Our change politician?

Connected Democrat has ambitious state vision

Sam Morris

Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, has friends and admirers on both sides of the political aisle.

Sat, Jun 21, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Horsford talks with volunteers before walking door to door on the campaign trail June 7. Horsford is the youngest minority leader in Nevada history.

When he was just 18 years old and finishing his first semester of college in Reno, Steven Horsford returned to Las Vegas, took his three siblings from his mother, who was a drug addict, and got a job.

He was the receptionist at a medical clinic during the day, cleaned up the place at night, and cared for his siblings. Two of them were in preschool, the other in elementary school.

Horsford enrolled at UNLV and studied when he could.

This was his life for six or seven months.

Then his father, long absent, was murdered.

“And, I decided at that moment ...” Horsford said, his voice breaking off as he tried to power through this story.

“I wasn’t going to allow that to be my fate or to allow other people in my family to live like that. I said I want to go back to school, and I told my mom to take care of my siblings. And she did.”

He said he doesn’t like to dwell on these things.

When asked, though, it comes out, and it’s devastating to listen to, only leavened by the fact that his mother has been sober for 15 years now, and his siblings are good and strong and responsible people with healthy relationships, he said proudly.

Horsford ran in a crowded Democratic primary in 2004 and won a state Senate seat, replacing the legendary Joe Neal. He’s now the leader of his caucus, which is just one vote shy of being in the majority. He’s stepped out as a critic of Gov. Jim Gibbons and his call for a special legislative session to cut spending. It starts next week.

At 35, he’s the youngest minority leader in modern Nevada history and only the second African-American to hold the post.

The Horsford story is so literally unbelievable, so Hallmark-uplifting, that Nevadans who know him, including Democrats and Republicans, business and labor, eagerly talk about him.

Pete Ernaut, a Republican lobbyist for the public affairs and advertising firm R&R Partners and a former chief of staff to former Gov. Kenny Guinn, wanted to change the subject during a recent interview to volunteer his assessment of the state senator.

Horsford is bright, thoughtful and the future of the Democratic Party, said Ernaut, though his kind words aren’t surprising. Horsford left R&R as one of its chief lobbyists, when he was still in his 20s, to head up the Culinary Training Academy, a Strip hotel-Culinary Union partnership that then merged with Nevada Partners, another nonprofit organization that provides job training and other services for working-class families.

He manages 100 employees and an annual budget of $8 million and is overseen by a board of trustees. They’ve just finished a $12 million capital expansion project. It’s the type of experience, combined with years as a legislator and lobbyist with ties to business and labor, that could train a person to be governor of a state such as Nevada.

•••

Nevada politics is a small and cloistered world, and Horsford is smack in the middle of it, at the nexus of politics, policy, business, labor, media.

“He knows the process,” one lobbyist said. “He knows the process and the players,” another said.

And they seemed satisfied that one of their own is running the Senate Democratic caucus.

If his legacy will amount to anything, this will be Horsford’s great challenge: to keep at arm’s length his many friends, “the players,” who know “the process.” At times, he’ll need to learn to deliver bad news to them.

Horsford knows this, and he and his friends know the question is coming: Is he too close? They gave similar and equally savvy answers.

Horsford said he has strong convictions and isn’t easily influenced. His wife, Sonya, a no-nonsense woman who’s an instructor in educational leadership at UNLV, is a grounding influence, as are the three young children they are raising together, he said.

Horsford recalled a speech he gave last year on the floor of the Senate, just as the upper house was set to pass an appropriations bill that he argued provided too little money for schools and too much money for the favorite charities of prominent Nevadans, including lobbyist/developer Harvey Whittemore and liquor magnate Larry Ruvo.

Billy Vassiliadis, who runs R&R Partners, mentioned the same floor speech and also turned to Horsford’s prominent role — he’s given the lion’s share of credit by people who witnessed it — in pushing for charter school legislation and the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, working pro bono on the issue in the 1997 and 1999 sessions. He took on the powerful teachers union to do so, as well as skeptics in both parties.

