Former Gov. Kenny Guinn, a man of humble California farm country roots who migrated to Nevada and rose to lead the Clark County School District, UNLV, several companies and eventually the state, died today. Reports say he fell off his roof and suffered a heart attack, or perhaps the reverse. No matter how it happened, his passing sent waves of shock, disbelief and mourning through a political establishment clearly unready to bid him farewell.
As word of Guinn’s death spread, words such as “decent,” “honest,” and “integrity” were uttered over and over.
“I don’t know what to say. I never thought we would lose him,” said former Guinn campaign adviser Terry Murphy, a Democrat who nonetheless lent her service to the Republican’s first and only bid for public office. “We lost a person who had the best interests of the state at heart, always.”
“Truly, one of the good guys,” added Billy Vassiliadis, another Democrat who worked to get Guinn elected. “There was just a basic decency about him that sadly is not that common in politics anymore.”
Sig Rogich, another Guinn adviser, said the former governor’s greatest legacy — and first love — was being superintendent of the Clark County School District. That may explain why many people noted his proudest legacy was the Millennium Scholarship that allows Nevada students to attend Nevada schools with almost a full ride. The scholarship is paid for primarily with money the state receives from a legal settlement with tobacco companies, and was subsequently named in Guinn’s honor.
Guinn headed up several companies after leaving the superintendent’s job, including Southwest Gas and PriMerit Bank. He took over as president of UNLV for one year — with a salary of just $1 — at a time of chaos for the school. Along the way, he served on numerous boards, commissions and blue-ribbon panels, including one that studied the state budget. That knowledge would later come in handy when he was approached about running for the state’s highest office. “He was literally an encyclopedia on that stuff,” Vassiliadis said. “To him, it wasn’t theory, it was real stuff. He’d lived through it.”
Rogich and Vassiliadis said Guinn was not a politically ambitious person, nor one overly concerned with his legacy. And he was certainly not a natural in the political realm, a fact that emerged on the campaign trail and in the pages of Jon Ralston‘s book, The Anointed One. Rogich said Guinn was the only candidate for whom the use of a TelePrompTer wouldn’t help in speechmaking, “but that was part of his charm.” When Guinn spoke, “people would cross their fingers,” Rogich recalled with a chuckle. And Vassiliadis said he learned early on that coaching Guinn on message points and big-picture phrases was useless. “Not a chance,” Vassiliadis said. “I mean, not a chance.” Guinn himself once acknowledged in a CityLife profile his preternatural need to educate people on the issues long after he’d left the education profession.
Guinn’s biggest challenge came in 2003, early in his second term, when after four years of careful budget-cutting and the privatization of the former State Industrial Insurance System Guinn decided to call for an increase in taxes. His speech to the Legislature calling for the passage of a gross-receipts tax included these lines, which could be uttered by a candidate running for office today (but, notably, have not been):
Nevada stands at a crossroads. Directly ahead of us are two roads to the future. Tonight is the time for choosing our path. One choice may be easy to make, but hard to endure. It is a road that is short-sighted and paved with irresponsibility. The legacy of once again running from our duty as leaders will produce a devastating effect on every single Nevadan.
Fellow Nevadans, we have been innovative in our savings and responsible in our cuts. As governor, I believe I have been a careful steward of the taxpayers’ dollars. However, if I had to build this budget on only our existing revenue, I could not live with myself, and I don’t know anyone who could. The time has come to say, ‘enough.’
Ladies and gentlemen of the Legislature, I refuse to balance this budget on the backs of our children, senior citizens and the poor.
Ultimately, the Legislature did raise taxes, albeit not Guinn’s preferred plan and only after prolonged reluctance from the governor’s fellow Republicans in the Assembly. And political conservatives were not the only ones irked by Guinn’s advocacy for taxes; his friends and former colleagues in the corporate world were unhappy that Guinn would dare propose a tax on business income. “He felt it was the right thing to do,” Vassiliadis recalled. “And once he was convinced of something, you couldn’t sandblast him out of his position.”
The 2003 session was also the source of enmity between Guinn and then-Congressman Jim Gibbons, who ultimately succeeded Guinn in office. Gibbons used the occasion of his biennial speech to the Legislature (a courtesy extended to everyone in Nevada’s congressional delegation) to attack Guinn’s gross receipts tax plan, an unusually aggressive move that Guinn took as a slight. Later, after Gibbons defeated former state Sen. Dina Titus in 2006, Guinn skipped the inaugural festivities and the traditional tour of the Capitol the outgoing governor gives to his successor.
Gibbons released a short statement today, and ordered flags at state buildings lowered to half-staff. “I am saddened to learn of the passing of former Governor Kenny Guinn. On behalf of all Nevadans, I extend our deepest sympathy to his family and friends,” Gibbons said in his statement. “Kenny Guinn was a proud Nevadan and his leadership of Nevada and many contributions to the Silver State will be remembered for many years to come.”
Similar words of sorry and praise were issued by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, Clark County Commissioner (and gubernatorial candidate) Rory Reid, now-Congresswoman Titus, former state Sen. Joe Heck, state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and even former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
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GOV.Kenny was a great man in life as in politics,Nevada will miss him
I went to school with Kenny and his wife Dima. He was as sweet then as he looked in his picture. My thoughts and prayers to Dima and her family.