This week on ‘As the Senate Turns’…

The state Senate is officially a soap opera. Two senators quit last week -- one to run and hide, another just to run again.

The drama has huge ramifications for November's election and control of Carson City.

When the week began, Democrats were on their heels, trying to formulate a plan to preserve their 11-10 majority in the Legislature's upper chamber.

Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, resigned her seat Wednesday with nearly three years left on her term because her party couldn't find anyone else to take on incumbent Republican Greg Brower. Registered Republican voters slightly outnumber registered Democrats in his newly drawn District 15.

Already, in two critical Southern Nevada Senate races, Democrats had seen two vulnerable incumbents -- Allison Copening and Shirley Breeden -- choose retirement over re-election. To fill their spots on the ballot in District 5 and District 6, the party picked Joyce Woodhouse and Benny Yerushalmi, respectively, who lost Senate bids in 2010 despite having fundraising and voter-registration advantages.

So Leslie, who owns a house in Brower's new district, abandoned a safe Democratic seat she could have held for the rest of the decade. Democrats simply couldn't afford to let Brower run against token opposition. That would have enabled the GOP to divert more resources toward its candidates in Districts 5 and 6, Steve Kirk and Mark Hutchison. With a victory in just one of those races, Republicans likely would claim the Senate majority in 2013.

More than anything else, Leslie's run would force Brower and the Republican Party to spend a significant amount of money on his race, perhaps improving the prospects of Woodhouse and Yerushalmi in the process. Leslie's switcheroo puts Brower's race in play and would force the GOP to win two out of three swing races to claim the Senate majority, instead of just one out of two.

That calculus lasted all of two days. Because on Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Halseth, R-Las Vegas, resigned her seat. She's dealing with a nasty divorce and child-custody battle and allegations that she cheated on her husband and wants to leave the state. Her political career flamed out in just 16 months.

Halseth wasn't up for re-election until 2014, but her resignation will put the District 9 seat on November's ballot as well. And the new boundaries of her district aren't favorable to the GOP. It's now a Democratic district -- and a likely Republican loss in November, regardless of who runs.

All of a sudden, the GOP needs Brower, Kirk and Hutchison to win in order to take control of the Senate.

That's plenty possible. For starters, Leslie has an uphill climb. She enjoys name recognition and a base of support from her nearly 14 years in the Legislature (12 as an assemblywoman). But she has never had to win over independent voters to capture an election -- as she will in District 15 -- and her voting record reflects as much. A public employee, Leslie has long called for significantly higher taxes, major spending increases and state policies that are best described as hostile to business.

In recent years, no Nevada Democrat has won a swing legislative district by campaigning as an unabashed liberal. Democrats have defeated limited-government fiscal conservatives like Brower by running as fiscal conservatives -- by saying they'd oppose tax increases and support government reforms, then voting for higher taxes and against government reforms once they're safely elected.

Already, Leslie is an inviting target for attack ads. No one in Carson City is more liberal than Leslie. She can't possibly sprint to the center and position herself as a moderate against Brower. If she tries, she'll be labeled a liar and a hypocrite, too.

But nothing would surprise me. Look for more twists in this soap opera.

Government secrecy

Now we know how Josh Reid landed the job as Henderson's city attorney. Forget the juice provided by his father, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Clearly, the members of the City Council were looking for someone who values government secrecy as much as they do.

Last week, the city refused to release the recording of a 911 call made from the home of former Councilwoman Kathleen Vermillion after a possible suicide attempt by the embattled 44-year-old. According to a source close to the family, the 911 call was made by Vermillion's 15-year-old daughter.

It's not the job of government to decide what the public is entitled to know or what's appropriate for public release. But the city couldn't use discomfort or favoritism as a reason to deny the release of the recording. It needed a better legal rationale.

Voila! At the direction of counsel, the city declared the recording confidential under federal medical privacy standards outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The call included protected medical information, a city spokeswoman said, and the city is a health care provider obligated to honor confidentiality. Oh, the unintended consequences of federal legislation.

Now you can keep your own 911 calls private by disclosing medical information! "There are three bodies in my living room ... and I have high blood pressure!"

Can HIPAA make police reports confidential, too, Josh? Or just the records the council wants kept secret?

Looking for work

Now that state Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, has abandoned his run for the 1st Congressional District, he's in need of a new full-time job. So which higher education institution or local government agency is hiring?

Kihuen, you'll recall, was a well-paid diversity officer for the College of Southern Nevada -- a position so essential that it was eliminated this summer when he quit to campaign full-time. As of last week, the college had not re-hired him in any capacity.

You know someone in government will find the tax money to make sure Kihuen can have a comfortable living when the Legislature isn't in session. Stay tuned.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.