Nevada government is an insiders’ game
By Kyle Roerink, Las Vegas Sun
CARSON CITY — Many of the state’s elected officials have professional relationships that extend outside the Legislature, creating a web that reveals the close-knit nature of Nevada politics.
Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, for instance, represented Sen. Mark Lipparelli in front of the state’s ethics commission in 2013. Lipparelli, a tech executive and former gaming regulator, filled Hutchinson’s vacant state senate seat the following year.
Hutchison, who practices law by trade, said the business link between the two had no influence on Lipparelli’s appointment to Hutchison’s Senate seat.
But the business connection, disclosed in public documents, highlights the dual roles and relationships fostered in the private-public world of state politics. It also underscores Nevada’s revolving-door of officials who bounce from one government post to the next in an insular world that’s hard for a layperson to breach.