But while Cortez Masto will quickly tout her support from labor organizations, the former Attorney General hasn’t always returned the favor.
When Cortez Masto was in Carson City, she was criticized by a prominent labor advocate for failing to enforce labor laws:
The learned lady [Masto] already has enough trouble with labor. Many union leaders view her as merely the latest in a long line of AG’s failing to enforce labor laws. That rubs especially raw in a state where few can remember the last time we had a labor commissioner who actually worked for the interests of workers rather than employers.
And the former Attorney General was accused of leaving workers “twisting in the wind.”
Madame Attorney General is in for tough sledding in her second term. On Jan. 16, I noted her increasing union troubles because Nevada labor laws can be broken with impunity on her watch…So Nevada workers, like utility ratepayers, are largely left twisting in the wind under the regime of the ambitious AG.
Cortez Masto has shown before that she has a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ policy when it comes to Nevada workers – that was evident when she took a substantial taxpayer-funded pay raise at a time when state employees were facing furloughs and pay freezes.
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In 2011, Masto was 1 of 2 statewide officials who accepted a 6% pay raise that increased her salary from $133,000 to $141,086.__ [Splitting from Gov. Sandoval, Controller Wallin and] Masto are going to keep the 6% pay raise they will receive this month. Sandoval last week told a news conference he wouldn’t accept the raise and encouraged other constitutional officers to do the same thing…Under state law, the constitutional officers are entitled to an increase in salary of 6% this month, but Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki said this isn’t the time to take a pay increase. Krolicki and Secretary of State Ross Miller won’t take the 6% raise. State Treasurer Kate Marshall also won’t take the pay increase, but she said she won’t continue voluntarily giving up the 4.6% reduction. . . . [Masto] will accept her new salary of $141,086, up from $133,000. (Las Vegas Sun, January 6, 2011)
- Masto accepted a 6% pay raise while rank-and-file state employees coped with a pay freeze and furloughs. “Today, Nevada constitutional officers and legislators receive a 6% pay raise while state employees are still under a pay freeze…State workers received 2% raises in 2007 and 4% in 2008. However, those increases were diminished because of furloughs in 2009 and 2010 and those furloughs probably won’t end with the New Year.” (Elko Daily Free Press, Editorial, December 31, 2010)
It’s clear that Harry Reid will do everything he can to get his handpicked candidate elected. But he can’t get around Cortez Masto’s hypocrisy when it comes to standing up for Nevada workers.