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August 29, 2003
By MARK WAITENye men lead Guinn recallPATTI, HARMON MAKE UP TWO FIFTHS OF COMMITTEE TO OUST GOVERNORPVT
Chuck Patti of Pahrump and Sandy Harmon of Tonopah are each listed on the notice to seek a recall filed in Las Vegas Wednesday. Patti joined his fellow committee members, headed by political consultant Tony Dane of Las Vegas, as the papers were submitted to the Nevada Secretary of State's office. Harmon did not attend the event, which was followed by a press conference at the Grant Sawyer Building in downtown Las Vegas. The petitions will need to collect 128,109 signatures in 90 days to force a recall election. That figure represents 25 percent of the people who voted in the November 2002 governor's race, in which Guinn handily defeated Democratic opponent Joe Neal, a state senator from North Las Vegas. "We should have quite a number of people here gathering signatures. We figure it shouldn't be too hard to gather 128,000 signatures in 90 days," Patti said. Patti ran unsuccessfully for the Pahrump Town Board in 2000 and has lived in Pahrump since 1998. He said the impasse in the Legislature that required two special sessions to approve the budget was what motivated him to work on the recall. Patti blames the governor for refusing to reopen the budget. The delay prompted school officials in Nye County to delay the start of classes by three weeks. "The simple fact is that I don't like being lied to. ...What really got me going was when they came to the point of holding up the kids as hostages and blaming it on people like those 15 guys in the Assembly who were voting no." District 36 Assemblyman Rod Sherer, R-Pahrump, was one of the 15 Assembly Republicans who refused to back Guinn's $860 million tax increase, preventing passage by the required two-thirds majority. Sherer declined to comment on the recall attempt. Patti referred to the suit filed by Attorney General Brian Sandoval against legislators for refusing to pass the budget. "When he (Guinn) sued the legislators he sued us," Patti said. "He told us we were irrelevant. Any politician that tells people they're irrelevant should be thrown out." In remarks published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal Tuesday, Guinn's spokesman, Greg Bortolin, said the governor remains popular despite the tax increases. Guinn won 68 percent of the vote in Nye County last November. Bortolin said, "Maybe some of these people feel left out because they can't get involved in what's going on in California." Unlike California, where candidates vying to replace Gov. Gray Davis needed to come up with just 65 signatures and a filing fee, a candidate wishing to be on the recall ballot in Nevada must also collect 128,109 signatures. "California's got nothing to do with this," Patti said, calling comments by the governor's press spokesman "the biggest crock of baloney they're putting out. "They're trying to convince people who can't read and can't vote that we're copycats." Asked why committee members can't just let Guinn serve out his term, which expires in 2006, Patti said, "If we let him serve out his term he will be governor at the next legislative session which comes in 2005, and you will see more of an increase in taxes that time because he made the comment this is a good start. And a good start means we will go further." The solution, he said, would be to put someone into the governor's office who is more fiscally conservative. "Our objective is to recall Guinn. Our objective is not to nominate someone to take his place. If someone wants to file to take his place they can very well do that," Patti said. If Secretary of State Dean Heller verifies there are enough eligible signatures after the 90 days elapse, he has up to 20 days to call for a special election, which must be held no more than 30 days after that. "There might be an election before the end of the year," Patti said. Harmon is a former aide to District 36 Assemblyman Roy Neighbors, D-Tonopah. He has also served as director for the Economic Development Authority of Esmeralda and Nye counties (EDEN) and is now doing consulting work on the reopening of the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah. Harmon said he met the other steering committee members when they rode the bus together up to Carson City as part of a trip organized by the Republican Liberty Caucus June 25, the start of the second special session. People were circulating sign-in sheets for recall petitions against Gov Guinn at the rally at the state capitol, he said. "We have a governor that came from California and like so many legislators he's trying to turn us into California East," Harmon said. "He may be a lame duck governor but we got one more legislative session to go through. "This is the man who hit us with the gigantic tax hike after his last campaign, when he refused to discuss taxes." In response to Bortolin's accusation that the steering committee of imitating California's recall, Harmon accused Gov. Guinn of attempting to imitate California with higher taxes. Harmon, who worked with Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt in the past on economic development and tourism issues, said she would be more agreeable as governor. "I don't think any of us have heartburn with that. She's a businessperson," Harmon said. Gov. Guinn issued a written statement after the initiation of the recall. In it he states: "Nevadans expect their elected officials to make difficult decisions that are not always popular with everyone. I am honored the voters of this state have twice elected me to serve as their governor. With respect to the recall effort, I have great faith in the wisdom of the people of Nevada." Guinn went on to list his accomplishments as governor. They include a fundamental review of state government, privatizing worker's compensation, taking 800 jobs and $2 billion in liability out of the public's responsibility, freezing more than 1,600 positions and reducing the number of state employees from a ratio of eight per 1,000 residents to 6.5 per 1,000. Guinn said he cut nearly $250 million from the state budget last fiscal year, in spite of an increase of 7,000 state residents per month. "During the past legislative session, lawmakers and I addressed the most serious financial crisis in our state's history," Guinn said in the statement. "While the final tax package was different than what I proposed, it preserved funding for education, health care, public safety and the many other needs facing Nevada." |
