POT LAWS, FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT PETITIONS FAIL

Insurance Roll Back Makes Ballot Despite Industry Pressure Due to Voter
Interest

CARSON CITY - Petitions to ease Nevada's marijuana laws and to stop
frivolous lawsuits failed Tuesday to make the November ballot - but a
plan to roll back insurance rates advanced despite being targeted by
the insurance industry.

Secretary of State Dean Heller said the proposal to allow adults to
legally buy up to one ounce of marijuana failed because supporters
gathered only 34,947 valid signatures. They needed 51,337.

Heller also said the proponents needed 10 percent of the voters in the
last election in 13 of the state's 17 counties but got only a dozen
counties.

The proposal to stop frivolous lawsuits failed after more than 10,000
signatures were eliminated because supporters of the plan didn't
follow a rule requiring double affidavits attesting that the
signatures on the petition were genuine.

The insurance rate reduction petition lost more than 9,900 signatures
due to the same problem with double affidavits. But backers still came
up with 52,981 valid names and qualified in the required 13 counties.

Gail Tuzzolo, a supporter of both the frivolous lawsuit and insurance
rollback proposals sought by People for a Better Nevada, said Heller's
decision on the frivolous lawsuit plan will be challenged in court, as
part of the litigation over still another ballot proposal dealing with
the minimum wage that was rejected previously.

"People for a Better Nevada will contest the disqualification of the
frivolous lawsuit initiative because it was disqualified on the same
technicality used against the minimum wage initiative," Tuzzolo said.

Tuzzolo added it's ironic that lawyers hired by the insurance industry
highlighted the alleged flaw in the petition affidavits in trying to
stop the insurance rollback plan - but it wound up with enough
signatures anyway "because of the enormous popularity it had with voters."

Backers of the effort to raise Nevada's hourly minimum wage by $1 won
a court order Monday temporarily blocking a decision by Heller to
prevent a public vote on that plan.

The temporary restraining order was granted by Carson City District
Judge Bill Maddox at the request of attorney Eric Myers, representing
Give Nevadans a Raise and the state AFL-CIO, which supports the effort
to raise the wage to $6.15 an hour.

Maddox said a restraining order is warranted because the petition
advocates, "are likely to prevail on the merits, or at least have
raised very serious questions." He scheduled a hearing on the
controversy for next Tuesday.

Heller spokesman Steve George said Heller looked forward to a court
resolution of a dilemma resulting from clashing state Supreme Court
and U.S. Supreme Court rulings on signature requirements for such
ballot petitions.

Heller relied on legal advice from Attorney General Brian Sandoval,
who said a requirement in the Nevada Constitution for the double
signatures should be followed despite a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling
that, according to the petitioners, invalidates the
requirement.

Some of the petitions lacked an affidavit from a petition signer,
attesting that the signatures on the petition were genuine. Petition
gatherers sign an affidavit that says the signatures are valid, and
election officials say one of the people who signed the petition must
do the same thing.

Tuzzolo said the prominent Jones Vargas law firm was hired by the
insurance industry to fight the rollback proposal, and came up with
arguments that are similar to parts of Sandoval's advice letter on the
minimum wage proposal.

Those arguments were presented to election officials around the state,
Tuzzolo said, adding, "It's amazing that this powerful law firm would
go to the extent it did to prevent wages from being raised and
insurance from being reduced."

Attorney Joe Brown of Jones Vargas said his law firm did send its
arguments to county clerks on behalf of the insurance industry, but he
hadn't talked to Sandoval and was certain Sandoval's office conducted
independent research.