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Longtime Nevada lobbyist Neena Laxalt remembered for mentorship in male-dominated industry

Colleagues say she shaped the lobbying corps by taking younger lobbyists under her wing, coordinating coffee meetings and celebrating their successes.
Tabitha Mueller
Tabitha Mueller
Legislature
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When Regan Comis first expressed an interest in lobbying, her father, Keith Lee, a longtime Nevada lobbyist, said she needed to meet with Kathleen “Neena” Laxalt.

Over lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Reno, Laxalt answered Comis’ questions and shared an approach to lobbying developed since she started working the halls of the Legislature in 1995. 

Comis was one of the first members of “Neena’s School of Lobbying.”

“One thing that Neena did better than I think most of us do in that building is she was always willing to welcome new lobbyists,” Comis said. “And kind of help be that guide and mentor.”

Laxalt, 67, died Jan. 3 after a prolonged battle with bladder cancer. Colleagues and friends, who she became like family to over the years, remember her integrity, wit and personality as a straight shooter focused on getting the work done. 

The youngest child of former Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-NV), Neena Laxalt was a descendant of immigrants from France’s Basque region who grew up in Carson City and was a second-generation Nevadan on her father's side and a fourth-generation Nevadan on her mother's side. Colleagues recalled that Laxalt made a name for herself outside of her family’s legacy, and wanted to make her family proud.

In 1987, Laxalt moved to Arizona and started her lobbying career with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. She moved back to Nevada in 1995 to open a lobbying business. 

In Laxalt’s more than 30 years as a lobbyist, she mentored women in an industry often dominated by men, helping establish an informal luncheon for women in the industry and create a training program for interns and newcomers where she dropped sage advice about who to connect with and how to navigate an often unfamiliar political world. 

“She had strong morals, and so if she was going to do something, she was going to do it,” Comis said. “And if she believed in something, she fought and did it.”

Over the course of her career, Laxalt represented clients in various fields, including regulatory boards, health care and natural resources. In 2017, colleagues recognized her by inducting her into the Nevada Legislature’s James A. Joyce Lobbyist Hall of Fame.

A former lobbyist and close friend of Laxalt’s, Lisa Menante, met Laxalt while working on a campaign to pass a statewide bond question in 1995. Menante said Laxalt’s support of other women and community-building came organically.

Kathleen "Neena" Laxalt. (Courtesy)

“I don’t think she ever did anything consciously,” Menante said. “It was just the person that she was. And hopefully, we have all learned a little bit from her, and will just subconsciously continue with her legacy.”

Lee, a consultant with the lobbying and public relations firm Tom Clark Solutions, started working in the Legislature in 1983. 

He regularly grabbed coffee with Laxalt and other lobbyists in Northern Nevada as part of a “coffee klatsch,” Laxalt organized, and he said what he will miss most about Laxalt is her friendship. Though the unwritten rule at the meetings was not to talk shop, Lee said it was inevitable, finding its way into conversations about grandkids, athletics and life events. 

“She was such a great friend and mentor to so many people, particularly young people who came along,” Lee said. “She would go out of her way to take them literally, under her arm and and march them down the hall and help them become a good advocate for their cause.”

Shaping the state

Outside of lobbying, people who knew Laxalt said she focused on making Carson City and the state a better place, devoting hours of her time to her role as co-chair of the Nevada Sesquicentennial Planning Committee in 2011 and vice-chair of the Nevada 150 Commission in 2013. 

In 2015, Laxalt served as chair of the Stewart Indian School Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Stewart Indian School, where thousands of Native American children from Western tribes were forced to live as part of an attempt by the U.S. government to eliminate Native cultures and languages.

Michael Hillerby, director of legislative affairs at Kaempfer Crowell, met Laxalt during her first session in 1995 and was a member of the unofficial coffee klatsch. He remembered a dinner Laxalt organized to raise money for the Stewart Indian School as something that wasn’t overly glamorous but was genuine and fun.

“It was the right thing to do to help raise a little money to continue the restoration of that school,” Hillerby said. “That was a huge piece in Nevada’s history that sometimes has been overlooked.” 

Laxalt’s desire to nurture community was a big part of who she was, Hillerby said. When someone got a promotion or was named partner, Hillerby said she’d send flowers. When a woman lobbyist testified for the first time in front of a committee, Laxalt would give them a silver Nevada necklace from the legislative gift shop to wear as a memento.

“That’ll be a huge part of her legacy is that mentorship and advocacy for women,” Hillerby said. 

Right: Kathleen "Neena" Laxalt. (Courtesy)

Friends also recalled that Laxalt loved animals and spending time in nature. 

When she was representing the veterinary board one session, her daughter found a sick kitten. Laxalt and her daughter rescued the kitten and kept it in Lee’s office near the legislative building, bottle-feeding it throughout the day until they could get the kitten to a vet. 

Lee said the cat became a bit of a mascot, reminding him of what’s essential in the world. He said he and other lobbyists would come back from a bad day at the session, take a look at the cat and say, “OK, it’s all good.”

Another lobbyist later adopted the cat, naming it Sinatra.

“I think what’s going to be most missed most down the road is her mentorship and her reaching out to particularly younger lobbyists, particularly women lobbyists,” Lee said. “Quite frankly, the best lobbyists we have in the house down there are females, and I attribute a lot of that to Neena’s mentorship and just her quiet leadership.”

Carrying on a legacy

Lobbyist Lea Cartwright missed Laxalt’s training when she first became a lobbyist in 2015 but met her through an informal Northern Nevada lady lobbyists group organized by Laxalt. 

Cartwright said the gathering formed at a time when there were very few protections for women in the industry. The Legislature didn’t have a reporting mechanism for sexual harassment until 2019.

“It was never really publicized, but just a group of us here who would get together and support each other through working in this industry and and support our community and talk about how we can do better,” Cartwright said. “The training, I think, grew kind of naturally out of that, because there was a need.”

When Cartwright attended Laxalt’s new lobbyist training in 2017, she said Laxalt focused on making sure everyone knew which offices shouldn’t be traveled to alone and where to go if they experienced harassment. Cartwright said Laxalt was protective, emphasizing that dealing with harassment was not a part of the lobbying job and that it was important to stand up for yourself.

Many also described Laxalt as having a motherly presence, maintaining strong boundaries and high expectations for herself and everyone around her.

“She was definitely a guiding force in that building for everyone,” Cartwright said. “She believed deeply in making sure that you were always doing a little bit better.”

As Cartwright takes on the mantle of training incoming lobbyists this year, she hopes to carry on Laxalt’s legacy by ensuring that interns are welcomed and given helpful and humorous guidance. 

Cartwright said her goal is “making sure that we carry on her message and her legacy, and update it for the 2025 session, and what's happening there, but still, keep in mind her messages of honesty, of kindness, integrity and humor.”

This story was updated at 12:42 p.m. on 1/14/2025 to include that Laxalt was a fourth-generation Nevadan on her mother's side.

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