“I think Steven is all about change,” said Culinary Union head D. Taylor, who helped get him hired as chief executive of the Culinary Training Academy. “He’s a perfect example of someone who can be part of a political process, and yet promote change. He could have remained as a lobbyist, done this and that, and he chose to come work in West Las Vegas a few blocks from where his father was killed.”

Of Horsford’s relationship with the power players, Vassiliadis said:

“They’ve seen him with them, and they’ve seen him work against them. They like him better when he’s with them.”

That’s another way of saying only Nixon could go to China — an old phrase in politics referring to the fact that only Richard Nixon could normalize relations with the Asian power because no one could ever attack Nixon for being soft on communism.

By the same token, perhaps only Horsford can force the extreme change needed on Nevada government, because he’ll look his friends in the eye and tell them they have no choice, and they’ll listen and do his bidding, or at least lower their asking price.

And Horsford suggested he wants to bring big change.

“What I want to do is build a blueprint for what Nevada is going to look like 10 and 20 years from now, and work toward that methodically,” he says.

The blueprint will sound appealing to most Nevadans, and is itself a savvy stroke of constituency politics: Tax reform that would ensure “entities not contributing their share” start doing so. By this, he means the big out-of-state corporations, such as Wal-Mart, that pay a small payroll tax but little else; a “world-class education for every child, make it a priority in action, not talk”; a friendly business climate that offers broadly shared prosperity, and a “smarter, streamlined” government that works for all.

It’s the type of agenda his old friends — and clients and current benefactors — in the gaming industry could get behind, and it has a sheen of post-partisanship, with a nod to his right (streamlined government), a nod to his left (money for education), and neither and both.

He talks about returning civility to the legislative process and working across the aisle.

In this, he’s learned some things from his newest mentor, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama. From the Obama campaign, where he also learned about running a field operation in the run-up to the intensely competitive January caucus, he also seems to appreciate the benefits of bottom-up politics, of using a big base of activists to carry a candidate and a movement and drive politics in the direction of his blueprint.

Horsford announced Friday what he calls “Nevada Speaks,” a series of town-hall meetings that will allow residents to sound off. He’ll ask Republicans to join him.

Can Horsford excite people in the same way Obama has?

A recent speech before an AFL-CIO political convention suggested he at least knows what’s required — he was a high school and college debater and in the drama club in high school (dramas, not musicals, he said with a laugh, until he remembered performing in “Fame.”)

The speech was elegantly written, tackled broad themes and was crafted for his labor audience, with nods toward health care, retirement security and safe and dignified workplaces. He referenced Samuel Gompers and Martin Luther King.

“A year from now we can wake up in a Nevada and an America where the young adult children of working families can go to work instead of war, college instead of conflict.”

That Horsford can do well is no longer in question. His is a story of success, having traveled a short distance but a lifetime from that horrible murder scene 16 years ago. He has real influence. The question now: How will he use it?

Discussion: 21 comments so far…

By Fccfirstclass

6/21/08 at 4:44 a.m.

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What a great article about a person who makes Rocky look second class. I hope Horsford makes it to be the governater.
By Bill_in_Henderson

6/21/08 at 9:27 a.m.

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What an inspiring story! Steven Horsford is the kind of leader who gives us real hope for positive change.
By jfnance32

6/21/08 at 9:34 a.m.

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Wow....Steven Horsford is a core leader for the Democrats in Assembly and he is shouting: "WE MUST RAISE TAXES ON EVERY BUSINESS IN NEVADA!!!!!!!"

If you vote for a democratic then you are voting to raise taxes.

I hope the citizens will be imformed of this fact when they vote.
By The_Onion

6/21/08 at 10:08 a.m.

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Great story Patrick. Senator Horsford is one of the most politically ambitious legislators in Nevada, and what's more, he really does want to change the system so that it benefits ALL Nevadans.

jfinance- What is your problem? Were you dropped on your head as a child? All you ever say in these comments is "taxes = bad"... that must require a lot of energy and thoughtfulness on your part.
By revbobdobbs

6/21/08 at 11:14 a.m.

