Legislative Watch

Q & A

“I’ve always been interested in politics. Being a member of the culinary union, I had helped them work on a couple campaigns they were working on… As those evolved, the union decided that they were interested in running someone for office… Within those discussions it worked out that I happened to live in a district they were interested in… We wanted to elect a working-mom to the Senate.”

Sen. Carlton worked as a waitress and was a member of the culinary union when she first ran for the Senate.

 “I started out in a dime store when I was 15-and-a-half… I was a waitress for 30 years. I just retired from waitressing last year.”

Sen. Carlton said her work experience helps her to have a working-class perspective. She added: “Most of the folks are well-meaning, but they don’t have the same perspective of going to work, getting the paycheck, having to balance everything… I was the only (senator) who actually punched a time clock.

“When people ask about moving to Nevada, I always say Nevada has been very good to me. There are not many places a coffee-shop waitress can get elected into the state senate.”

“You always think about it, but it’s like thinking about winning the lottery… It just sort of presented itself, we took the opportunity and we did it.”

Sen. Carlton recently became the Southern Nevada Community Director with Great Basin Primary Care Association, a non-profit healthcare advocacy group.

She said: “They basically educate the uninsured and underinsured.”

“Learning how to garden in the desert was pretty interesting… I play golf with my husband when I get an opportunity to… It’s hard to find time to do that between the senate and the job.”

“Back in 1998, one of the things that sort of propelled me into the spotlight—President Clinton was here to give a speech at the Carpenter’s Hall, and I was chosen to introduce him.”

Sen. Carlton is one of many state senators interviewed in this Nevada NewsMakers Outreach series to cite meeting a president in response to this question. When told that, Sen. Carlton added: “When the person at the very, very top comes to a state and can put a name to a face, that’s a good thing.”

“By just trying to be as fair as possible. Knowing that there’s always three or four sides to everything… There’s a lot of things in life that teach you things you can apply in your political life—or anything else you do. All those things that happen create a person. And that’s what you take to the job.”

“Health care, for sure. I’ve been very blessed to have health care. I’ve watched some families just get totally torn apart because they don’t have health care.”

Sen. Carlton discussed her mother passing away from a chronic illness, saying that if her mother didn’t have health care, Carlton and her siblings would have been financially devastated trying to treat the illness. She added: “Going through all that made me very passionate about health care.”

She also said: “Being a labor person. Understanding people have rights at work. They need to be able to sit down and negotiate with an employer.”

“I would say my mom, in a lot of ways. The stories she used to tell me about women not having the same opportunities and men… “

Sen. Carlton told a story about her mother having to take off her wedding ring in order to work. She says that married women often were not hired because employers feared they would get pregnant.

“My actual goals are to finish the work I started on all the regulatory boards.” Sen. Carlton talked about workplace safety, citing various accidents that have injured and killed workers, saying: “There have been way too many accidents on the strip.” She also discussed health care further.

Sen. Carlton also discussed term limits. Under current Nevada law—which will likely be challenged during the next session—many Nevada senators and assemblypersons of both parties will not be allowed to run after this upcoming term is over. She said: “As of now, it’s the last session I’ll be able to serve in the Senate.”

“Being able to deal with the limited amount of resources that we have right now.”

Sen. Carlton, referring to the large budget deficit Nevada is facing, said: “You can’t fix one without touching every other piece of the puzzle around it. You have to be careful to do more harm than good. But some of these problems are big enough to were we’re going to have to take a more aggressive stance on them.”

“Well, 11-10 is as close as a tie as you can get… very few times are there party issues when it comes to policy.”

“I’ve been in the minority the whole time, and I’ve been able to get bills through… and all (the other members of) the senate listen to me and respect me.”

“It’s kind of nice having that safety net over there. All those friends over there.”

“A lot of times, it’s not about D v. R. It’s just about getting it done.”

“You’ve got to be realistic. You’ve got to compromise. You’ve got to deal with issues from all sides.”

“There are very few things that are absolute. Charging children to go to a public school is wrong. We do it now for full-day kindergarten and I’m absolutely opposed to it.”

Sen. Carlton added: “I’ve always been very pro-labor. That’s never been a secret… to me it’s the employee that needs to be protected.”

Did you Know?

-Sen. Carlton worked as a waitress in a coffee shop for 30 years; she said her occupation drew national media attention when she was first elected to the Senate