The incoming elected Speaker of the Nevada Assembly Ira Hansen (R) said on Sunday that he would resign from his leadership position following a controversy surrounding columns he wrote about race, gender and other topics.
“For the greater good of the State of Nevada and the cause I support it is necessary for me to withdraw as Speaker Designee,” Hansen said in a statement obtained by Nevada reporter Jon Ralston. “The tens of thousands of people who both read my columns and listened to my radio shows through two decades in the media know this has been a carefully orchestrated attack to remove a conservative Republican from a major leadership role in State government. The deliberate character assassination and the politics of personal destruction have totally distorted my views and record.”
On Thursday, the Reno News & Review highlighted a few shocking columns Hansen wrote. In one column, he said that the “relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship, with the benevolent master knowing what’s best for his simple minded darkies.”
Hansen on Sunday called the controversy over the columns a political attack.
“Ultimately, this whole attack has very little to do with my views. The powers that be are planning a massive, more than one billion dollar, tax increase and I stood in the way as Speaker,” he said in his statement. “I have already served two terms as an Assemblyman without any of these vicious attacks. It was only when I had risen to leadership that this smear campaign occurred. That is the real reason for this and it is vital the public understands that.”
H/t Huffington Post
