Nevada Democrat Stabs Herself In The Back

And betrays her constituents. Because her party told her to.

Democratic Nevada congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Shelley Berkley voted against a job-creating land privatization bill that she herself co-sponsored, the latest in a string of examples of Berkley’s placing national Democratic Party interests ahead of her state’s.

The Yerington Land Conveyance and Sustainable Development Act would “mandate the fair market sale of approximately 10,400 acres of public lands to the City of Yerington and Lyon County for economic, recreational and cultural development,” according to the Nevada News Bureau. It is projected to lead to 500 construction jobs by 2013 and nearly 800 total jobs at the project site by 2015-2016, according to a statement by Berkley’s Republican Senate opponent, incumbent Sen. Dean Heller.

The unemployment rate in Lyon County, Nevada—where Yerington is located—stands at 15.1 percent.

Under pressure from Democratic special interest group The League of Conservation Voters, however, Berkley pulled her support for the bill.

League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski sent a letter to Berkley on June 18 urging her to vote against the legislation.

“LCV urges you to vote NO on H.R. 2578, the so-called Conservation and Economic Growth Act, an over-reaching assault on America’s lands and wildlife that blocks or rolls back conservation laws on federal lands, guts environmental review, and privatizes public lands,” Karpinski wrote.