EDITORIAL: Governor risks hand cramps with his active veto pen

Gov. Joe Lombardo sounded apologetic last week for draining the ink from his veto pen in the days following the June 2 adjournment of the Legislature. He shouldn’t be.

On Friday, the GOP governor issued the last of his 87 vetoes, breaking his record of 75, set following the 2023 session. In fewer than three years, Gov. Lombardo has nixed 162 bills, far surpassing his nearest rival, Gov. Brian Sandoval, who vetoed 97 bills over eight years.

“I do not enjoy using my veto pen,” Gov. Lombardo said in a Friday statement, “but as governor it is my responsibility to protect Nevadans from legislation that goes too far, expands government unnecessarily or creates unintended consequences that hurt families, businesses or our economy.”

Indeed, the voters had a clear choice in 2022, when Gov. Lombardo defeated Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak, choosing divided government and putting a Republican in the Governor’s Mansion as a check on Democratic legislative majorities cemented by progressive gerrymandering. Nevadans followed that up in 2024 by giving Republicans enough seats in Carson City to keep Democrats from gaining a supermajority in both the state Senate and Assembly.

Among the high-profile bills that failed to gain the governor’s approval were a proposal to impose mandatory family leave requirements on many Nevada employers, legislation to open party primaries to nonpartisan voters and a bill that would have made it more difficult for parents to challenge the availability of materials in school libraries.

Other vetoes can be placed at the feet of the Democratic leadership in the Legislature, who often prioritized bills that were virtually identical to legislation that Gov. Lombardo had opposed in 2023. That includes counterproductive housing measures that impose rent control or strangle landlords with various regulatory requirements.

“Why are the legislators putting him in the position to utilize his veto pen when he’s consistently voiced what are his lines and what are his expectations?” asked Anahit Baghshetwyan, an analyst for the free-market think tank Nevada Policy. The answer, of course, is politics. Democrats clearly believe that attempting to exploit the governor’s liberal use of his veto power will be more productive for their interests than reaching across the aisle to craft legislation that will earn bipartisan support.

Democrats will have the opportunity next session to override Gov. Lombardo’s vetoes, but that will require support from Republican lawmakers on each individual piece of legislation. But the governor should not fret about his veto pen. He’s simply doing part of the job he was elected to do.