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I believe jfinance may have suffered some brain damage, but most likely as a result of too much exposure to Rush and Hannity. By the way, isn't that Terry Lanni I hear calling for a tax on every business in Nevada?
By jfnance32

6/21/08 at 11:20 a.m.

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The tax he wants to increase the Modified Business Tax which is a payroll tax.

It is a backdoor income tax.

It is a tax which encourages business to reduce their payroll which they can do by not hiring people, laying people off and reducing raises.

Yes, this is want your fearless leaders wants to do and that is to hit YOU in your pocket book.
By Lisa

6/21/08 at 12:32 p.m.

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Nevada's tax base has relied on Gaming and Construction - which worked until too many people moved here expecting roads, utilities, schools, etc... Now that Nevada has the popluation to become a grown up state, we will have to pay more taxes, one way or another. You don't want Wal-mart and other large out of state retailers to pay what they pay in other states to do business (even though those companies don't charge us less or hire more people in exchange for us being so nice to them) and you don't want any taxes levied anywhere.

So down the line, when our infrastructure is crumbling and 75% of our population is uneducated, you'll be paying taxes for emergency road fixes, prisons, family services, and more cops while the money that gaming and business should be paying (and pay in other states - again, not giving us a break for all the money they are saving) will continue to be used outside Nevada and outside the country.

Hold onto your pledge and move those deckchairs around until you realize you are in a sinking state. Fix it or jump ship because keeping your eyes (and mind) shut to the reality of the situation will only drag us all down with you.
By General_Viewpoint

6/21/08 at 1:36 p.m.

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Honestly, Steven Horsford was 'manufactured' by some powerful interests (several prominent politicians and R & R) as was Ruben Kihuen by Senator Harry Reid after his failed attempt with Dario Herrera. Each of the three was literally given their well-paid positions with room to participate in year around political activities. There are numerous other leaders - although substantially less hyper-political.

In you article, you ask political consultants for their opinion. What could be less sincere or honest than asking people who must make political decisions about someone they must keep in constant 'good standing.'

The phrase 'Can Horsford excite people in the same way Obama has?', what does this mean?

And "And Horsford suggested he wants to bring big change,", likewise. Leadership requires strong advocacy, not 'suggesting'. Suggesting is a limp attempt at gauging how the public will feel and then moving ahead once one has found some crowd-pleasing measures.

And pandering to views on an unpopular war " ... can go to work instead of war, college instead of conflict.” Does this include all conflicts and wars, or just ones he chooses based on public opinion?

How disingenuous and political to suggest he'll ask Republicans to join him. That is one of the most obvious political phrases that any self-serving politician uses. Has he accomplished it? Who has he asked? Has he asked any other prominent community leaders or is it strictly politicos?

He is by most measures a self-described politician who is ambitious and wants to seek a higher office. As for personal challenges, having worked with numerous people in the community facing significant challenges every day, he is one of millions. And like some of those millions that have overcome a series of personal obstacles, good job.

Anointing him as a governor-in-training, "...that could train a person to be governor of a state such as Nevada", premature.

What about those question about Nevada Partners? There were questions about monies there and management. What happened? Anything? Or nothing?

"It’s the type of agenda his old friends — and clients and current benefactors — in the gaming industry could get behind" - this phrase says a lot, unfortunately.
By SuperJay

6/21/08 at 2:46 p.m.

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General Viewpoint- very accurate analysis.

Horsford is most certainly a typical "manufactured" self-serving politician, out to kow-tow to the unions and gaming. Culinary union leaders annointed him and elected him in 2004. Until he shows independence from them (as Reuben Kihuen did), he will always be viewed as the culinary union's sap and will never have credibility. I'd be more impressed had the reporter asked the opinion from actual residents of Horsford's district rather than that of his political consultant friends.

