Cannizzaro working to fend off challenge from Becker for Senate seat

A well-funded Republican challenger is hoping to unseat the leader of the Nevada Senate Democrats in what is shaping up to be the most high-profile — and most expensive — legislative race of the election cycle.

Republican April Becker will face off against Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro in the competitive swing district. Democrats hold the advantage when it comes to voter registration, with about 40 percent of active voters registered as Democrats compared to 32 percent as Republicans.

That margin is slightly larger than the 41-33.5 percent registration split the district saw in 2016 when Cannizzaro first won election to the seat by defeating Republican Victoria Seaman by 51-49 percent margin. In 2019, Cannizzaro became the first female state Senate Majority Leader in Nevada history after replacing the ousted Kelvin Atkinson, who resigned during the 2019 session and later pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud.

Cannizzaro has more firepower heading into the fall when it comes to campaign cash. As of the latest filings in June, she holds a significant lead with $692,000 in cash on hand compared with Becker’s $150,000.

For Cannizzaro, it’s the first election since Republicans attempted an expensive recall effort that targeted her and two other senators 2017 that eventually fell short of triggering a recall election. During those efforts, Republicans hoped to replace Cannizzaro with Becker.

But she heads into the election under fire from both progressive reform advocates who have criticized her for not going far enough on police reforms and policing associations who have soured on her candidacy after supporting her four years ago.

Police reform bills

Much of the criticism stems from a single piece of legislation that Cannizzaro, a prosecutor in the Clark County district attorney’s office, sponsored in 2019 that increased protections for police officers under investigation for misconduct.

That bill came under scrutiny from reform advocates in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody in May, who bashed it for being tone deaf. During a policy-focused special session this summer, Democrats proposed a partial repeal of that bill that progressives said didn’t go far enough in addressing their concerns.

But it also drew the ire of the Metro Police Protective Association, the union for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers, which voiced heavy opposition to the repeal efforts. The group, which endorsed Cannizzaro in 2016 but announced that it has endorsed Becker this year, also started running ads in September that said she “betrayed our trust.”

In an interview, Cannizzaro pointed to her job as a prosecutor as part of her record in supporting law enforcement.

“The fact that in some space, there is this notion that I don’t support law enforcement is ridiculous when I go to work everyday to make sure we can keep our communities safe,” she said.

Responding to progressive critics, she said the conversations about criminal justice reforms are not over at the legislative level.

On the economy, she said that much of the 2021 session will be focused on getting businesses back on their feet following the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic shutdown.

She pointed to the renewable energy sector as one avenue that could provide both an opportunity for job growth and economic diversification, as well as a path for the state to move towards a cleaner future.

She highlighted some of the Democrats’ key legislative accomplishments over the last four years, including enacting a carbon reduction plan to combat climate change and passing increased education funding, including raises for teachers in 2019.

“We’ve made a lot of really great progress, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said.

Business friendly state

Becker said she is running because she’s worried that Nevada “is turning into California” and is losing its business-friendly nature.

“We are not going to be the state that companies choose,” she said.

Becker, a Las Vegas attorney, criticized Democrats for the cuts they made to education and health care — the budgets of which make up roughly two-thirds of the state’s total budget — during the special session over the summer to close the $1.2 billion budget deficit.

Looking ahead if the state’s fiscal situation worsens, Becker said the state needs to look at where there is wasted spending rather than raising taxes to offset revenue losses. She said that she wasn’t sure where that wasted spending is at this point, and said she would want a full audit of state spending to see where the money is going.

Becker, who serves on the board of trustees at the private Meadows School in Las Vegas, said that education should be run like a business, with accountability measures in place for schools and teachers.

“I don’t think throwing more money at it is the fix,” Becker said.

Becker said she’s not in favor of sweeping police reforms, but said that she would be in favor of universal statewide training standards for officers.

“I don’t think it’s fair to the officers we have, personally, because of something that happened thousands of miles away,” referring to the outcry for more accountability measures for police from reform advocates in the wake of Floyd’s death.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.