Marines, layoffs prepared new assemblyman

Elliot Anderson doesn't pretend to understand the struggles ordinary Nevadans face. He's lived them.

The newly elected 15th District assemblyman is a security guard at Planet Hollywood on the Strip, his third casino job since moving to Las Vegas in 2005.

Anderson, 28, a Democrat, was laid off from a security job at the Golden Nugget and another dealing craps at Hooters Hotel.

The layoffs were a cold dose of reality for Anderson, who after a discharge from the Marines moved to Nevada just as the state's economic boom was tilting toward a bust.

"It is an extremely valuable perspective," said Anderson, who grew up in Wind Lake, Wis., the son of public school teachers. "There is not a whole lot of people (in the Legislature) who make under $15 an hour. I do really understand what workers on the Strip go through."

Fortunately for Anderson, his Marine training and Afghanistan combat experience taught him to persevere through tough circumstances.

So, even as Anderson coped with finding work in a brutal economy, he graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a degree in political science, purchased a home and embarked on a career in politics.

"That is what makes a Marine, that attitude," Anderson said. "Once you understand that anything can be done if you put your mind to it ... and don't make excuses, you will be able to get stuff done."

During his campaign, Anderson combined an ability to relate to everyday voters with a work ethic honed as a Marine. He spoke face-to-face with 2,059 residents; he knows the number because he sent each a thank-you note.

Anderson said as many as 300 of the people he contacted had been affected by layoffs. "They are not just numbers, because I know them," he said.

He considers making tough decisions in Carson City his duty, and doing whatever it takes to improve the economy a direct order from constituents.

In the short term, Anderson said, that will likely include raising revenue through taxes and cutting unnecessary state expenses to balance a general fund budget that, depending on the perspective, is $1.1 billion to $3 billion in the red for the 2011-13 biennium.

In the long term, it means pursuing big projects to develop natural resources, such as harnessing renewable energy for power and importing desalinized ocean water to avoid future shortages.

Anderson is young relative to most Carson City insiders, but he has some political experience. He volunteered for the Democratic Party in 2005 after being disappointed by the response of then-President George W. Bush to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In 2009 as a UNLV student, he was an intern for Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, who because of term limits vacated the District 15 seat.

"I think I'll end up being all right," he said, "if for no other reason than ... I'm a Marine. And whatever I've got to do I'll do and finish it successfully."

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