William Raggio

William Raggio

William "Bill" Raggio (* 30th October 1926 in Reno , Nevada , †  23 February 2012 in Sydney , Australia ) was an American politician of the Republican Party , who from 1972 until his retirement in 2011 Member of the Senate of Nevada was and thus the longest-serving senator in this US state .

Life

After attending school, Raggio studied at Louisiana Tech University , the University of Oklahoma and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He then completed postgraduate studies in law at Hastings College of Law and at the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley , with a Juris Doctor (JD). After a subsequent military service in the US Navy Reserve , he became a lieutenant in the US Marine Corps Reserve .

After completing his military service, he was first assistant district attorney in 1952 and was then between 1958 and 1970 district attorney ( District Attorney ) of Washoe County . He then began his political career in the Republican Party when he ran in the 1970 US Senate election against Howard Cannon , the incumbent Democratic Senator for Nevada . However, Raggio Cannon lost, who was re-elected for a third six-year term with 58 percent of the vote.

In 1972 Raggio was elected for the first time as a member of the Senate of Nevada and belonged to this after several re-elections until his resignation in 2011 as a representative of the constituency of Washoe County-3rd District . With his 39-year tenure, he was the longest-serving senator in the state's history. As a senator, he particularly asserted the interests of northern Nevada against the growing influence of Las Vegas .

When incumbent lieutenant governor of Nevada , Harry Reid , decided not to run for lieutenant governor again in 1974 and instead opted for a candidacy for the US Senate against former governor Paul Laxalt , Raggio applied for the office of lieutenant governor , but lost to Democrat Robert E. Rose , who received 52 percent of the vote.

During his longstanding membership in the Nevada Senate, he was first from 1977 to 1979 leader of the Republican opposition ( Senate Minority Floor Leader ). He held this function again from 1983 to 1986 and was then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1987 to 1989 and chairman of the Republican majority floor leader from 1987 to 1989 . After briefly returning to the minority leader in 1991, he held the position of majority leader again for 14 years from 1993 to 2007. During this time he was again chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance from 1993 to 2005 and between 1997 and 1999 and between 2001 and 2003 also Chairman of the Legislative Committee on Education .

Most recently, he was a minority leader in the Senate for a short time again in 2009, but also in this function exercised significant influence on the tax policy of Governor Jim Gibbons , whereby his position on a moderate low tax policy was also accepted by the Democratic majority faction. In the US Senate elections, he supported the candidacy of Democrat Harry Reid against Republican candidate Sharron Angle and justified this with the fact that he thought Reid was the better representative of Nevada in the US Senate. In fact, however, it is likely to have been an intra-party opposition to Sharron Angle, which ran against him in the 2008 elections to the Nevada Senate.

Bill Raggio passed away while on vacation in Australia.

Web links

• Bill Raggio, unequaled master of the Nevada Legislature, dies at 85 . In: Las Vegas Sun of February 24, 2012