Sandoval alone on sage grouse lawsuit, but Laxalt isn’t

The nasty Republican divisions in Washington appear to have nothing on the party's infighting in Nevada.

The split between fiscally moderate and fiscally conservative Nevada Republicans, exacerbated by this year's GOP-supported tax increases and an incompetent state party organization that's incapable of raising money or registering voters, is as wide as ever. But the big story now is the chill between Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and GOP Attorney General Adam Laxalt — and that amid last week's exceptionally public rift over Laxalt joining a lawsuit that challenges new federal land-use restrictions across Nevada, the state's four Republican members of Congress leapt to Laxalt's side, not Sandoval's.

Sandoval, long the unquestioned leader of Nevada Republicans, hasn't been happy with Laxalt since shortly after the attorney general took office in January. In one of his first acts as the state's top law enforcement officer, Laxalt joined 25 other states in suing to block President Barack Obama's "executive amnesty" for undocumented immigrants. Sandoval didn't support the move, and he let Laxalt know as much, saying immigration policy was a federal matter.

But land-use policy is another issue entirely. Unlike immigration, the governor has an important role in state land management decisions that affect the sage grouse. The habitat of the ground-dwelling bird covers much of Nevada and the West, and environmentalists and their allies in Washington have long seen the sage grouse as their best chance to seal off millions of acres from energy development, ranching and recreation. The sage grouse narrowly avoided being listed as an endangered or threatened species this year, thanks to what passes for a collaborative process in Washington, in exchange for new limits on land use that would have been much worse under a species listing.

"This was a huge, huge victory for us," Sandoval said Friday from China, where he was on a trade mission that included a meeting with Faraday Future, the electric car maker that might build a plant in North Las Vegas. "If this was a football game, we've got it 1st and goal at the 5." He says the state is close to having its way on the issue. He pointed out all the land restrictions in place in Southern Nevada because the desert tortoise is listed as a threatened species. A sage grouse listing would have affected more of the state, only worse.

Sandoval wanted a chance to continue talks with the Interior Department to work out land policies in the state's favor. "Let's sue if we don't get relief," he said. "But I have to be able to have a dialogue with federal decisionmakers. I have to engage them. Suing them will inhibit my ability to do that."

He expected his authority and five years of work on the issue to be respected. But Laxalt felt the state couldn't wait to join the lawsuit. And Laxalt said that although his staff communicated with the governor's staff, a direct conversation or meeting with Sandoval "was never put together but ... it was requested on this issue many times."

"I personally have not spoken to the governor on this issue," Laxalt said Friday. "We've repeatedly asked that this is the type of issue that I need to speak to the governor directly on and that hasn't happened." Brrr.

Sandoval's response: "When I was attorney general under Gov. Kenny Guinn, I think we met twice. All of these issues are handled staff to staff. It's nothing personal." Brrr.

When Laxalt filed the amended complaint in federal court in Reno on Thursday, his office and Sandoval's office began sending dueling statements, with Sandoval saying Laxalt "is acting in his personal capacity and does not represent the State of Nevada, the Governor, or any state agencies," and that the governor is "disappointed that the Attorney General has again chosen to ignore a direct request from his client."

But Sandoval's implication that Laxalt acted alone simply isn't true. In fact, the person who appears alone is Sandoval himself. Not only did the leadership of nine Nevada counties (including populous Washoe) and two mining companies feel they would suffer irreparable harm without immediate legal action, but U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and Nevada Reps. Joe Heck, Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei all applauded Laxalt's move as absolutely necessary.

"The sage hen resource management plans are based on political maneuvers where the last consideration seems to be multiple use in the West," Rep. Amodei said in a statement. "The result is a nearly 3 million acre exclusion zone because the Interior officials in D.C. do not have to live with their rulings the way Northern Nevadans do. When the Department of the Interior completely ignores input from Nevada's Environmental Impact Statement, I believe no tool should be left in the shed, and one of those tools is litigation."

That none of the four Republicans would defer to Sandoval was shocking.

"The reality is I am alone, in terms of the Republican delegation," Sandoval said.

Even more shocking, however, was Laxalt's Friday visit with the Review-Journal's editorial board, during which he and his staff produced a stack of Sandoval's correspondence with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management — all public records — that highlighted Sandoval's unhappiness with sage grouse negotiations. In one letter, dated July 29, 2015, Sandoval lamented "many new elements that disregard best science, Nevada's state and local plans, and federal law," adding that BLM was disregarding state and local input in favor of a "heavy-handed, federal approach."

Laxalt's point was clear: The arguments made in his amended complaint are arguments the governor has made himself.

Keep in mind that Laxalt and Sandoval are in the same party.

"I personally spent hours working on those letters," Sandoval said. "I think it's great that we're together on the legal theories behind this case. But I won't support litigation at this time."

Laxalt said suing strengthens, not weakens the state's position in dealing with the Interior Department. He said the Obama administration is working toward its goals, not acting in states' interests.

"It's important that we use that litigation tool to make sure the federal government takes the states seriously," he said.

Sandoval has the opposite perspective. "We have a plan that involves restrictions on a fraction of the property that's covered in the current federal proposal, that has the support of the people who are suing. We need time to get there."

"We presented a plan," Laxalt said. "It was rejected."

A lot of Nevada Republicans are unhappy with the once hugely popular Sandoval because of the tax increases he helped muscle through the 2015 Legislature. And Laxalt clearly is in tune with the fact that, according to a Gallup poll conducted last month, 60 percent of Americans and 80 percent of Republicans believe the federal government has too much power. Sandoval has faith in the federal government's ability to ultimately decide sage grouse protections fairly, a position that runs counter to the sentiments of "generations of rural Nevadans," he said.

Laxalt's moves will worsen the cold war with the governor. Sandoval says their differences aren't a product of the larger ongoing battle for the identity of the Republican Party. But it's easy to see how the Sandoval-Laxalt spat could be seen as such. This time, the more conservative position wasn't marginalized.

Sandoval didn't get his way with his own party.

— Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is the Las Vegas Review-Journal's senior editorial writer. Follow him on Twitter: @Glenn_CookNV. Listen to him Mondays at 10 a.m. on "Live and Local — Now!" with Kevin Wall on KBET 790 AM.