Dirty Deeds
John Lee – Senate District 1
Senator Lee has always been someone who cares about Nevada’s environment, and he even sponsored one of our priority bills this session. That’s why we were so shocked to see him introduce SB 271, the worst environmental piece of legislation in recent memory. Senator Lee had no discussions with the conservation community before the bill’s introduction, and then did not invite us to any negotiations or discussions about the bill during the course of the session.
Marcus Conklin – Assembly District 37
The conservation community has always had a good working relationship with Assemblyman Conklin, and although we didn’t always agree, we knew that we could count on him to discuss each issue honestly. The lack of discussion and openness around SB 271 stands as a stark contrast to this and we are hopeful that this can be rectified for the 2013 session.
Ira Hansen – Assembly District 32
The conservation community has been on the opposite side of Assemblyman Hansen before his time in the legislature and we certainly didn’t expect that we would agree on every issue during the session. However, his blanket opposition to the conservation position on many issues, especially wildlife issues, was surprising to many people.
Pat Hickey – Assembly District 26
In his second freshman session, Assemblyman Hickey compiled a voting record on conservation issues that ranked him near the head of his caucus. However, this is overshadowed by his leadership role in advocating for Nevada’s withdrawal from the Tahoe compact. We are hopeful that Assemblyman Hickey will see the progress that will be made and help us reverse this legislation in 2013.
John Oceguera – Assembly District 16
Assemblyman Oceguera has always been a strong legislator on conservation issues and we had no reason to believe that this would change when he became Speaker. However, we were very disappointed in the way that he pushed through SB 271 in the final moments of the session, without even talking to the conservation community.
