was the youngest of four children born to parents who met working in the shipyards of World War II. She lived in a Philadelphia row house and attended Catholic schools while her father worked as a payroll clerk, her mother as a secretary.

As working people who went through the Depression, her parents encouraged hard work, frugality and compassion for others.

In 1980, Buckley, a clerical worker with a high school education, came to Las Vegas to visit a friend and "fell in love," she said.

"The blue sky, the beautiful mountains, it was just so different," she said of her first impression of the place. "Parts of Philadelphia looked like a war zone."

She decided to extend her two-week vacation into a permanent stay. But the only work she could find was as a maid at the MGM.

Frustrated but not deterred, she moved back to Philadelphia, did secretarial work and bided her time. When she'd saved $800, she went back to Las Vegas and found legal secretary work.

A couple of years later, she moved to a new law firm, where one of the partners, Rich Myers, saw potential in her.

"He really encouraged me to go to law school," she said. "But first I had to go to college."

While Buckley took night classes at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the firm helped her financially and accommodated her schedule, and Myers let her sit at the counsel table during civil trials. She knew then that she wanted to be a lawyer, although she was "scared to death" to attend law school.

Once enrolled in law school at the University of Arizona in Tucson, she found her fears had been groundless.

"It was a breeze" compared to working and going to college full time simultaneously, she said.

Buckley graduated fifth in her law school class in 1989.

From there, Buckley took a job with Nevada Legal Services, a private nonprofit that helps those who can't afford lawyers with civil matters. Since 1996, Buckley has been executive director of Clark County Legal Services, a separate legal-aid organization.

FALLING INTO POLITICS

Much of the initial work Buckley did there was helping poor people fight eviction, and those fights took her to the Legislature.

"A lot of the problem" behind evictions, she said, "is that people need affordable housing."

Buckley discovered Nevada was the only state not taking advantage of federal laws that allowed redevelopment funds to be put into affordable housing. Buckley approached then-Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, who agreed the situation should change. They formed a committee and went to the 1991 Legislature, and their bill passed.

Two years later, Buckley fought a bill being proposed that would have shortened the time from notice to eviction from five days to two. To Buckley, the proposal was unduly cruel. "At five days, Nevada already had the fastest notice in the country," she said.

The bill passed by one vote.

"I was devastated," she said.

But her boss suggested that maybe Gov. Bob Miller could be convinced to veto the legislation. Buckley started working the phones, calling charities, politicians, lawyers, church groups.

"They all called Governor Miller, and he vetoed the bill," she said. "I said, 'This process can work.' I learned a lesson that day that anything can be done."

A Democratic state senator, Larry Spitler, had seen Buckley in action and encouraged her to run.

The Democratic assemblyman who represented her West Las Vegas district happened to be retiring. The district as it is now drawn stretches from Sahara Avenue south to Warm Springs Road, and from Rainbow Boulevard east to Valley View Boulevard.

With help and advice from Spitler, Buckley won. She entered the Assembly as a freshman legislator in 1995.

At the time of her election, "nobody knew her," said outgoing Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson.

FRESHMAN YEAR

Buckley didn't stay unknown for long. The nationwide Republican electoral sweep had turned the Nevada Assembly, traditionally controlled by Democrats, into a 21-21 tie between the parties. But the election of two Democrats had been challenged and couldn't be certified until the contests were evaluated.

The Assembly Republicans used the pending challenges to declare themselves the majority and give themselves the Assembly leadership.

The Democrats' leader at the time, Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, called Buckley. "He said, 'You're a lawyer, right? Welcome to the caucus. We need your help.' "

Buckley drafted a legal brief that said her caucus had been denied due process and the voters' will frustrated by the Republicans' maneuver. Secretary of State Dean Heller agreed and said the parties had to share leadership.

It would be the first of many decisive victories for Buckley.

A memorable battle during Buckley's first session came at the end. Again because of her legal expertise, she was sent to negotiate a bill on hotels' responsibility for punitive damages.

The bill contained a provision that would have made it retroactive to a certain date that happened to be just before the Tailhook scandal, in which accusations of sexual misconduct stemmed from a 1991 military gathering at the Las Vegas Hilton.

That meant a court-ordered award to a victim of the scandal would be erased. Buckley thought that was wrong, although she saw merit in other aspects of the bill.

Buckley's negotiations with gaming and resort lobbyists pitted her against the state's most powerful interests, and they were impressed by what they saw.

