An irrelevant caucus no more

As soon as this weekend, Nevadans might learn the reform agenda for the 2015 Legislature — from a caucus that just a few weeks ago was supposed to be irrelevant to the discussion.

The Assembly Republican majority is meeting to lay out its policy priorities for next year’s session, and that list is expected to include bills that would be dead on arrival in a Democratic Legislature. Major school choice initiatives. An overhaul of collective bargaining for public employees. Maybe even reforms to the state’s pension, its prevailing wage law, its asset forfeiture law, and other previously untouchable programs.

The caucus, dominated by conservatives, is not waiting for Gov. Brian Sandoval to wrap up work on his 2015-17 budget or hear his State of the State address. Assembly Republicans clearly have lofty goals for the 2015 session, which starts in February.

It was not supposed to be this way.

Call them the red wave’s accidental majority. Throughout campaign 2014, it was understood that only control of the state Senate was in play — the Democratic majority was 11-10, and Republicans could capture an identical margin by winning three key races. The Assembly, ruled by Democrats with a 27-15 margin, was supposed to remain in Democratic control because so many Democratic seats had bulletproof voter-registration advantages. Fundraising reflected as much, with some Republican Assembly candidates attracting less financial support than a high school student council hopeful.

But disengaged Democrats failed to turn out to support their candidates. Republicans flipped the Senate, and they picked up 10 seats in the Assembly to win a 25-17 majority.

The unexpected power shift in the lower chamber has installed an unexpected speaker designee: Ira Hansen of Sparks. Pat Hickey of Reno served as Assembly minority leader last year and wanted to be speaker. But the election of so many underdog Republican candidates who didn’t receive Hickey’s support — in primaries or the general election — meant they owed Hickey nothing. So they lined up behind the more conservative Hansen.

Hansen’s ascension and voters’ overwhelming opposition to Question 3 — the proposed 2 percent margins tax on businesses to boost K-12 education funding lost, with 79 percent of Nevadans voting no — means the Assembly is likely be a roadblock for any tax increases. Remember, Sandoval has pledged to increase funding for schools, as has new Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, who campaigned on an identical promise. Hansen went so far as to install firebrand Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, as chairwoman of the Assembly Taxation Committee.

Whatever the caucus comes up with this weekend, I’m betting on a dominant theme: saving taxpayers’ money.

As recently as early fall, Sandoval and Roberson clearly were focused on winning the Senate and working with Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, who was expected to return as Assembly Speaker in 2015. It was going to be hard enough to get education reforms through the Assembly, even with Republican control of the Senate. Collective bargaining and pension reforms had no chance of passing and were off the table.

With Hansen as speaker, they’re most certainly on the table. But will Hansen be able to work with Sandoval and Roberson? And might major policy initiatives fall victim to GOP infighting?

Republican control of Carson City provides Sandoval with incredible opportunities to reshape Nevada — and incredible challenges in uniting his party.

Off the air

For more than two years, I’ve been a weekly guest on “Live and Local with Kevin Wall,” the afternoon drive-time talk show on KXNT News Radio. For those of you wondering why I wasn’t on the air last week for my regular 4 p.m. Monday appearance, I had a good excuse: The show was cancelled.

Many thanks to all my readers who took time each Monday to listen to me talk about my columns and the news of the day. A huge thank you to Kevin Wall, who got his walking papers from KXNT on Nov. 7 despite a solid run. And thanks to Wall’s production team for always accommodating me. It was a lot of fun.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s senior editorial writer. Follow him on Twitter: @Glenn_CookNV.