Nevada Republicans dump state party leader

It happened when Assembly Republicans dumped Jim Wheeler as their leader and unanimously selected Robin Titus to replace him. The reason it went under the radar was that it happened during the final 24 hours of the session, when lawmakers were scrambling to resolve such major issues as school funding.

But make no mistake, this was a change worth noting. It signaled that the state GOP could be headed in a different — and healthier — direction in trying to appeal to Nevada voters.

What Nevadans made clear during those years was that the Republican Party’s divisive stances on issues like immigration, reproductive rights and immigration don’t play here anymore. Voters demanded responsible, bipartisan-minded leadership, not party ideologues like Wheeler.

The ousted leader, Wheeler, represents much of what voters found so repellant in the party, especially those in Clark County. The Minden resident checked off the boxes up and down the list in supporting GOP dogma — pro-NRA, anti-abortion, immigration hardliner, etc. Not only that, but he proposed casting Clark County out of Nevada by making it its own state or district, and once told a California legislator he’d exchange Las Vegas for Lake Tahoe. He perhaps was best known for telling a group that he’d vote to legalize slavery if that’s what his constituents wanted him to do.