Legislative Briefly

Reid uses Limbaugh in fund-raising e-mail

LAS VEGAS (AP) " Harry Reid is using talk radio host Rush Limbaugh in his latest attempt to raise money for his 2010 re-election campaign.

In a solicitation e-mail sent to supporters Wednesday, the Senate majority leader says the "Limbaugh-led Republican party" is trying to "take me out."

The Nevada senator says he's not going to back down from a party that "takes its cues from right-wing talk radio."

Reid is the latest Democrat to try to win support by casting the often-polarizing Limbaugh as Republicans' de facto figurehead. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel last month branded Limbaugh "the voice and intellectual force and energy" driving the GOP.

Appointed judges approved

(AP) " The state Senate voted 14-7 on Wednesday for a plan that would end Nevada's current system of electing judges and replace it with a variation of the so-called Missouri plan system of appointing jurists.

SJR2, now moving to the state Assembly for final legislative action, would amend the Nevada Constitution to switch open judicial races to appointments, followed by elections in which voters would decide whether to retain a judge.

The plan, approved by the 2007 Legislature, must be approved again this session in order to go to a public vote in 2010.

There was no discussion as senators voted on the proposal. Its proponents include Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who during an earlier hearing argued for SJR2 by making comparisons between judges soliciting for campaign contributions and "a hooker down by the bus station."

Opponents included Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, who said after the Senate vote that Nevada should keep the existing method of electing judges.