Bill Raggio

David McGrath Schwartz has a must-read story in today's Las Vegas Sun on veteran state Sen. Bill Raggio's (R-Reno) fight for his political life:

You spend three decades in the state Senate, you have a bust in bronze at the Reno airport, and yet you face the real possibility of ending your public service defeated in your party’s primary.

Turnout could be the deciding factor. Conventional wisdom gives Raggio the advantage in a high-turnout election. But low turnout could give his opponent, former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R-Reno), an edge. Republican turnout in Waschoe County was 37.9 percent in the 2006 primary.

In a sweeping ruling handed down Friday by the Nevada Supreme Court, 21 elected officials in the state have been ruled ineligible to run for re-election because of term limits. In a separate ruling, 13 others, including the state Assembly speaker and state Senate majority leader, were ruled eligible to run for re-election.

Nevada votes approved term limits in 1996. Friday's ruling examined when exactly they kicked in for local officials and state lawmakers.

State Sens. Bill Raggio (R-Reno) and Dina Titus (D-Las Vegas) both have reasons to be pleased in this week's Winners & Losers. The governor had another bad week, although we're starting to ask ourselves: if every week is a bad one, is it time to recalibrate? Please, governor -- just take a week's vacation and we'll put you on the Winner side next time. Find out who else made this week's list... | CLICK HERE

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas).LAS VEGAS - In a bitingly critical response to his televised address Thursday, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) portrayed Gov. Jim Gibbons as indecisive and uncooperative and suggested that any solution to the state's budget crisis will be reached by the legislature without the governor's help.

Buckley began her speech by praising Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio (R-Reno) whom she credited for working with her on a plan to meet a budget shortfall she estimated at more than $250 million.

"[Raggio] is an honest and dedicated public servant," said Buckley. "I want to publicly thank him for working in a bipartisan manner to reach a solution to our short-term problem."

"I cannot say the same for our governor," she added.

LAS VEGAS - Unsurprisingly, the Interim Finance Committee adjourned today without any great steps taken toward resolving Nevada's current budget crisis.  Balancing the state's budget, which the Economic Forum last week projected was running a $250 million deficit, will now be the topic of a special session of the state legislature to convene tomorrow.

Following the governor's original call for a special session earlier in June, Democratic legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas) and Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford (D-Las Vegas) disputed the need for a special session and argued the shortfall could be dealt with through the IFC process.

Those arguments were silenced by the forum's projection and instead of attempting a stop-gap fix of the current shortfall, the IFC approved only minor, previously decided upon cuts.

3rd Congressional District candidate Dina Titus.LAS VEGAS - Having served in the Nevada Senate since 1988, state Sen. Dina Titus (D-Las Vegas) is challenging U.S. Rep. Jon Porter (R-Boulder City) this year to represent the 3rd Congressional District.  Following a week in which we received your questions for Titus, PolitickerNV.com sat down with her Friday to talk about the issues that matter to Nevadans and how she plans on defeating the three-term incumbent.

State Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio (R-Reno).LAS VEGAS - State Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio (R-Reno) called Wednesday for Democratic legislators to work with him to come up with a consensus proposal to fix the state's budget shortfall.

"I have asked the Democrats in both the Assembly and the Senate," said Raggio. "I want to work with them-we want to work with them to make this an apolitical session. It should be a short session. It should be dealing with how we deal with whatever the number is and not be a partisan fight."

Gov. Jim Gibbons.LAS VEGAS - In the hectic scramble before the 25th Special Session of the Nevada state legislature convenes next week, Gov. Jim Gibbons' office is giving legislators a green light to come up with their own proposals to fix the state's budget shortfall.

"Anything that's a viable option, [legislators] will be able to consider," said Gibbons press secretary Ben Kieckhefer Wednesday. "If there's something that we weren't able to encapsulate for some reason in our proclamation or in the agenda we set forth, we'd be willing to amend it so it could be considered."

Control of the agenda is one of the strongest tools Gibbons holds to either push his own plan to fix the shortfall or support efforts by Republican allies. By sticking to his pledge that "no options are off the table," Gibbons could be inviting a drawn-out, acrimonious special session.

LAS VEGAS - David McGrath Schwartz at the Las Vegas Sun is reporting the governor's intention to not issue the call for a special session until Sunday, the day before the session is to begin.

By waiting until Sunday, Gibbons will allow legislative allies like state Sen. Bill Raggio (R-Reno) to continue raising money for the rest of this week.

Read the full story here.

From left:Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), state Sen. Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas), state Sen. Joe Heck (R-Henderson).LAS VEGAS - Perhaps the biggest irony of Gov. Jim Gibbons' call for a special session of the legislature June 23 is that he could potentially be providing a golden opportunity for the politician who could defeat him in 2010.

Three state legislators, Assembly Speaker Barbara (D-Las Vegas) and state Sens. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) and Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas), are rumored to be interested in Gibbons' job, and any one of them could use the session to strike a first blow in an eventual campaign against him.

Taking into account his "no solutions are off the table" pledge and short of Gibbons shooting the moon politically, here is what we can expect to see next week from the looming gubernatorial contest.