Lobbyists show they got game
The Review-Journal has acquired documents that shed important light on the activities of Carson City lobbyists: their NCAA basketball pool.
According to a leaked copy of the standings in a pool that includes many famous-for-Carson City types, going into Saturday’s Final Four college basketball games, lobbyist Alfredo Alonso of Lewis and Roca was in the lead of the pool that would award its winner $720.
Alonso hedged his bets: He had two brackets in the pool, organized by Greg Ferraro of the Reno-based Ferraro Group. Alonso’s second bracket was sixth heading into the semifinals.
John Pappageorge of Kummer, Kaempfer was in second, while Alfredo’s brother Mike Alonso, of Jones Vargas, was in third. They were followed in the top five by Noel Waters, the former Carson City district attorney who recently joined Lionel, Sawyer & Collins, and Mike Sullivan.
Ferraro was in a four-way tie for sixth. Lionel, Sawyer’s Trevor Hayes was 11th, tied with former gubernatorial campaigner Robert Uithoven. Jones Vargas’ John Sande was in 16th, his colleagues Jim Wadhams and Tony Sanchez in 19th and 22nd, respectively.
State Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio’s wife Dale was 23rd. State Sen. Mike McGinness, D-Las Vegas, was second-to-last, with North Las Vegas lobbyist Kimberly McDonald bringing up the rear.
In its relentless commitment to bringing readers such vital inside information, the Political Notebook promises to update readers with results of the pool.
NEVADA LEFT OUT IN COLD
The Nevada Conservation League wants to get Nevadans talking about global warming.
Chris Edwards, a Las Vegan who previously worked for the Service Employees International Union in Las Vegas, was recently hired as the group’s global warming coordinator.
Similar hires were made by the group’s parent organization, the Washington, D.C., League of Conservation Voters, in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the other states that are scheduled to have the earliest presidential nominating contests in 2008.
"My background with organized labor taught me how to build a grass-roots movement," Edwards said last week. "That’s what’s been missing on the global warming issue."
Edwards has been making a presentation on the issue to any group that will have him: churches, seniors’ groups, local political organizations from both parties. The idea is to impress people with the issue’s importance so that they’ll make it part of their political consideration when they decide which candidate to get behind in the presidential caucuses.
Edwards wants voters to be thinking about global warming when they go to the polls and asking all the candidates where they stand on it.
"It’s not about steering you to one candidate or another or promoting a particular plan," he said. "This is an issue that’s not partisan. It’s not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It’s a matter of survival or extinction."
Edwards says response to his presentations has been excellent. People are especially stunned to learn that, as neighboring states try to bulk up their renewable energy projects, Nevada is in the process of building four coal-fired power plants, the biggest contributors of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
From his days with labor, Edwards knows how to get people motivated.
"I want to get people angry about the possibility of blowing the chance we have to do something about this issue."
SPEAKER PRO TEM BERKLEY
After eight years in Congress and finally a member of the majority, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., took her first turn presiding over the House last Tuesday.
Berkley served as speaker pro tem, directing House floor activity from the high-backed, chair at the head of the chamber. The post usually rotates among members of the controlling party.
At 10:30 a.m., Berkley marched into the chamber behind the sergeant at arms, who carried in the ceremonial silver and ebony House mace, and took her seat on the raised speaker’s platform.
From that vantage, the chamber looked "huge," she said, although she added it also was largely empty at the time.
The Nevada Democrat was scheduled to preside for an hour in an open-debate period. But her stint wrapped up after 20 minutes after four members had spoken and nobody else stepped forward.
Still, it got her on C-SPAN.
Berkley got a refresher on parliamentary procedure and the rules of the House a few weeks ago. Even so, a parliamentarian was at her elbow in case things got complicated.
Berkley said she was initially nervous, "but the honest truth is, once you get a taste of it, you are ready for more. I was combing the room hoping that someone would show up."
DEMOCRATIC JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Democrats continue to provide job opportunities in Nevada, as the state party and a presidential campaign announced new hires last week.
The Nevada Democratic Party hired a new executive director in Travis Brock, a veteran of presidential and Iowa politics whose experience in that state should serve the party well as it prepares to host an early caucus next January.
Brock previously was the national field director for Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who ran for president for a few months before dropping out recently. In 2006, Brock headed the Democratic-coordinated campaign in Iowa, and before that ran statewide operations for John Kerry and Al Gore’s presidential campaigns.
The executive director is a paid staffer who runs day-to-day operations, while the party chairman is elected by party members and serves as an unpaid CEO. The previous executive director, Allison Schwartz, left to work for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
"Travis is the right person to lead our state party as we prepare for the Jan. 19 caucuses," former party Chairman Tom Collins said in a statement.
He stepped down as party chairman Saturday and was replaced by former regent and congressional candidate Jill Derby.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign announced its first staff hires in Nevada, naming Las Vegas Democratic operative Ronni Council the campaign’s Nevada political director and a former Florida party worker, Omar Khan, the state field director.
Biden’s national political director, Danny O’Brien, is also a Nevada veteran, having directed the state for Gore in 2000.
Council most recently directed operations for the gubernatorial campaign of Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, who lost the August primary to Dina Titus. Khan was deputy political director of Florida’s Democratic senatorial campaign.
The Biden campaign says it plans to open its state headquarters in Las Vegas.
The longtime U.S. senator from Delaware joins Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Bill Richardson among Democratic presidential hopefuls with Nevada staff.
None of the Republican presidential candidates have announced hires in Nevada.
Stephens Washington bureau chief Steve Tetreault contributed to this report. Contact political reporter Molly Ball at 387-2919 or MBall@reviewjournal.com.
