DEMOCRACY IN PERIL

Thursday, January 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Democracy in Peril

By Steve Sebelius

The news pages are replete with looks back at what did happen, and looks forward at what probably will happen. Forgive a small bit of holiday hubris and consider for a moment what ought to happen before the sun sets on the last day of 2004.

First, and perhaps most important, attorney John Eastman ought to win his battle against the Nevada Supreme Court over the terrible ruling in Guinn vs. Legislature. The fact that the high court issued the state constitution-ignoring ruling in the first place, and that justices refused to rescind it when they had the chance, is bad enough. But the precedent is unbearable.

Second, Chief Justice/Court Apologist Deborah Agosti should lose her seat. It doesn't matter to whom, as long as her replacement actually lives up to the oath of office that Agosti cast aside as casually as she did the constitution.

Third, Democrats ought to find a candidate to run against Rep. Jon Porter. Porter is at his most vulnerable at the close of his first term, and he's offered precious little for the opposition party to attack in the way of a legislative record. But the Democrats have an obligation to find at least one credible candidate to run for the seat, lest they cede it to the GOP forever.

Fourth, the Republicans should decide if they are content with allowing Richard Ziser to be their standard-bearer in the race against Sen. Harry Reid. Ziser, who led the successful anti-gay marriage Question 2 effort, is the only announced candidate thus far, although Secretary of State Dean Heller and Treasurer Brian Krolicki are taking serious looks at the race. Reid has money and power, and a head start to make even the most serious candidate think twice. But it's far from over for the Republicans.

Fifth, the initiatives to ban public employees from serving in the Legislature and to repeal taxes should fail. The public employee ban isn't needed; the constitution already prohibits public employees from serving in the Legislature. What's really needed is an attorney general (hello, Brian Sandoval?) to say the constitution means what it says.

As for the taxes, the compromise of the 2003 Legislature was hard-fought, and popular with no one. But if one thing did come out of that sorry process, it was that the state is facing pressing needs that would easily bust a budget of the kind proposed by some Republicans. If the taxpayers of the state want good roads, good schools, prisons, courts and lawyers to fight consumer fraud and Yucca Mountain, they ought to be willing to pay.

Steve Sebelius writes a daily e-mail newsletter, the E-Briefing, upon which Democracy in Peril is based. To subscribe to the E-Briefing at a Mercury reader special price of $20 per year, go to www.lasvegasmercury.com/ebriefing.