Republicans have fallen down in making their case to Latinos, even though the party is a natural fit for Hispanics and has accomplished a lot for that demographic group, Assembly GOP Leader Paul Anderson said in an exclusive sit down with The Nevada Independent. 

Anderson also said his main priority is to ensure education policies adopted when the GOP controlled the Legislature in 2015 are not rolled back, echoing Gov. Brian Sandoval's primary goal.

Anderson's comments came during a Q & A that has been edited for length and clarity.

Question (Q): I would like you to share a little bit about you and your family, so the Latino readers who are not familiar with you can get to know you better.

Answer (A): I can go really far back.  I’m of Scottish descent and my family came over as coal miners.  So back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, they were coal miners in Scotland and emigrated to West Virginia.  They attempted to unionize but, at that time it wasn’t called a union — they attempted to organize and get better treatment as workers and they were actually kicked out of West Virginia or threatened with their lives if they didn’t leave. Then they moved over to Southern Illinois where they continued to work as coal miners and then actually were part of unionizing the coal miners there in Southern Illinois. At that time coal miners were not treated very well, worked long hours, and little kids could work in the mines. So they wanted to protect the kids and the health and the benefits and everything that went along that.

My grandfather was a coal miner growing up even as a young youth.  So from 13, 14, 15 he worked in the coal mines with his dad. He became a blacksmith and an iron worker and eventually moved to Nevada in the 1920s, early 1930s to work on Boulder Dam, which is now called the Hoover Dam.

He was a blacksmith.  They actually named him Blackie because he was working in the sun. My grandfather worked with the coal as well as fixing and making tools that were needed to work on the dam.  And he moved around a lot just depending upon where the union work was at the time, but he eventually settled here in Nevada in the 1930, 1935 timeframe.

My wife’s family actually came from Sweden and immigrated through a couple different states but came here via the railroad.  My wife’s great grandfather was a timekeeper on the railroad.  He fixed watches and made sure that the watches were all in perfect sync so the trains wouldn’t run into each other and from that he started a jewelry store that did watches and jewelry called MJ Christensen Jewelers.  

That’s kind of how our two families ended up in Las Vegas.  Probably a lot more than you were asking, but it’s kind of interesting, right?

She’s a fourth-generation Nevadan.  I’m a third-generation Nevadan. So we have a lot of history here.  Across the board, we’re very active in our community.  We live out in the northwest part of town where it’s kind of split. There’s agricultural right down the middle.  We still have cows and sheep and buffalo and people have lots of horses.  It’s an agricultural district.  They call it rural preservation.  There’s agricultural water and then there’s very urban areas in my district as well.  So, you know, normal folks working and so that’s the kind of district that I represent.

But both of us come from a background that is very much into horses and animals and we moved out to that district because it was very remote from Las Vegas but still close enough to engage in all of the community activities that are going on.

Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career in politics?  

A: So the first reason was because my wife was seeing me on the couch yelling at the TV about all of the bad stuff that was going on and she said, “Why don’t you get up and do something about it?”

I had some very good friends from high school, Chad Christensen and Cory Christensen, who are brothers that were very active in politics.  Chad was my assemblyman in that district for about eight years and then Senator Scott Hammond was my assemblyman for two years and when he decided to run for office, they were looking for someone to fill his seat and to potentially run for office. Over that time period is when I kind of got involved in doing something more than just at schools or at PTAs or helping fundraisers, or open houses, or knocking on doors.  I thought maybe I could make a bigger difference this way.

Q: The Republican Party is in a small minority in the Assembly. How can you affect legislation?

A: That’s a tougher question and I think most of that comes through relationships.  I think as we look at how the Assembly is put together, we all come here trying to do the best for our constituents and I think it doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican -- you want to do the right thing.  And so, while there are some very partisan people, I think most of us are here to say, “Look, I’m here to represent my constituents, I’m here to do what’s right, and how do we make this policy work for all Nevadans?” Because once you’re elected, it goes beyond just your district.  When I press “yes” or “no,” it has an impact on the entire state and everyone that lives here and everyone that’s going to move here.  We have lots of people moving here.  We have to take all of those things into consideration.  

So I think even in the minority it’s about building those relationships, making sure the people know you’re genuine and you want a good policy. Sometimes you have to take a hard stance, but most of the time you can find some middle ground to make a difference.

Q: What are your main priorities for this session?

A: We have a couple.  One is to make sure our education reforms do not get rolled back from 2015.  We made some really big improvements both when it comes to ELL (English language learners), our Zoom Schools, our Victory Schools, all the way up to our GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) and our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Whether it is advanced learning or special education, we invested a whole bunch of money and policy into those efforts and we don’t want to see any of those rolled back until we see the fruits of our labor.  We’ve had very little time for those to take effect — a year and a half or less even in some cases. We want to make sure those stay in place, revise them where we know there needs to be fixes, but make sure those stay in place for the most part.

And the other piece is we know there is a lot of business going on. We’re the fourth fastest-growing state in the nation when it comes to job growth. We don’t want to just import all new employees.  We want to make sure Nevadans have a first option and are trained to make sure they get the jobs that are available to them.

Q: How do Republicans change the perception that the Democrats are the party of Latinos?

A: I think that’s a misperception because if you look at the morals and values that are representative of the Republican Party, the economic development, the free market economics that give people an opportunity to build their dreams.  Not necessarily saying government can do this for you, but you can do it for yourself, and we want to stay out of your way.  

