LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Nevada Legislature could have all-new leaders when the session comes to order in 2027.
Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager and Assembly Majority Leader Sandra Jauregui, both D-Clark County and Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D-North Las Vegas, are among 10 lawmakers who are not seeking re-election to their posts or running for other offices. (Monroe-Moreno, for example, is running for mayor of North Las Vegas.)
VIDEO: Steve Sebelius talks with UNLV political professor about Carson City "brain drain"
In addition, Nevada state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Clark County, is running for the open attorney general's post in a competitive primary against state Treasurer Zach Conine.
Cannizzaro is in the middle of her third and final term in the Senate; if she's elected attorney general, she'll leave, but if not, she'll return to the 2027 session.
The same goes for state Sen. Carrie Buck, R-Clark County, who is mounting a bid for the Republican nomination for Congressional District 1. She'll return to Carson City if she loses either the primary or the general election.
Also on the list of lawmakers not planning to return:
- Assemblyman Joe Dalia, D-Clark County, who is running for the open state treasurer's post.
- Assemblyman Ken Gray, R-Lyon County, who resigned to take a job with the Veterans Affairs Department.
- Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama, R-Clark County, who is running for a seat on the Clark County Commission.
- Assemblyman Philip "P.K." O'Neill, R-Carson City, who is not seeking re-election.
- Assemblyman Toby Yurek, R-Clark County, who is also not seeking re-election.
This year's crop of departing lawmakers is the fewest in recent years. In 2022, 18 people left Carson City for good, taking 174 years of experience with them. In 2024, 16 people left, representing 105 years of experience.
But this season's exits could have an outsize effect on the Legislature, since so many leaders are among those choosing to depart.
Longtime Carson City observer and lobbyist Billy Vassiliadis, chairman of R&R Partners, said serving in the Legislature has lost some of its luster.
"The burden of running and being in office is greater than the reward these days, for many of these people," he said. "And these are folks that sacrifice an awful lot of time, lose businesses, lose years of their professional lives, and there's very little real reward for it."
Vassiliadis attributes that in part to the constant nature of politics. Years ago, there was a campaign season, followed by a break, then a legislative season, with another break thereafter.
"Now, they never stop campaigning," he said. "Politics is constant, it's become professionalized, and it's become a huge burden."
Another factor? The loss of socialization among elected officials and lobbyists, due in part to a 2015 reform that prohibited lobbyists from paying for meals or gifts for lawmakers, no matter how minor the cost. Social gatherings outside the legislative building or during the interim have dwindled as a result.
As a result, politicos in Nevada don't get to know each other, or the permanent lobbying corps, stunting the relationships that help forge compromises and pass laws in past years.
"People become much more isolated. One of the benefits for legislators or being up there was building lifelong relations with their peers and their colleagues. That doesn't happen anymore," Vassiliadis said. "The experience just isn't as rewarding and gratifying, and there's not much gratitude expressed for the sacrifices given."
Even the physical distance of Carson City from Southern Nevada and rural Nevada is a barrier, said David Damore, professor of political science at UNLV and executive director of the Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West.
Southern Nevada lawmakers have to travel the 400 miles by car or plane, returning home on weekends. Depending on one's committee assignments, that goes on for four to five months every other year.
And the Legislature has typically had no full-time staff to help lawmakers do their work, although they are assigned to interim committee meetings during the 18 months the Legislature is not in session.
And the pay for lawmakers is low: Lawmakers earn about $14,000, including a $150 per day salary (for only the first 60 days of the 120-day session) and a per diem allowance for lawmakers who have to travel.
The resulting turnover leads to less power for the Legislature, Damore said.
"I think the big question is, where does that power go, right? If the Legislature is being weakened because of turnover — it's already a very weak body relative to most other state legislatures," he said. "So where's that power going to go to? It's going to flow, of course, to the executive branch and ultimately to the legislative staff that becomes the institutional gatekeepers of the body."
Damore said the loss of experienced leaders — Yeager, Jauregui, Monroe-Moreno and Cannizzaro all have 10 years of Carson City experience each — is concerning.
"If you're sort of gutting it at the top, and you're really bringing a lot of people who, maybe their experience might have been as a whip or a committee chair, but now you're asking them to run the whole legislative process?" he said.
While both Damore and Vassiliadis said the Legislature could benefit from having new blood, they also agreed that learning the process is invaluable in getting things done.
And in Carson City, that can take time, another frustrating aspect of serving in the capital.
"That's really hard for you to shape an agenda, knowing it's going to take two or three sessions to get what you really want done," Damore said. "So I think that that creates, it creates a disincentive there."
Some of the aspects of legislative procedure can't easily be changed: 12-year term limits, the 120-day session limit and the biennial session schedule are all written into the state constitution.
But Damore and Vassiliadis said there are things that could be done to make serving in Carson City more attractive, and perhaps cut down on attrition.
Damore suggested allowing local governments to have more power and authority, as well as expanding the Legislature so that members could specialize in particular policy areas.
He also suggested modifying the 120-day requirement to mean "legislative days," or days in which the Legislature is actually in session, instead of calendar days. (Often, lawmakers don't meet on weekends or on Fridays, especially at the start of the session.)
Raising lawmaker pay might induce more candidates to run and to stay, despite the burdens.
"Treat it as a profession, not as a hobby," Vassiliadis said. "I mean, this Legislature was formed a couple hundred years ago as a citizen legislature. Well, we have three-and-a-half million citizens that need to be represented now, the budget's in the billions of dollars, the issues — whether it's schools, water, transportation — have become increasingly complex and complicated, but we want them to be part-time, and I think that's really a joke."