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Six candidates have tossed their figurative hats into the ring to become Nevada’s next lieutenant governor.
Republican Stavros Anthony is running for re-election; on the Democratic side, Assembly Majority Leader Sandra Jauregui is the overwhelming favorite to advance in the primary, where she is competing against Courtney Burke and Bridget “BridgieNix” Scheiner. In the general election, Anthony and the Democratic nominee will face Cornelius D. Jones (no political affiliation) and perennial candidate Janine Hansen, a member of the Independent American Party.
The winner of the general election will get a cool title, preside over the State Senate (and cast tie-breaking votes if needed), serve on a few boards, and become governor should the governor become unable to serve.
And that’s pretty much it. In Nevada, the lieutenant governor doesn’t really do much—in fact, the lieutenant governor does so little that over the years, some have pondered whether the state should get rid of the office entirely.
This was the subject of the RN&R‘s cover story 12 years ago this week, also during an election year. Dennis Myers’ piece, headlined “Office politics: What should Nevada do with its lieutenant governorship?” started off with this:
On the second floor of a Carson City casino, Nevada Day celebrants are crowding into a large ballroom. Most of the tables are full. A band is playing. And at the west end of the hall, Nevada’s lieutenant governor is dishing up chili.
This is a modern tradition in Nevada. The Nevada Day chili feed was begun by Nevada Attorney General Richard Bryan in 1982. He held it every year as he rose to governor, then U.S. senator. When he retired from elective office, Brian Krolicki—then state treasurer and a Republican—asked Democrat Bryan if he could take it over. (Krolicki) continues the tradition today as lieutenant governor. (Bryan: “Brian Krolocki was a class act in asking my permission to take over the event. This will be the 32nd year.”)
Krolicki is well known in the state after two terms as treasurer and two as lieutenant governor. But it’s fair to ask whether the public knows what he does in the state’s second highest office besides check on the health of the governor and dish up chili.
Of the state’s six executive branch jobs elected statewide, five have duties that are innate to them. The governor is chief executive. Secretary of state is a record keeper. Treasurer and controller are virtually defined by their functions—one takes in the state’s money, the other pays the state’s bills. And the attorney general has powers and functions that are granted at common law—even the Legislature cannot change them except by amending the state Constitution.
But the lieutenant governor? Other than succeeding to the governorship and presiding over the Nevada Senate every other year, not much comes to mind.
It’s been a puzzle for as long as Nevada has existed. What should be done with the job?
Nevada State Journal/March 17, 1899: “Nevada has about the same need for a Lieutenant Governor as for a Board of Harbor Commissioners.”
During the British colonial period, lieutenant governors were important because governors were often absent in England for long periods. With independence, they declined in importance, though the examples of the colonial experience suggested models as states entered the union. A lieutenant governorship was usually provided for in new state constitutions.
An objection was raised at the first Nevada Constitutional Convention (“like the fifth wheel of a coach”), but it did not prevent the inclusion of the office. When that constitution was defeated by Nevada voters, the second convention included the office of lieutenant governor with no objection at all.
It was common for the office to be invested with a legislative presidency, as in Nevada, a trend possibly influenced by the vice president’s U.S. senate role.
In recent decades, as states have acted on reorganizations or other reforms, the trend has been in favor of creation of the office. States have occasionally abolished it, but then usually brought it back. But creation of duties for the office have been a distinct afterthought to the creation of the post itself. Except in the largest states, legislative presidencies are not full time. …
From 1865 to 1873, the lieutenant governor served as warden of the Nevada Prison. After that experiment, the 1875 Legislature put him—it was always men in those days—into the jobs of state librarian and Nevada adjutant general. This arrangement was more successful, or at least more lasting. The librarian job lasted until 1894 and adjutant general until 1926, which was an important function during two wars—the Spanish American and World War I.
Thereafter, the notion of a working lieutenant governor languished for decades and the post became effectively part time. Over the course of those decades there were occasional disputes and episodes that showed limits on the office.
Later on in the piece, Myers noted that the 2014 lieutenant governor’s race did have some potential added importance—because the results could significantly help shape Nevada’s U.S. Senate contest in 2016:
Oddly, the office of lieutenant governor is getting a lot more attention this year than usual because of two factors. One is that Democrats did not field a strong candidate for governor, so the next stop on the ballot that is seriously contested is lieutenant governor. The second is that the election of a Republican lieutenant governor would give Gov. Brian Sandoval the freedom to run for the U.S. Senate in 2016 without turning the governorship over to a Democrat.
So the office is getting more notice than usual, but it’s not always leading to any discussion of the office itself, partly because the two leading Republican candidates—Sue Lowden and Mark Hutchison—are mostly talking about each other, and not in friendly tones. That leaves Democrat Lucy Flores, the only major candidate in her primary, to talk about the job itself, which she has been doing. …
“There is so much more that can be done with this office,” she told Fox News Latino last month. “I think it has been under-utilized. And it provides a great opportunity for someone who has a vision, energy and of course, a different perspective.”
Turns out that added attention to the race in 2014 was all for naught: Hutchinson routed Flores in the general election, but Sandoval did not run for U.S. Senate, meaning both he and Hutchinson completed their four-year terms.
That brings us to this year’s election, when a similar dynamic (at least to the second factor Myers mentioned) is in play: If Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo wins re-election, he’ll instantly become a top contender (should he choose to run) for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, which is up for election in two years—but a Lombardo run for U.S. Senate would be far more unlikely if the lieutenant governor in 2028 is a Democrat.
As Hugh Jackson eloquently put it on a April 3 piece for the Nevada Current: “That screwball scenario—the chance that the outcome might mean something in 2028—is the only remotely notable thing about the 2026 lieutenant governor’s race.”
—Jimmy Boegle
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