DENNIS MYERS Against the Grain Advertisement

In 1978, Republican Robert List was elected governor of Nevada with a 16 percentage point margin in a race in which 193,000 votes were cast.

Literally within hours of his election, a scandal erupted over List's acceptance as attorney general, of freebies from state-regulated casinos. The sudden emergence of a tainted List was so at odds with his campaign-created image of a moral leader that his poll ratings fell sharply and never recovered. If he was going to have any chance at all for reelection - which was unlikely -- everything in his governorship had to go flawlessly.

But the next four years saw anything but a flawless administration. List invited the MX missile system into the state, then changed his mind. He recommended (and the legislature enacted) a near doubling of the sales tax. He opposed shutting down the Beatty nuclear/chemical waste dump, then changed his mind. He opposed creating a state utility customers' consumer advocate, then changed his mind. By the time the 1982 election rolled around it was widely believed that List was doomed, but he was unwilling to step aside so the GOP could get a more electable candidate.

On the other hand, he was vulnerable to a challenge within the Republican Party, and one day former Nevada Assembly GOP floor leader Robert Weise started making noises about running against List in the primary. It was a serious threat. Weise, in addition to being a prominent Republican, was also a developer and his legislative district included part of Lake Tahoe, which meant that he had a strong dislike of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, empowered to protect the beauty and environment of Lake Tahoe.

One day a couple of weeks after Weise started exploring a candidacy, two things happened: (1) List fired Roland Westergard, his state natural resources director and an advocate of protecting the Tahoe basin, as one of the Nevada members of the TRPA, and (2) Weise withdrew from the race against List.

It didn't help. List still had big trouble in the Republican primary (in a race in which there were only 69,000 votes cast, List lost 27,000 of them to "none of these candidates" and to an unknown investment broker) and he lost the general election to Richard Bryan.

In the dance with Weise over Westergard, List was gambling that the public would not care whether one bureaucrat was dumped, since no one likes bureaucrats anyway. It was a little like Jim Gibbons and Tony Clark.

Gov. Gibbons wants Clark, executive director of the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners, to be fired because, the governor claims, Clark did not act promptly to deal with the medical clinics scandal. (As it happens, Clark acted to deal with the problem twenty days before Gibbons himself acted.) Like List, Gibbons was trying to improve his own position by going after a luckless bureaucrat.

Bureaucrats are one of those groups whose very name arouses dislike. "Bureaucrats and special interests all across Nevada are rejoicing!" went a Bob Beers political commercial attacking Gibbons in 2006. "Dancing the night away! All in honor of Congressman Jim Gibbons." A Las Vegas law firm's Web site reads, "We are experienced in fighting against government bureaucrats..." "The last thing Nevada needs is more bureaucrats!" read Nevada ballot question 4 in 2004.

But unlike Jim Gibbons, who did not know how the state medical board works (he was unaware he could appoint temporary members when permanent members abstain from cases), bureaucrats know how government works. They also are simply real people, often with deep roots in the community and with greater accomplishments than the politicians they serve.

Roland Westergard, raised on a Pershing County ranch, wanted to grow up to be state water engineer. He grew up to have the state water engineer work for him. His father worked for a Nevada water district, his brother for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Little wonder water and the environment are such concerns for him.

Raised in Reno, Tony Clark is an attorney who probably could have become wealthy practicing casino law. Instead he has been in public service for years, as a Nevada Air National Guard officer (he was called to duty during the unnecessary call-up during the 1968 U.S.S. Pueblo "crisis"), a member of the Nevada Parole Board, member of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, member of the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission, and now director of the medical examiners.

In whose hands would you rather have your fate -- bureaucrats like these, or the politicians they serve?