Furthermore, comparing Horseford to Obama couldn't further more from reality. Horseford lacks Obama's charisma and has yet to exite anyone but himself.
By jfnance32

6/21/08 at 3:18 p.m.

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Yeah, that is correct.

Leadership is not doing the easy thing but doing the thing that your friends do not want you to do.

For Horseford to show leadership he could call for the COLA to be delayed by one year.

He would be eaten alive by the union's, this newspaper and his follow democrats but that would be true leadership.

Proposaling a tax increase by a democrat is not leadership at all. Democrats live and breath to raise taxes.
By azsk8fan

6/21/08 at 5:24 p.m.

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and both presidential candidates want to grant citizenship to the millions of law-breaking aka crimanals, illegals in this country - so now who the hell do we vote for? I wouldn't vote for anyone who wants to reward lawbreakers - wonder what would happen if everyone refused to vote for either candidate - oh wait, that's right - it's really the Electoral College that elects the president - silly me - and all this time I thought I was living in a country that was 'for the people, BY the people........"
By shihan

6/21/08 at 6:21 p.m.

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Change, change, change that is all I hear these days. We would not be in the trouble we are in these days if it wasnt for the democratic senate. I have seen all the change I wanted to see since the dems took the senate and the house. Think before you vote! If you don't, I hope you'll like the huge taxes you will be paying.
By The_Onion

6/21/08 at 7:05 p.m.

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Again, jfinance, you really are out of touch.

There are so many contracts already signed by teachers that work in schools that are starting in July that to cancel the COLAs would only lead to lawsuits. These lawsuits would be lost and lead to further costs. Leave the COLAs alone and lay people off if you have to.

If we really want change then we have to have a more diverse and educated workforce. Steven Horsford has been a part of that solution and will continue to work towards more diversity on our economy, especially through education.
By jfnance32

6/21/08 at 8:28 p.m.

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Here is what is going to happen.

The Democrats will not delay the COLA. So you can get your panties out of a wad.

Both sides will come with some cuts to the so called, "Budget that is cut to the bone". They said the Budget was cut to the bone four years. They said it again last year. So they have used magic and found a lot to cut.

But they will be still short by millions.

The Democrats will not raise taxes because an election is coming up. They will wait until next year to do that.

So there are going to be many state workers laid off including some in the education department.

The average teacher will get $31 per week in take home pay because of the COLA. So instead of delaying that raise for one year, people are going to be laid off.

Are you happy now?
By casinokid

6/21/08 at 8:59 p.m.

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I've also seen change i've seen us go from a three trillion dollar surplus to a 9 trillion dollar deficit which is why the dollar is so weak and we pay so much for things, Now how do you intend to repay the debt with out revenues, Oh i know lets give more breaks to the wealthy and it will trickle down to us. or lets default on the loans like the homeowners did with the housing crisis then it will all go away and be blamed on someone other than my party choice.

Casinokid
By NVMojo

6/21/08 at 11:09 p.m.

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We are looking at our future Governor. How refreshing!

No more idiots!
By Concerned4Nevada

6/23/08 at 6:28 p.m.

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Another Soap for Nevadans, Horsford the Self center, self serving politician who really believes that Nevadans will believe anything they are told!

As for his heart breaking story about his family? Two questions come to anyone’s mind that reads this story. Why would you give back three little children to a mother who’s a drunk and drug addict after just 6 months? And second where was their father if the one murdered was an absent father from long past? And to top it off it showed his selfishness to give back three kids to a addict parent so he can go to college. Who paid for that?

Horsford’s great 4 years with the Senate are full of lies and self serving political ambitious feats. First he claims on his signs that he “Helped” “24,000” people get better paying jobs through Nevada Partners? He also claims with his statement that since he took office he helped get these 24,000 jobs. Well here’s lie one. Nevada partners claimed on their statements that since they opened in 1992 they have only helped 20,000 people get jobs. That’s only about 1,300 a year. Big difference in the numbers there Mr. Horsford?

