I hope we can all agree that the recent not-so-special session was a disaster on multiple levels – especially over the film studio bill that ultimately got killed.
Republican Assemblymember Danielle Gallant (R-Clark) pretty much summed up how conservatives in Nevada feel about it in a video she posted yesterday on X:
“The first mistake of the special session was probably (Governor) Lombardo calling it.”
And as usual, a number of Republican legislators didn’t exactly acquit themselves very well during the mess.
Which brings me to the 2025 Special Session John Kerry Awards – presented to two GOP legislators who voted for a bill before voting against it.
First, Assemblymember Gallant herself.
The sophomore legislator voted against the studio bill in the Assembly, where it passed by the razor-thin margin of 22-20.
But it only got the 22 votes because two pro-studio legislators (GOP Assemblymembers Heidi Kasama and Brian Hibbetts) – who decided to go off on vacation instead of participating in the special session in person – were allowed to vote remotely.
And they were allowed to vote remotely because Gallant and four other Republicans – Lisa Cole, Rich DeLong, P.K. O’Neill, and Jason Patchett – voted against a motion to stop them from doing so.
Had Gallant and one of the other Republicans voted against remote voting – which every Republican SHOULD have done – the studio bill would have died in the Assembly.
So Gallant helped save the bill by effectively voting for it before voting against it. Ugh.
The second John Kerry Award goes to Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen (R-Washoe).
Many conservative activists fought tooth and nail last year to deny the Democrats the 2/3-super majority they were one seat away from in both houses of the Legislature which would have allowed the D’s to override the governor’s vetoes.
But the danger was always there that one or more Republicans would give Democrats their votes to reach the 2/3 threshold. And that’s exactly what Assemblywoman Hansen did.
She – and her husband Ira in the Senate – joined the Democrats to get the 2/3 needed in both houses to place a horrible anti-free market bill on the special session agenda even though Gov. Lombardo did not include it in his proclamation.
Fortunately, the bill itself required a 2/3 super-majority vote due to a revenue-raising provision in the bill. And Mrs. Hansen ultimately voted against it.
So Hansen killed the bill by voting against it after voting to bring it up. Ugh.
To say there’s a lack of strategic leadership in the Assembly Republican Caucus would be an understatement of metaphysical proportions.
But wait. There’s more.
While the special session is over, the anger and hostility among legislators remains red hot – on both sides of the aisle. And it’s hottest, ironically, between John Kerry Award recipients Gallant and Hansen.
Gallant posted a rant video today excoriating the Hansens for undermining the governor by voting with the Democrats to amend the special session agenda and add the housing bill.
Fair enough. Many of us feel the same way. But get this quote from Gallant’s video:
“It’s time that we all take a stand because as Republicans we’ve been given a directive to support this governor and support his agenda and these two Republicans stabbed him in the back, went to great lengths to obstruct the process and have not honored the voters’ wishes to support Gov. Lombardo and his agenda.”
Huh? Where did that “directive” come from?
Either I must have missed a memo or Gallant missed that day in school when they taught about the three independent branches of the government.
Heck, we all support Gov. Lombardo and sure as heck don’t want him replaced by A-Ron Ford.
However, that doesn’t mean every GOP legislator should automatically vote in lockstep with the governor on every issue. I mean, if that’s the case, why bother electing legislators at all – even if allowed to vote remotely?
And by Gallant’s logic, every Republican should have voted for former RINO Gov. Brian Sandoval’s largest tax hike in state history. Thanks, but no thanks.
It’s bad enough that Gov. Lombardo has to deal with the goofy “woke” Democrats in the majority.
But the incompetence of GOP legislators who fancy themselves as brilliant Karl Rove-like super-strategists – who succeed in only making bad situations worse – make his efforts to “get sh*t done” infinitely harder.
Once again for those in the back: We don’t need to just elect more Republicans. We need to elect better ones, as well.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“The powers of the Government of the State of Nevada shall be divided into three separate departments – the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial.” – Nevada Constitution
UPDATED: December 7, 2025 at 4:49 pm, to reflect that Gallant was joined by four other Republicans to allow remote voting. It would have taken TWO of them to kill remote voting, which also would have killed the bill.