"She very quickly gave us our parameters and said, 'This is what our sandbox is going to be,' " said Billy Vassiliadis, a Democratic political operator and gaming lobbyist. "When we walked out the door after the first negotiating session, Harvey (Whittemore), one of the top lobbyists in the state, said, 'Man, she is going to be tough.' "

Whittemore told almost exactly the same story.

"What I said to everybody is, 'I've been doing this for a long time, and this is a person who is going to be an extraordinary legislator,' " he said.

RISING IN THE RANKS

Buckley was named freshman legislator of the year for her first session. In 1997, her second term, she was named assistant majority leader.

In 2001, when Dini stepped down, she became majority leader. This year, Speaker Perkins announced he wouldn't run for re-election, and Buckley was unanimously elected speaker by her caucus after the election.

Perkins, the chief of the Henderson Police Department, said he takes great pride in Buckley's rise.

"We don't always agree. I'm probably one of the more conservative Democrats in the state, coming from a law enforcement background, while she works for legal services," he said. "But as early as 1997, she became my right hand, and we've been a team ever since."

Over the years, legislative watchers say, Buckley's natural intelligence and strategic skill have been steadily honed. Her last major fight, which began at the end of the 2005 session and continued into this year, was over a bill to allow Nevadans to purchase cheap prescription drugs sold in Canadian pharmacies.

Although the idea was popular with voters, it was opposed by business interests, as well as the federal government.

She did it for the right reasons, Perkins said of the bill. "For Barbara, political capital is to be spent on others, not for fame or personal gain or earnings potential," he said.

The bill passed the Assembly and was set to pass the Senate when unexpected Republican opposition flared up. Buckley dug in her heels.

"She found the right pressure points," Perkins said. "It was one of the last bills to pass."

The battle didn't end there. Newly appointed Attorney General George Chanos issued an opinion saying he didn't think the legislation would hold up.

The battle between the canny legislator and the fresh appointee intensified. Chanos accused Buckley of bad lawyering and disingenuous tactics, while Buckley called Chanos an enemy of senior citizens and the poor.

By all accounts, Buckley won that battle. The clearest demonstration came in a January hearing before the state Pharmacy Board.

Dozens of witnesses, including Republican and Democratic legislators in both Northern and Southern Nevada, testified in favor of implementing the bill.

Chanos was the lone voice against it.

Asked about Buckley last week, Chanos didn't want to talk about her.

"My mother told me, if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all," he said. "It'll come off as sour grapes. I could care less. I'm over it."

WHAT LIES AHEAD

Tussles like the one with Chanos are why people call Buckley ruthless. Whether because they will have to work with her or because they are afraid of her, or both, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle wouldn't criticize her for this article.

Outgoing Gov. Kenny Guinn called her "a very good legislator, tough but fair, who looks out for the state of Nevada."

One who disagreed was ousted Republican Sen. Sandra Tiffany, who lost her re-election bid last month.

"She was very partisan, and she was never open to new ideas," Tiffany said. "She'll say she's working with you when she has no intention of changing her mind. She's always against business. If she hasn't changed her heavy-handed, partisan ways, she's going to be ineffective" as speaker.

But Republican political guru Sig Rogich said Buckley is respected by those who disagree with her because she fights fair.

"She's respected by Democrats and Republicans alike because she's an honest broker," he said. "You know where you stand with her on an issue. There's no skullduggery, and she's a willing listener."

Buckley is seen as having very liberal core values but being willing to move toward the center to be effective, said University of Nevada, Reno political scientist Eric Herzik.

"She is a much tougher player at the political and personal level than either of her predecessors," Dini and Perkins, Herzik said.

That might be because, unlike them, she comes from outside the Nevada good-old-boy network and has made her own way while basically ignoring it, he said.

Buckley said she's been caricatured as a far-left liberal.

"I don't believe the role of government is to give people handouts, and nothing in my legislative record supports that," she said. "My philosophy is to give everyone a chance to have a good education, a good job and a good life, while making government work effectively."

Many in Republican circles believe Buckley will run for statewide office, probably attorney general, and use that as a launching pad for an eventual gubernatorial bid.

Some even hope she does so as soon as possible just so she'll be out of their hair in the Legislature, Herzik said.

"I'd be amazed if she retired as Assembly speaker. I'd put the house against that. She'd be a strong candidate for governor and, depending on the circumstances, she could win."