(Chuck Muth) – It took Republicans two years and millions of dollars to flip one seat in the Nevada State Assembly and get out of their 28-14 super-minority this election cycle.
It took Assemblyman Greg Hafen less than two hours yesterday to possibly put them right back in it.
I know I’m a broken record on this, but Republicans never blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity. And here we go again.
Assemblyman P.K. O’Neil, who has been the Assembly Republican Caucus (ARC) Minority Leader for the last two years, opted not to seek the position again.
And who can blame him? Reigning in hell ain’t all that John Milton cracked it up to be.
Yesterday, the 15 ARC members ARC – in a bitterly contested election – voted for Hafen to be their new leader.
Subsequently, conservative Assemblywoman Jill Dickman – the current Northern Assistant Leader – threatened to leave the caucus, telling me she’s tired of Republicans in the Assembly playing go-along-to-get-along footsies with the Democrats.
Here’s the ugly back story…
Hafen has desperately wanted to be Minority Leader for a long time. In fact, he’s been doing his Brutus imitation by stabbing P.K. in the back both during the 2023 legislative session and the 2024 election cycle.
He reportedly engineered at least two failed coup attempts to remove P.K. as leader and get himself installed as Grand Imperial Pooh-Bah and finally succeeded yesterday.
But it’s a Pyrrhic victory, at best.
Sensible Seven or Suicidal Seven?
While P.K. was never a strong conservative – he voted for the largest tax hike in Nevada history in 2015 – at least he put solid, movement conservatives on his leadership team.
Dickman was his Northern Assistant Leader, Assemblywoman Daniel Gallant was his Southern Assistant Leader, and Assemblyman Rich DeLong was his Whip.
But a group calling itself the “Sensible Seven” – led by Hafen in the then-14-member caucus – was constantly nipping at their heels, undermining the conservative agenda, and sowing division throughout the 2023 session.
Then it got worse.
One of the “Sensible Seven” blocked the caucus endorsement of one of the GOP Assembly candidates who was trying to flip a seat this year because the candidate used to be a Libertarian.
Another of the “Sensible Seven” blocked the endorsement of another GOP Assembly candidate who was trying to flip a seat because her Democrat opponent was a friend of his.
And another of the “Sensible Seven” is rumored to have dried up contributions to another of the GOP Assembly candidate because the candidate’s Democrat opponent was more favorable to a liberal special interest group he supports.
Yeah, these political geniuses are exactly who Republicans need to be in charge.
But after the November elections, the “Sensible Seven” believed they finally had the eight votes needed to take over the caucus.
Maybe they did, but maybe they didn’t – not if Dickman entered the leadership race to challenge Hafen, which she was strongly considering doing earlier this week after receiving an outpouring of support from conservatives all across the state.
Well, that led to a number of behind-the-scenes discussions and efforts to reach a compromise to bring this Lord of the Flies Caucus to some semblance of unity.
The win-win offer on the table was to keep the two strong, intelligent women on the leadership team in some capacity and let Greg fill out the rest of the team with his loyalists from the you-pat-my-back-I’ll-pat-yours gang.
In fact, Dickman was such a team player – and only interested in the good of the caucus and Gov. Lombardo – that she was willing to give up her seat on the leadership team if Hafen tapped DeLong or Assemblyman Ken Gray to fill it.
Hafen told her to cram it in her pie hole.
He then proceeded to dump Dickman and replace her with Assemblyman Greg Koenig.
He threw Gallant under the bus and replaced her with Assemblywoman Melissa Hardy – perhaps the biggest nothing-burger RINO (Republican in Name Only) in the entire caucus.
And kicked DeLong to the curb and replaced him with Assemblyman Toby Yurek.
Or as I now call them, “Primary Bait.”
Recognizing that Hafen had the votes and was going to purge conservatives from the leadership team rather than compromise and unite the caucus, Dickman decided not to run for the Minority Leader position and announced she might resign from the caucus entirely!
What’s not clear is whether she’s thinking of changing her party registration to independent like Sen. Patricia Farley did a few years ago, or simply leave the circus while remaining a Republican the way Annie Black did in 2021.
Either way, the one thing we DON’T have to worry about is protecting Gov. Lombardo’s vetoes or raising taxes. Jill will continue to vote as the conservative she’s always been.
So now that Republicans have blown another opportunity to not blow an opportunity, what can conservatives and Republicans in Nevada look forward to?
The Titanic’s New Captain: Unity or U-Turn?
In a press statement announcing Hafen’s election, ARC said the vote “reflects the trust and confidence of his colleagues in his ability to lead with integrity, vision, and commitment to advancing the values of the Republican Party.”
Pardon me while I grab a barf bag…
. . .
OK, I’m back.