I think Latinos are honestly very entrepreneurial in spirit.  They want to be their own boss.  They want to make a difference in their own lives.  They want to be in charge of their own destiny.  Just like anybody else.  And I think that sometimes the Democrats placate to an idea that “we’re going to pull you up,” but I think Latinos, like any other person, any other human, want to pull themselves up and just “stay out of my way because I can be successful on my own because I’m smart enough, I’m intuitive enough, I have the skillsets to get to where I want to go.  Just make sure I have an equal opportunity.  Don’t hold me down.”  And I think that’s the message that I always bring to any group — Latino or any other group.

Q: This is your third regular session and you have been through two special sessions.  What, in your opinion, should change?  For example, the way the legislation operates and how things get done, the process of them making the rules, the limitations…

A: That’s a tougher question. So three special sessions, because we had a special session right after 2013. We’ve had the Tesla Special Session, the Faraday Special Session.  Right after ‘13 we came back at like 10 o’clock the next day because we had to finish up some things and it was a four hour special session.  So I still count that as something.  We had to come back.

I think as our state grows, as more people move into the state, we will become a more populous state.  We may need more time than 120 days to take care of business.  It is really hard to predict a budget for two years and make sure that it sticks and that it’s accurate, to make sure that we’re taking care of the needs of Nevadans.  That’s why I think you’ve seen an increase in special sessions.  Part of that is economic development.  

But the other part of that is just that there’s so many different things changing.  If we put something in a statute and it doesn’t apply to the next year because something has changed, whether it’s the environment, whether it’s business climate, whether it’s diversity, that we can make sure that we are able to be nimble and make those changes.

Q: How does the Republican Party keep the Hispanic community informed about topics that affect them?  Let’s say town halls or community events.  Does the party regularly put together these kinds of events to reach out to Latinos to have the opportunity to be closer to them?

A: Well, two things.  I think we do a poor job with that.  I think we don’t recognize the value or the message that we have that would apply to Latinos and I think the values of the Republican Party are very much in line with the Latino community and that could be whether that’s culturally, family values, or whether that’s business community or economics. We have the same goals, I believe.  We do a poor job of messaging that.

The other piece of that is when you look at how the Assembly is carved out, the districts, they’re kind of stuck into these districts that are heavily Democrat. So even if we reached out to that Democratic community, whether they be Latino or not, the message doesn’t resonate and it doesn’t have an impact, it doesn’t have the effect that we want of winning a district and being able to represent that district.  

So when you look at my district or some of the others, we’re carved out in a way that it restricts our ability to get down to the locals, unless we’re reaching beyond our own districts. And that’s tough, because if I represent my district I need to spend as much time as I can in that district but I also need to recognize there’s a bigger community at large.  And sometimes that gets into County Commission, statewide races, that type of thing.

And so we’re somewhat restricted by just the way we’re carved up in that we have Republican districts and Democratic districts and so Latinos often only hear a Democratic message.  So we do a poor job of getting into those districts and making sure that our message is heard.  I recognize that and I’m sensitive to that issue, but at the same time, I have to balance not ignoring my district in order to pay attention to somebody else’s district.  And so inherently we have a disadvantage when it comes to that and that’s true both in the Senate and the Assembly side, I believe.

Q: During the session, or in your past legislative sessions, can you talk about some bills that have had an impact in the Hispanic community, or in the immigrant community?

A: Zoom Schools have to be the first and foremost, and Victory Schools I think are maybe secondary to that.  But I think that the goal of making sure that folks communicate in the language that’s predominant in the area makes them successful.  I spent two years in Japan and if I wasn’t able to learn Japanese I would not have been able to be successful there.  If I can’t  communicate with people, is very hard to get your message across.  It’s very hard to do business.  It’s very hard to stand up and have your message heard. I think it’s key that everyone has a second or third or fourth language, but they need to understand English in the community.  It’s just that business is done in English for the most part and I think that’s key.

In our school districts, we can’t teach every single language so we have to make sure that we can teach in one language and make sure that everybody can be successful there.  And so I think ELL is that intervention program that says we want to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, and so we’ve got to make sure that they can understand English and read the textbooks and make sure that they can graduate just like anybody else that comes to the school district.  

For Latinos that’s extremely important but it’s also important for those who come from the Philippines -- their number two language is Tagalog. It’s just as important to them.  It’s just as important to the 147 different languages that are spoken in the Clark County School District.

So ELL is critical for us.  We’ve got to get everybody on the same page, at least at some level, so they can learn.  You learn to read and then you read to learn.  And I think that’s a key mantra that has to be taught across the board.  

The other part of that, though, is not everybody needs to go to college.  There’s some great trades.  Whether that’s in union trades or business trades or certificate programs. That could be a two-year nursing program.  It could be a carpentry program or a union apprentice program.  We have to make sure that everybody understands there are different paths to success and what I define as success may not be the same thing as you, and that’s okay.   

Workforce development is important even at the high school level. We put those things in place when we invested in the CTE (career and technical education) programs, whether it’s woodshop or carpentry or any other program that we’ve put out there.  Robotics is another exciting one that’s out there right now.  Those are things that we’ve got to invest in and so we can’t just focus on poverty issues, while those are critical. We also have to focus on the gifted and talented folks and in ‘15, and hopefully in ‘17 we’ll continue that progress of investing in all of the above to make sure that every kid has the opportunity to succeed.

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With five weeks left in the 79th legislative session, The Nevada Independent - In Spanish has created the series "Coffee Break with Legislators” -- discussions with state leaders to find out what initiatives that have been most satisfying and disappointing for them, where the Hispanic community stands in their agendas, and what plans they have for the future.

We will be providing a Spanish translation of this interview with Anderson on our En Espanol page later in the day.

Feature photo: Republican Assemblyman Paul Anderson, the minority leader in the Assembly. February 9, 2017. Photo by David Calvert.