Farewell to Pat Hickey

Farewell, Pat Hickey.

The one-time Assembly minority leader announced last week he wasn't going to seek re-election to his Reno seat. It wasn't really a surprise. Hickey had been saying for a long time that he probably was not going to run.

Like Moses, Hickey led his people to the promised land of a legislative majority, with the help of an act of God that even Hickey didn't see coming. And, like Moses, he wasn't allowed to enter that promised land.

By rights, Hickey should have been speaker of the Assembly in the 2015 session. He'd have done a fine job in that position. But the caucus turned first to Sparks Republican Ira Hansen, until the weight of his past writings sank his speakership, and then to John Hambrick of Las Vegas.

Many politicians would act out under such circumstances, but Hickey didn't. A former journalist, he produced daily blog to share his frustrations and insights during the session. But the two-time veteran of the Assembly (he served from 1996 to 1998, and again from 2010 to the present) turned into a quiet and effective legislator.

That's one of the reasons we should be sad to see Hickey depart: He was a thoughtful, reasonable lawmaker. He believed that when the election is over, the job is to try to get something done for the people.

"When I was elected to Republican leadership in the Assembly in 2012, I argued that Republicans could (and should) vote for more revenues for Nevada's schools, if significant reforms to education were to be enacted," Hickey said in his farewell statement (emphasis in original). "Many of those reforms were passed in the just-completed 2015 Session. I'm proud to have been a consistent voice in support of Governor [Brian] Sandoval's budget and a slate of groundbreaking school reforms."

Not everyone will be sad to see him go, however. Conservative activist Chuck Muth greeted news of Hickey's departure with glee.

"That quit-or-be-stomped process has now begun following passage of the largest tax hike in Nevada history this past legislative session with Tuesday's 'oh, happy day!' announcement by Assemblyman Pat 'The Appeaser' Hickey (Reno-RINO) that he was quitting and will not be running again next year," Muth wrote in his daily newsletter Silver State Confidential. "Hickey's conservatives [colleagues], on the other hand, can take pleasure in chalking up their first RINO casualty of Conservageddon '16 … without even firing a shot!"

RINO, by the way, is an acronym for "Republican In Name Only."

But opposition from the right wasn't why Hickey decided not to run again. He faced a primary opponent in 2014 and won his district with nearly 67 percent of the vote. And many other moderate Republicans challenged in primaries last year won their races, too.

In fact, if anything, some Republicans who accidentally won seats in 2014 are the ones who should worry. The red tide was the source of one of Hickey's most famous gaffes, which turned out to be true: In a radio interview, Hickey allowed low voter turnout, especially among minorities and young people, would make 2014 a good year for Republicans.

It sure was.

Although Hickey surely would have beat back any primary challenge, it's hard to deny that the increasingly combative tone in the Assembly figured into his decision to exit public life. (He quoted one-time Nevadan Mark Twain in saying political service should be "short and sporadic.")

Rhetorical combat will always be part of politics, and it's actually less personal than in years past. It's just that today, it never ends. Campaigns give way to sessions, but the rhetoric and the tactics never change. Perhaps there's no place in a world like that for a Pat Hickey. But there sure ought to be.

Steve Sebelius is a Las Vegas Review-Journal political columnist. Contact Steve Sebelius at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5276. Find him on Twitter: @stevesebelius