As well as Horsford being Nevada Partners CEO/President he has tripled his income since becoming Senator of District 4. He has raised millions as a Senator for Nevada Partners and then pays himself a handsome amount. Question for Horsford… Show your tax returns [2002 & 2008]? Show where millions are going into an organization that only serviced on the average 1,300 a year? Most of which are laid off employee’s now due to massive lay offs in the major casinos. See Nevada Partners web site to back this fact. http:http://www.nevadapartners.com/index.html

Next to the fact that Horsford opened the Millennium fund meant for, contributed by Nevada Citizens for Nevada Citizens to non-Nevadans & illegal’s. Oh that’s right only if they sign that one day they will become a Untied States Citizen. What’s next if they go down and sign a paper that they will become citizens we can let them have social security? How about some food stamps and Medicaid?
By Concerned4Nevada

6/23/08 at 6:29 p.m.

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Second big lie! He claims on his signs and takes credit for bring accountability to the doctors of the hepatitis crisis. At the town hall meeting on this the only thing he told thousands scared for their life is “how can we make this better and see it doesn’t happen again”. Last I heard nothing has happened to those doctors not to mention the nurses who actually did the dirty work. How about charging back those medical bills paid by Medicaid to those doctors offices for not doing what they promised? How about charging them with endangerment of a human? How about a charge of battery? Nothing has happened to those doctors and Horsfords only involvement has been to look good for the up coming election and then when everything got quite about the clinic’s he soon forgot about the victims.

His third big lie was all day kindergarten! He only voted yes for it. But neglects to tell everyone that if your child or you wants all day kindergarten at a “Public School” you have to pay for it. As well as certain schools have it, not all schools do.

Most to all his promises in his campaign in 2004 he never kept or attempted. He promised a State lotto for funds for teachers. Well first he should have read the laws this would have never happened in Nevada! Second he lied and it only took a year for him to respond to a constituent about this promise.

“Written by Kimberly A 16-12-2007 04:52
Are you still interested in proposing a state lottery
in Nevada to support education.I wouldlike to get
behind youon this plan and help you work on this.
I am a teacher and writer.”

“Written by Steven Horsford 29-03-2008 06:36
As you know, I have supported a state lottery. Unfortunately, there have not been the votes to get the bill out of committee or to the full floor of the Senate. Hopefully, with a change in the make-up of the State Senate, it will be possible to get a bill out that will allow for a change to the state constitution to allow for a state lottery. As part of my proposal for a state lottery, all funds would have to be earmarked to public education and used specifically for school supplies and other resources in the classroom.”
By Concerned4Nevada

6/23/08 at 6:30 p.m.

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What was the bill? And where is all the money for schools and education you promised after you got all the support from teachers and unions in this area?

Horsford fought against the battle of Nevadans showing ID to register and to vote. Claiming that this would disenfranchise a voter because some people didn’t have a Picture ID? Well sir read the law, in Nevada you have to have a state ID if your 18+. Why would you fight against fighting voting fraud!

We sat and watched Horsford’s District become one of the highest foreclosure areas in the State and Country. We watched the homeless population that sleeps on his district streets double and nothing is being done when he drives by this area daily. We sat and watched as many empty store fronts closed up and un-rented as there are full ones.

Horsford stood at the county convention [Bally’s Hotel] and backed the lie of a fire marshal coming in and throwing out people. He went around screaming fowl and threatening to sue if the convention was not moved to another time. We all lost hours of pay from our jobs, lost hours in the hot sun fighting to get in there to only have it moved to another place a month later.

If Horsford isn’t trying to be North Las Vegas Mayor he’s trying to be the next Governor of Nevada! When in reality you’re the joke of the west and an embarrassment to the party and State! The big question is how to get you out?
By JJLV

10/10/08 at 12:02 p.m.

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What a man can't come up in the world. Most of you working for republicans but don't want to show your true colors so you hind behind these names. How about you state who you are and who you support and who pays you and the hours you are on here as part of your job. Just as state above about him showing his taxes, how about you show who you are. jfnance32 is all over these blogs. Who are you, show yourself........