Nevada Senate sustains five Sandoval vetoes

The Nevada Senate on Tuesday put to rest the remaining five bills vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval after lawmakers went home in 2013.

But there was some pushback from Democrats on two of the measures — particularly Senate Bill 221 which greatly expanded mandated background checks for people buying guns.

Sandoval vetoed it saying it went too far in requiring gun-dealer background checks for private sales — even sales to another family member.

All eight Democrats present on the floor voted to override Sandoval’s veto but all 11 Republicans in attendance sustained the veto.

SB457 also drew some opposition. That measure would have made candidates for the Reno City Council run primary elections with just the voters in their specific ward. At present, both primary and general election voting in Reno is citywide, not by ward. Five Democrats supported overturning the veto but 14 senators voted to sustain the veto.

Overriding a governor’s veto in Nevada requires a two-thirds majority of each house, which means all five of those senate bills are now dead.

The Assembly took care of Sandoval’s vetos of nine different measures on the first day of session. Speaker John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, had them all moved to the Chief Clerk’s desk where he said they will simply remain without action until the session ends — also killing them but without making any member of the Assembly vote on them.