Associates of late Nevada State Assemblyman Dennis Hof (R-District 36) have re-registered the “Nevada Brothel Association” as a state political action committee (PAC) in advance of the 2019 Nevada Legislature.
The new PAC was formed by Suzette Cole, general manager of Assemblyman Hof’s business operations in Lyon County, along with Alice Little and Ruby Rae – two legal courtesans who led the successful “Save Our Brothels” campaign to defeat an anti-brothel question on November’s ballot.
“We perform a valuable and safe service that’s been stigmatized and misrepresented for many, many years,” said Rae. “What we learned from fighting Lyon County Question 1 was that it’s extremely important and productive to reach out to the community and tell our side of the story.
“We invited our opponents to debate us in a series of town hall meetings, but they refused. So the forums were more educational; where we just answered questions from the audience. And we ended up winning with 80 percent of the vote.”
Little notes that legal brothels are an important defense against sex trafficking, an issue regularly brought up by those wishing to shut them down.
“It’s ILLEGAL sex work that exploits children,” Little pointed out. “It’s ILLEGAL sex work that traffics. It’s ILLEGAL sex work that sees women exploited and abused by pimps. We don’t have that in legal brothels.”
The original Nevada Brothel Association was established in 1985 in an effort to combat legislative threats to outlaw Nevada’s legal brothels. A year later, the association hired the legendary George Flint to serve as its lobbyist at the Nevada Legislature.
With Mr. Flint’s retirement in 2015, the association disbanded.
Assemblyman Hof’s former campaign manager, Chuck Muth, is the PAC’s registered agent and serving as the group’s spokesman.
“While the effort to ban legal brothels in Lyon County failed this year, a new legislative threat seeking to ban prostitution statewide has emerged,” said Muth. “With Assemblyman Hof no longer here to speak for and defend the industry, it’s necessary for others to step up and carry the torch. That’s why we decided to bring back the Nevada Brothel Association.”
The original founding members of the new association include the four Hof-owned properties in Lyon County – the Bunny Ranch, Kit Kat Ranch, Love Ranch and Sagebrush Ranch. The group plans to reach out to and invite other brothel operators to join before the start of the 2019 Nevada legislative session.