GOP lawmaker opting out

Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert, who played a key role in the recent special session of the Legislature to close a nearly $900 million budget shortfall, said Thursday she won't run for re-election.

Gansert, R-Reno, is the assembly minority leader who during the session presented an alternative budget plan that irritated Democrats and briefly united a fractured Republican caucus.

"The reason I ran for office was to serve my community," Gansert said in a statement. "Being a member of the Legislature has been a gratifying personal experience, and I'm pleased that I was able to successfully represent my district and my state. However, at this time I've decided to step aside and take a break from elected office."

She said she had been considering the decision for weeks but waited until the conclusion of the session so as not to distract from budget negotiations.

Former assemblyman and Northern Nevada painting contractor Pat Hickey already has announced he will run for Gansert's seat. Hickey served one term that included the 1997 session.

Gansert's announcement means Assembly Republicans, currently outnumbered by Democrats 28 to 14, will need to find someone else to try to unify their caucus during the 2011 legislative session when members could be deciding on major changes to the way state government raises and spends money.

Assemblyman John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, has acknowledged he would be interested in the minority leadership job.

Gansert and the other Assembly Republicans shook up the special session when, with no notice, they announced they had their own plan to balance the state budget without tax increases.

The plan included a proposal to borrow against revenue from the state's unclaimed property fund to raise as much as $91 million. It also included a demand to make collective bargaining sessions between government employers and labor organizations subject to the open meeting law.

It riled majority Democrats who said the Republicans simply took the plan the Democrats had been crafting in private, made some changes, then presented it to the public. The unclaimed property idea didn't get into the budget bill, and the collective bargaining issue was included only as a nonbinding resolution.

Lynn Stewart, the assistant minority leader, said the move unified the Republicans.

"She united our caucus more than ever before," said Stewart, R-Henderson.

But when it came time to vote, eight Assembly Republicans voted against the budget deal Gansert worked with Democrats to craft. Only six voted in favor.

The final tally showed Republicans are still divided between strident conservatives and those likely to compromise, and the budget maneuver didn't bridge any divides, according to Eric Herzik, a political science professor at University of Nevada, Reno.

"Her leaving is emblematic of the problems of the Republican Party right now," he said. "If you're not in that strident, in your face, conservative wing, you basically are getting pushed out."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@ reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.