Hafen persuaded the majority of the Little Caucus That Couldn’t that he would “unite” the caucus around his “vision,” as articulated in the campaign plan he presented the last time he sought the job in 2022.
In the first slide of his presentation, Hafen wrote…
“Great leaders don’t set out to be leaders. They set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role. Always about the goal.”
Doesn’t that just send a tingle up your spine?
Yeah, me neither.
He went on to promise that his leadership team would provide “honesty, transparency, and accountability,” along with other exciting things such as “Strategize policy” and “Develop priorities as a team” and “Listen” and “Unify the caucus.”
Well, so much for that “unity” thing.
This is pure pablum. Political junk food. Lots of flowery words with no iron behind them. All sizzle, no steak. Much like his press release which included this scintillating verbiage…
“As Caucus Leader, he is poised to guide Republican legislators in their efforts to promote responsible governance, to strengthen Nevada’s economy, and uphold the principles of liberty and opportunity for all. . . .
“Under Assemblyman Hafen’s leadership, the Republican Caucus will remain committed to the principles that define the party’s vision for the future. His leadership style emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and a steadfast dedication to improving the lives of all Nevadans.”
Ugh. I think I might toss my cookies again.
The release also contains this quote directly from the crown prince…
“I am deeply honored by the trust my colleagues have placed in me to serve as their leader. Together, we will work to address the challenges facing our state and advocate for policies that reflect the values of hard-working families across Nevada.”
Name one “hard-working” person sitting around the dinner table with their family who has ever said, “You know, what we really need is a leader who will address the challenges facing our state and advocate for policies that reflect our values.”
That is decidedly NOT how normal people talk, think, or vote.
From Majority Dreams to Minority Nightmares
Worse, nowhere in the release – NOWHERE! – does it say Hafen will operate as a principled OPPOSITION party leader to the Crazy Town Democrats rather than serve as the usual minority party door mat, grateful for legislative table scraps tossed his way.
And not a peep about becoming the MAJORITY party in 2026. Instead, we’re only promised that under Hafen’s “guidance,” Republicans will “make meaningful progress during the 2025 legislative session.”
Not exactly Trump-like. Or Reagan-like. Or Newt-like. Or Thatcher-like. Or Churchillian.
More like Mr. Rogers or Pee Wee Herman.
And to give you an idea of what we can expect under Mr. Hafen’s “leadership,” consider this example of “success” listed in his 2022 leadership pitch/presentation…
“Sued over gerrymandering.”
Gerrymandering is what the Democrat majority did in 2021 to redraw the district lines in an effort to secure super-majorities in both houses of the Legislature.
And after getting steamrolled by the Democrats on redistricting, Hafen filed a lawsuit to block the horribly partisan maps.
In an interview with Megan Barth of the Nevada Globe a year ago, Hafen noted that there was a “very similar lawsuit in North Carolina that went to U.S. Supreme Court and, essentially, ruled in our favor.”
But he didn’t have the fire in the belly to do battle. He DROPPED THE SUIT and simply went along to get along. There was just no fight in the man.
He said he pulled the plug because “we could see that the case would end up in the Nevada Supreme Court and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court” and he didn’t want to raise the money to fight, fight, fight like the political leader about to return to the White House.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate Conservatives
Now, as for Mr. Hafen’s boast about being this great “conservative”…
He’s a paper conservative. He’s gotten high scores on ratings largely because when you’re in the minority you really aren’t faced with a lot of tough votes.
But when you represent a rock-solid GOP district like he does, you need to do more than just cast easy, conservative votes. If you want to get OUT of the minority, you need to rock the boat and pick some fights, not go-along-to-get-along.
And if you want to be the leader, you need to be on the tip of the spear, not leading meekly from behind. You need to do more than mouth some hollow talking points and write a few checks.
You need to get in the arena, get your hands dirty, and slug it out. Like Gallant did in the 2024 cycle for Republican Assembly candidates who tried to flip seats.
Yes, she pissed off the Democrats. Yes, she pissed off the liberal media. Yes, she stepped on toes of the GOP’s conflict-averse country club class.
But nice guys – and gals – finish last. Or as Danielle says, repeating the famous quote: “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
But instead of harnessing Danielle’s energy, passion, skills, and talent by keeping her on the leadership team, Hafen kicked her off and threw her overboard. Brilliant “strategery” there.
Then again, maybe Hafen did Dickman, Gallant, and DeLong a favor. I mean, if you knew in advance the Titanic was going to sink, would you buy a ticket?
So strap on your life preserver. 2025 is gonna be yet another session of legislative disaster in the State Assembly. And because of his refusal to accept any reasonable compromise with conservatives, Captain Queeg is gonna own it.
Unless there’s a mid-session mutiny.