Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, fields a call in his office earlier this month. Oceguera, a North Las Vegas Fire Department battalion chief, is replacing Barbara Buckley as majority leader. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

CARSON CITY -- New Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera figures he has a couple of attributes that will work to his advantage as the Legislature heads into another potentially contentious session on Feb. 5.

Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, has been a firefighter for the past 18 years and has made critical decisions in times of stress. And he grew up in predominately Republican rural Nevada, playing sports for the Fallon High School Greenwave.

He said he shares the values of conservative ranchers and farmers.

"It's a huge responsibility," Oceguera said. "But I am looking forward to it, to the challenge. As a firefighter, I have had to make very stressful decisions with a limited amount of information quickly. And I am from Northern Nevada, but I live in Southern Nevada. Hopefully, my background will help bring people together. I have no reason to think we won't work well with Republicans."

Oceguera, 38, is taking up what Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons pledged in his inaugural address as his own goal. Oceguera, too, wants to build bridges with the opposition party.

He is a battalion chief with the North Las Vegas Fire Department. And, as in his three previous sessions as a legislator, Oceguera will continue working for the Fire Department. He missed 568 hours as a firefighter during the extended legislative session in 2003 but made up most of those hours and earned most of his $80,000 a year captain's salary by trading shifts with firefighters of a similar ranks.

Most weekends during the legislative session, Oceguera will head home and work at least one 24-hour shift as a battalion chief.

He promises he won't fall asleep while making Monday morning floor speeches in the Assembly. "Some days I might be more tired than others. But I come from small-town USA, and we call it hard work," Oceguera said.

Oceguera replaces Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, as majority leader. Buckley becomes the first female speaker of the Assembly in Nevada history.

Oceguera said he welcomes the challenge of assuming Buckley's duty of making many of the speeches in which Democrats will push their agenda.

To his thinking, the top issues facing the Legislature are education and transportation. And that includes expanding full-day kindergarten classes into more schools and coming up with a way that the state Transportation Department can find the $3.8 billion it needs to construct superhighways over the next eight years.

Gibbons and Republicans already are on record against expanding full-day kindergarten.

Republicans hold the governorship and control the state Senate by an 11-10 margin, but Oceguera has his own formidable number: Democrats outnumber Republicans 27-15 in his house.

"I look at government as a three-legged stool," he said. "If we can get out of here in June after having done something to take care of both problems, then we can call it a good day."

Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, said he expects to work in a bipartisan manner with Oceguera and pledges cooperation on transportation and most other issues.

"I look forward to working with John and Barbara," he said. "People try to make it sound like we are gladiators going in a battle to determine who will be bloodied more, but I look at it as standing up for what you believe in and watching out for the taxpayers' wallets."

But Mabey said he is opposed to expanding full-day kindergarten, now offered only in "at-risk" schools or those in poorer neighborhoods.

"Putting in full-day kindergarten will take a huge number," he said. "It is a good day care center program for parents who work. I don't see why Barbara may make it the hill to die for."

Mabey questions whether full-day kindergarten brings lasting academic benefits for students. He also said schools lack the facilities to add kindergarten classes and struggle to find teachers.

Oceguera said Democrats want a chance to show Gibbons and Republicans how full-day kindergarten helps children.

Oceguera said Democrats are willing to look at proposals by Republicans and Gibbons to reduce the state's potential $10 billion unfunded long-term debt.

The $4 billion unfunded liability the state could face on paying future health care benefits to state employees concerns Oceguera, but he is confident the Public Employees Retirement System is in sound shape. The system has sources for about 79 percent of the money it will need in coming years and wants to achieve full solvency by 2033.

"If you are 79 percent funded, the world is not coming to an end," Oceguera said.

"We should try to get it up to 100 percent, but this country is built on credit. I can't understand people who think public employees shouldn't get a decent retirement. I go to work every day and risk my life. Somehow, public service has become a bad thing in people's mind."

Oceguera brings to the table perhaps the most unusual ethnic heritage of any legislator. He is one-quarter American Indian, one-quarter Hispanic-Basque and half Irish.

In its 143-year history, Nevada has had only one full-blooded American Indian, Dewey Sampson in 1939, serve in the Legislature.

Oceguera said that he is a registered member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe and that his 82-year-old grandmother lives on the reservation in Schurz.

He said Indian groups have asked him for assistance on bills, and he wishes he could help them more.

As proud as he is of his Indian heritage, Oceguera is even prouder of being a firefighter and a paramedic.

"I can't imagine doing anything else," he said. "It is the best job in the world. Every day there is something different. I hope my actions have saved peoples' lives."

Oceguera said he and his colleagues recently rescued someone caught in an elevator on a construction site, pulled injured people out of a wrecked car and put out a fire caused by a propane explosion.

During slow times at the fire station, Oceguera has hit the books enough to earn a master's degree in public administration at UNLV and a law degree from the Boyd School of Law.

He failed the bar examination following the bitter, long special session in 2003, but intends to try again after he retires as a firefighter.

But Oceguera isn't sure he will become a practicing lawyer after retiring. He admits an interest in holding a statewide office.

"We'll see," he said. "Politics is very fickle. I try not to look far ahead."