Former state senator guided by personal ethics, public good

The legs that once stood strong for the Equal Rights Amendment and Nevada's better political angels have grown unsteady over time.

As he nears a century old, former state Sen. Wilbur Faiss gets around these days with the help of a walker and doting sons. Like a desert tortoise, his strides are measured, methodical and made without complaint.

Truth is, Wilbur never strutted even in his prime. Gentlemanly self-deprecation runs too deep in the Faiss family bloodline for such behavior. Not that he lacks accomplishments to crow about.

For starters, consider that come October he will have successfully navigated 100 years of living. Although the avid golfer no longer strolls the fairways, he still exercises and works the New York Times crossword puzzle each day.

"I didn't know what age was until I was 90," he says. "I never really settled down until I was in my 90s."

Of those newsprint brainteasers that have driven lesser folks to pencil-snapping distraction, he adds, "I am a crossword puzzle zealot."

But age is just a number. It's his marriage of 78 years to his life's sweetheart, Theresa, that brings joyful tears to his eyes. Depending on who is counting, their bond is the fifth longest in America today. "You've got to give and take," he says, offering a simple poem to explain a life together that started in the Great Depression.

The family devotes much of its time and energy to the Wilbur and Theresa Faiss Middle School. For Wilbur, the honor is as sacred as the mission of public school.

Fair dealing and longevity count in this life, but in 1976 Wilbur Faiss took his citizen's duty a step further and ran for the state Senate seat held by entrenched, anti-ERA conservative Lee Walker. It wasn't exactly Wilbur's idea, but he was willing to do his part to try to pull Nevada out of the dark ages and help pass the ERA, the decade's progressive bellwether. Walking door to door, eight hours a day through North Las Vegas, he pulled off the upset of the season and would go on to serve two terms before quietly returning to the private sector.

"I was 64 years of age when Bob talked me into running for the Senate," he recalls. "They couldn't find anybody to run. So Bob said, 'My dad's got nothing to lose. He'll run.' "

Wilbur didn't just take up space in what was then still largely a white, conservative men's club. And although his son Robert even then was one of Nevada's savviest gaming attorneys, and son Don was an executive with Binion's Horseshoe, Wilbur drew a bright ethical line with each vote and abstention. He knew that a Faiss voting on casino industry issues would raise an appearance of conflict. And so he abstained.

Not because the Legislature's legal staff instructed him to, but because his conscience advised him first. He had too much respect for the office to allow even a perception of conflict.

How quaint he must seem in light of some of the ethically shabby votes our current generation of legislators has taken in recent years.

Wilbur had ethics and a conscience. Which is why he turned down a chance to get involved with other politicians in a moneymaking scheme that turned out to be the FBI's Operation Yobo sting. Politicians who ridiculed Wilbur as "too dumb" to play ball in Carson City wound up behind bars.

Average legislators have the conscience of a cat. They only purr when their backs are scratched. Not Wilbur.

When he surprised legislative insiders by voting for a bill that helped the state's optometrists, the group's lobbyist approached him and asked, "Is there anything we can do for you?"

He replied, "I don't think there is."

When your agenda is doing the right thing instead of currying personal and political favor, the citizen Legislature works fine. Of course, Wilbur wasn't starry-eyed and on the make when he arrived in Carson City. He was at an age most men think of retiring.

In 1977, the ERA faced an impossible fight at the Legislature against Nevada's usual backward political forces. It was then that legendary state Sen. Joe Neal pulled one of the smartest political maneuvers in the history of the legislative body, invoking Rule 30, which forced a surprise vote on the issue. Neal needed two state senators to join him in upstaging and upsetting the entire Senate.

In his oral history, Neal recalled, "When I invoked Rule 30, Bill Hernstadt and Wilbur Faiss stood up with me and that made three Senators. I saw (Republican Senate titan Bill) Raggio pull his rule book out and start looking at it. I guess he knew he was going to vote for the passage of the ERA, but he didn't know how it was going to get passed."

Nevada Lt. Gov. Bob Rose broke the 10-10 tie, and the ERA passed the state Senate. Although it eventually foundered in the Assembly in keeping with the state's long, regressive political mindset, Faiss became known for his support of the amendment. Which in more conservative years made him a target of derision.

"I thought the women were equal to men," Wilbur says. "When I was a young lad in Illinois, women weren't allowed to vote. They just weren't allowed to vote. ... I was brought up not to be against everybody. What was Nevada called, 'the Mississippi of the West?' I never had that problem. ... When I went into the Senate I was strictly independent. ... Usually a first-time senator is supposed to sit, look good and do nothing. I went right to work."

As the 2011 Legislature nears its end, fairness compels me to admit many of its citizen members are well-meaning. Their challenges are great, but their task of improving Nevada's quality of life is made nearly impossible because of the stranglehold of special interests and small thinking.

At the Nevada Legislature, putting the greater good ahead of personal and political gain has become the biggest challenge of all.

Former citizen Sen. Wilbur Faiss is living proof that standing up for your beliefs never goes out of style, and personal ethics is its own reward.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.