MARK WAITE / PVT Nevada State Republican Party Chairman Sue Lowden sits at the far left of a table with representatives of Advanced Medical Center at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night. MARK WAITE / PVT State Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, was the keynote speaker at the Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night. Advertisement

Nye County Republicans looked back on the drubbing they took on election night Nov. 4, 2008, but State Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, keynote speaker for the annual Pahrump Valley Republican Women's Lincoln Day dinner Saturday night, said the year 2010 will be a wonderful opportunity to regroup.

Amodei also encouraged his fellow state legislators to think more long term than just about the next biennium.

"Election night 2008 for the elephant in the jungle was kind of a tough night. That's the bad news. The good news is, six months in politics, whether it's local, state or federal, is a long time," Amodei told the crowd gathered at the Mountain Falls banquet room.

He concluded his remarks saying:

"That's nothing you ought to be ashamed of, just because there's a cycle now where a bunch of folks were brought in from out of state and registered a bunch of people who told a bunch of other folks that somebody in the federal government was going to pay for their mortgage, pay for their gas and fix their car," Amodei said.

Amodei said the economic engine of Nevada is Clark County. He criticized Democrats for trying to put more tax burdens on the two biggest industries in the state that are struggling right now: resorts and development.

"Here's what it looks like: About a 40-year supply of single-family homes in Clark County; many of the big folks on the strip in or around bankruptcy filings, reorganization, stuff like that, and what are they talking about in Carson City? The budget for the next 24 months.

"You know it's time for people to start talking what they see for Nevada for the next five years or 10 years, and also it's time to start talking about the infrastructure of state revenue, and the infrastructure for state revenue is business," he said.

Once a state loses its reputation as a business-friendly place, like Nevada, it takes a long time to get it back, Amodei said.

"Taxes are what runs government. If business is not paying taxes, you don't have much money for government," Amodei said. "You want business to pay as much as you can but still have them happy to be here."

While Gov. Jim Gibbons' $6.12 billion budget, unveiled in his State of the State address Jan. 15, was declared dead on arrival, Amodei said that was the same budget former Gov. Kenny Guinn unveiled six years ago. Now higher education officials -- apparently a reference to Chancellor Jim Rogers -- are crying "the sky is falling" and everything will have to close but the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and University of Nevada, Reno, he said.

"Nobody is insensitive to what cuts bring because many of you are doing that now in your businesses and in your personal finances. But when you talk about, 'Can we go back for the next two years and live on what we did 72 months ago'? I would submit to you that's something that maybe ought to be done," Amodei said.

The term-limited senator criticized the teacher's initiative that would increase the room tax 3 percent in Clark and Washoe counties. While it could raise $100 million per year, the revenue is closed to two-thirds of state government, like health care, human services and Medicaid, Amodei said.

The senator said he wanted to dwell on facts that will help the party in 2010, like whether we lost a war; U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's 4 percent loans from Countrywide for an apartment complex while he worked on the stimulus bill with AIG written on it; or whether Nevadans every five or six years before the election get a bunch of earmarks thrown at them.

Among the other speakers, Nevada Republican Party Chairman Sue Lowden congratulated Nye County for staying red in the November election. Republicans need more than a 50 percent turnout to keep the state red, Lowden said.

U.S. Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Democratic Majority Leader up for reelection next year, was a primary target for the Republicans. His name came up seven times in the evening speeches.

Former State Sen. Joe Heck, from Henderson, said he hopes to defeat Reid's son, Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, in the governor's race next year.

"I think one of the reasons is, using a power phrase quote from Ronald Reagan, is you know a recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose your job, and recovery is when free-spending, liberal Democrats lose their jobs," Heck said.

U.S. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said he was fortunate as a sophomore legislator to be appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee where he has a chance to see President Obama's budget, his climate-change legislation, health care legislation, his tax plan and "everything he's trying to cram down the throats of the American people."

Heller said he uses a three-pronged test when judging legislation: does it create more competition, higher quality and less cost.

"I'm a low-tax, small-government, reasonable-regulation, free-market capitalist," he said.

Heller said the first time he ran for Congress in 2006, he lost four of the five most populous counties in his congressional district but still won the election thanks to smaller, rural areas like Nye County.

Lt Gov. Brian Krolicki said Reid and "the Searchlight machine" brought in world class political talent and millions of dollars in resources.

But he added, "They are ruthless, and they will do whatever they can to continue the power that they have, and they really took a big swipe at the Republcian bench and still throw a lot of barbs at many of us, and I think I'm the poster child for that right now."

Krolicki was referring to his indictment by a Clark County grand jury in December on four felony counts for misappropriating state funds in a college savings program as state treasurer.

Despite it all, Krolicki was optimistic about next year.

"It took Jimmy Carter to get us Ronald Reagan and I think with that we've seen in the first 60-some days of Barack Obama, this is going to turn around. They will pay a price. They need to be made accountable for the decisions they're making, whether it's nationalizing health care, the banking system or the largest tax in the history of human kind in the so-called cap in trade tax for energy. They own these policies. They own these actions and we will see it very clear next year."