Sisolak finds there’s much to do before becoming Nevada governor

The Nevada governor’s race was one of the most watched in the country this year, but Democratic candidate Steve Sisolak’s focus was elsewhere election night.

Sisolak, 64, said his mother had a health scare, caused by a mixture of dehydration and stress, that required paramedics to tend to her in his campaign’s hotel suite at Caesars Palace.

“I was more focused on my mother than the election at that particular time,” Sisolak said this week. “I had my team up there analyzing results, and we got her home safely.”

Now his mother is doing fine, and Sisolak is doing even better.

He defeated Republican Adam Laxalt and is set to become Nevada’s first Democratic governor in more than 20 years. It was a big night for the party, which maintained control of the Legislature and flipped a U.S. Senate seat.

It’s been a life-changing month for Sisolak in more ways than one. Six days after winning the governor’s race, he announced his engagement to Kathy Ong, a Las Vegas financial consultant he has dated for more than five years.

“I wanted to get engaged earlier, but frankly, I didn’t want to make it a political issue,” he said. “Kathy deserved her own day.”

Fresh off a weekend training event held by the National Governors Association, Sisolak has a lot to accomplish before he is sworn in to Nevada’s highest office on Jan. 7.

The governor-elect said he still needs to pick a chief of staff, a budget director and his replacement on the Clark County Commission. He continues to meet with Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval.

“He has been an incredible asset in terms of understanding what’s going on and familiarizing me with the budget and with different programs,” Sisolak said. “And we’re going to continue taking advantage of that opportunity to learn from him.”

Sisolak is tight-lipped on what he’ll do once he takes office.

He says his initial focus will be on education, health care and creating jobs – the issues on which he stumped during his campaign. He’s already working with federal law enforcement, and soon will do the same with the Legislature, to fix an unenforceable Nevada law expanding background checks to private gun sales and transfers.

But Sisolak said he hasn’t spoken yet with Democratic legislative leaders Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson and Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson about bills Sandoval vetoed in 2017 that the new governor would be willing to sign into law.

“I have no goals set right now, other than we’re going to focus on doing the best job we can,” he said.

Sisolak still has two county commission meetings to preside over as chairman before he moves into the Governor’s Mansion.

He looks back at the decade he spent on the board with pride. He and his colleagues guided the county through the Great Recession and faced the challenge of restoring the commission’s image after several former board members went to prison as a result of the FBI’s Operation G-Sting.

Asked what he’ll miss the most about Southern Nevada, Sisolak said the county commissioners and staff he works with every day.

“It’s bittersweet because I’m moving on,” Sisolak said, his voice wavering with emotion. “They were a phenomenal group of people, and I’ll miss them.”

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.