In our lead story, we said that politics is ugly. And the 1997 legislative session was no exception. Let's review the reasons a senator, assemblyman or woman votes on a particular bill. They can vote for a bill because they believe in it or their constituents want it. They can and will vote against a bill even though they believe in it. This type of elected official is more concerned about his or her own agenda than those of the people they are supposed to represent.

This was never more evident than with SB127. Governor Miller could have cared less about sportsmen's issues but he did not want to be the bad guy and veto SB 127. He wanted the Assembly to do his dirty work for him. First, he had Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga hold the bill up for two weeks in her Natural Resources committee. Intense pressure was put on de Braga by her constituents and she did release the bill.

The next morning SB 127 was not on the Assembly agenda to be heard. The minute Speaker of the Assembly Joe Dini struck the gavel to open the day's session he moved to send SB 127 back to

Ways and Means because of fiscal impact. In essence, this meant killing the bill in its entirety. Assemblyman David Humke stated that there was no fiscal impact. Speaker Dini asked for a voice vote to send it back to Ways and Means. Three or four voiced yea to send it back and approximately twenty said nay. At that point Speaker Dini announced that the yeas have it. Again the sportsmen's friend, David Humke, asked for a real vote. And it was 24 in favor of not killing the bill. 17 voted to kill. Speaker Dini called for a recess and many caucuses ensued thereafter.

It is at this point politics gets even uglier. If an assemblyman doesn't follow party lines, the shouting and threats begin. He or she may not get good committee assignments or the assemblyman's bills may be threatened. This is where the elected official chooses to put his or her self-interest ahead of the public interest. This is indeed politics at its worst. We want the sportsmen of the State of Nevada to know who was supportive of SB 127 and who wanted to kill the sportsmen's bill.