This might be the most disgusting story of the session regarding an Assembly Republican…though with a month yet to go, I’m not yet willing to declare a definitive winner.
As reported here previously, AB 299 would add a new fee to every auto insurance policy in the state in order to create a new low-cost auto insurance fund for drivers in Clark County. That’s right; drivers in rural Nevada and Washoe County would be subsidizing uninsured drivers in Las Vegas.
Lovely.
Because this is a tax increase, AB 299 required a 2/3 supermajority vote for approval…and was voted down in the Assembly, with 14 assemblymen voting no…including freshman Assemblyman John Ellison of Elko. But on the very next day, Ellison made a deal with the devil and voted “yes” on a re-vote. So the bill passed by one stinking vote. Thanks to Ellison’s flip-flop.
Lovely.
According to a story by the Nevada News Bureau’s Andrew Doughman, Ellison sold his vote to Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson (D-North Las Vegas) in return for Atkinson allowing one of Ellison’s bills to receive a vote in Atkinson’s committee. Ellison told NNB that his promise to vote for Atkinson’s bill was more important than blocking this new tax increase on drivers all across the state, including his own constituents.
Lovely.
Now we know why Assemblyman Ellison refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge last year even though he “said” he was a fiscal conservative and opposed tax hikes. He wanted the flexibility to sell out his constituents for 30 pieces of silver or a bag of “magic” beans…whatever the Democrats were willing to pay him.
And now you know why I personally endorsed IAP candidate Janine Hansen over Ellison in that race last fall. We had every reason to believe that Ellison was nothing but a go-along-to-get-along, let’s-make-a-deal, wishy-washy, mamby-pamby Gumby moderate Republican. Sadly, we’ve now been proven correct in that assessment.
Primary challengers, start your engines!
