Saturday, April 20, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Disabled World War II veteran Ken Brown wants to go to war.
The battleground: an unofficial Mason-Dixon line dividing Southern and Northern Nevada. To the victor go the spoils -- millions of dollars in taxpayer money to build college chemistry labs, patrol state highways and feed hungry children.
Northerners keep winning all the battles, Brown says, because their generals at the Legislature are stronger and smarter. And they stay in power for years on end.
When Northerners control the Legislature -- and that has happened a lot in recent years -- the North loads up on most of the goodies. The 1995 session illustrates that.
Washoe County, with only 18.6 percent of the population, walked off with 57 percent of the money for college classrooms, laboratories and other campus projects at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Northern community colleges.
How did Las Vegas do?
Clark County, which has 65.5 percent of the population, got 47.8 percent of the money for projects at UNLV and local community college campuses.
Southerners say that disparity can be summed up in two words: Raggio and Dini.
Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, has ruled the Senate for eight years, except for the 1991 session, when Las Vegas Sen. Jack Vergiels took over while Democrats had the most members and were in control.
Co-speaker Joe Dini, a Democrat from Yerington, where he owns a casino, has dominated the Assembly since 1987. The co-speaker, Republican Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, hails from Gardnerville, outside Carson City.
Brown, a disabled military veteran, resolves to launch a full-scale publicity attack against that Northern power base. Why? Because Northern legislators last year helped kill a bill that would have placed the first state-run veterans' retirement home near Nellis Air Force Base.
Brown is trying to enlist an army of Southern Nevada citizens who are hopping mad over two common perceptions:
* Las Vegas has most of the state's population but can't corral its share of the state's money.
* Las Vegas legislators can't protect their turf because they're undisciplined and green.
"All the population is down here, but all the power in the Legislature is up north," Brown says. "Does that make sense to you?"
Power imbalance
Opinions are plentiful on why Southerners can't wrest control of the Legislature, and with it, the lion's share of state funding.
The most plausible reasons: distance from the state capital, the transient nature of Las Vegas' voter base, lack of unity among lawmakers and turnover.
The distance from Las Vegas to Carson City, about 450 miles, is a hardship on Southern Nevada legislators asked to abandon their families and jobs for six months every other year.
"We have legislators that serve a term or two, can't afford it and bail out," said Assemblyman Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas. "Part of the answer to getting better people from Clark County and keeping them there is we're going to have to pay legislators more."
Lawmakers from Washoe County live little more than a half-hour's drive from the Capitol.
"I agree it's more of an inconvenience to serve from Las Vegas," Raggio said, "but I don't think anyone is advocating we move the Capitol."
Clark County's phenomenal growth compared with the rest of the state makes it more difficult for Southern incumbents to maintain name identification in their districts. Transiency breeds unfamiliarity.
"People are constantly moving out," said Assemblyman Larry Spitler, D-Las Vegas. "One-fourth to three-fourths of them might not be here during the next election."
Reno, by contrast, is dotted with old neighborhoods. Many lawmakers there, like Raggio, are more likely to have roots that extend back several decades. They are more familiar to their voters.
Lawmakers from Washoe County and the state's rural areas are more apt to stick together on regional issues, while Clark County legislators sometimes have to juggle competing constituencies. The battles between the gaming industry and Culinary Union, for instance, are more acute in Southern Nevada than Reno.
For his part, Dini denies that he plays favorites.
"Most of the members consider me a level-headed guy, willing to compromise, willing to work things out," he said. "And I'm not sectional. I look at things statewide."
Raggio has a similar take on his rise to power.
"I don't think I'm in leadership because I'm for Washoe County," he said. "Leadership is not determined by sectionalism. There are people who feel they should be in a higher leadership position, but maybe their peers don't."
Given the absence of power in the South, some lawmakers suggest the Clark County delegation would bring home more bacon if they voted together as a regional body.
"If the people of Las Vegas vote together, they would win everything," Hettrick said. "So it's not the North doing it to them. It's them doing it to themselves."
Tenure and clout
Some believe that Northern Nevada benefits because its voters are more familiar with the Legislature. Northerners, closer to Carson City, are more likely to attend legislative sessions.
"There are interest groups like mobile home people and victims' rights groups that can't afford to have a full-time lobbyist up in Carson City," said Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas.
State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, a candidate for Congress, said Northern legislators are treated with more respect by their voters and hometown media.
"The people in Reno seem to revere Bill Raggio," he said.
Such reverence has translated into tenure, which results in leadership positions and political clout.
"It takes at least to the third session for someone to be comfortable," Schneider said.
Meantime, the Southern delegations continues to churn.
Only three of Clark County's 26 delegates in the Assembly last session have served continuously since 1989. That's in contrast to seven of the 16 members from outside Clark County.
Of the 21 Republicans in the Assembly, 11 were from Clark County, but the three most powerful -- co-speaker Hettrick, floor leader Pete Ernaut of Reno, and Ways and Means Co-Chairman John Marvel of Battle Mountain -- were from the North.
Only one Southern Nevada Republican, Sandra Tiffany of Henderson, has served two consecutive terms.
The situation for Southerners is not entirely dire. Southern Democrats have had an easier time achieving leadership positions than local Republicans in recent years. Titus is Senate minority leader, Richard Perkins of Henderson is the Assembly's Democratic floor leader and Las Vegan Bob Price is his assistant. Assemblyman Morse Arberry is co-chairman of Ways and Means.
Still, such accumulations of power have been historically short-lived. Southern legislators frequently have left state service to run for high-profile positions in local government, where the real power is. Among them: Las Vegas City Councilman Matthew Callister, County Commissioners Myrna Williams and Erin Kenny and Clark County District Judge Gene Porter.
"In Las Vegas, a position with the city or county is a bigger deal than being in the Assembly," Hettrick said.
Rapid growth has turned Las Vegas into the state's hot spot.
Williams, who also left after the 1993 session, said that toward the end of her 10-year stint in the Assembly, more of her constituent calls were about city or county issues than the statewide topics the Legislature addresses.
As a county commissioner, she said, "I can do more about somebody's neighborhood."
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