Dina Titus

U.S. House, NV

In 2008, Democrat Dina Titus unseated a GOP congressman in Nevada’s third congressional district, winning a seat no Democrat had ever won before while being outspent by more than $1 million. Now she is in the crosshairs of a GOP determined to take the seat back. Two very conservative Republicans are mounting campaigns against her, while national Republicans send out poison press releases on a regular basis. The Chamber of Commerce and other GOP allies are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on television ads attacking her — and they’re just getting started. Republicans want to take back Congress in 2010 and put the brakes on progress, and winning back this seat is integral to their plan.

If they’re trying to intimidate Titus, they are bound to be disappointed: this tenacious legislator with a Ph.D. in government is unflappable, and won’t be deterred from fulfilling her promise to Nevadans to fight for them in Congress. Nevada is suffering even more than most states in the economic downturn, and Titus is focused like a laser on proposals that will put the state back on track — legislation to protect seniors from predatory lenders, help families facing foreclosure, and keep small businesses afloat. Tapped by leadership to serve on the Task Force on Job Creation, she is at the center of efforts to put Americans back to work. A longtime pro-choice leader, Titus was a vocal opponent of the Stupak Amendment, which would effectively prohibit women participating in the insurance exchange from getting policies that cover abortion. In her first few days as a new member of Congress, she proudly voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Titus is highly regarded in Nevada for her independent leadership and strong moral compass. A professor of political science at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas for 30 years, she served in the state Senate for 20 years, including 16 as minority leader. During that time, Titus used her formidable political skills to strengthen schools, preserve the environment, and protect the rights and welfare of citizens. She repeatedly defended reproductive rights and women’s health, sponsoring legislation requiring the state to cover contraception in its employees’ health care plans and requiring insurance companies to cover the HPV vaccine.

“I’m running for re-election because we are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history,” Titus says. “We had eight years of an administration that turned its back on average American families and mortgaged our children’s futures. I’m determined to do my part to undo the damage.”

The Political Situation

The third district is a swing seat whose economy relies heavily on the gaming industry, which has declined about as fast as unemployment has risen. In fact, for months Nevada has led the nation in just about every negative economic indicator: foreclosures, bankruptcy filings, businesses behind on bills, and so on. When the housing bubble burst, it had a seismic effect on the state, which Titus now calls “ground zero for the foreclosure crisis.” Retirees have seen their savings disappear, and the tourism industry that keeps the state afloat has been decimated.

While Titus is working hard to address this economic devastation, Nevadans who voted in record numbers in 2008 are understandably depressed, and Republicans and right-wing groups are tapping into their dissatisfaction with everything they’ve got. GOP attacks on Titus center on her support for legislation that represents true change after eight years of Bush-Cheney: the stimulus, cap and trade, and health care reform.

The GOP favorite is physician and former state Sen. Joe Heck. Heck is firmly anti-choice, and even voted against legislation Titus helped draft requiring insurance companies to cover a vaccine that helps prevent cervical cancer. He and Titus crafted a property tax relief measure together — which he then voted against on the floor (it failed by one vote). Heck was similarly fickle during the 2008 GOP presidential primaries; after giving the maximum contribution to John McCain, he turned around and publicly endorsed Mitt Romney. He has ingratiated himself with the Tea Party crowd and spoke at rally last August. Also running is real estate developer Rob Lauer, who calls himself “a conservative first, a Republican second” and has pledged to put $100,000 of his own money into his campaign.

Titus is a popular elected official who boasts a record of real accomplishment after just one year in Congress. Her support for the stimulus will bring millions in new investment to Nevada. Her amendment to the health care reform bill will help small businesses, and her amendment to the Mortgage Reform and Predatory Lending Act will help consumers get fair mortgages. But relentless attacks are taking a toll; a December poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed her and Heck in a very tight race. Titus must raise $3 million to defend herself against right-wing assaults and keep this seat in Democratic hands in 2010.

The Issues

Having spent her entire adult life teaching, Titus is deeply committed to improving public education. A member of the House Education and Labor Committee, she supports federal programs to bolster science and math education, which will help students compete in the global economy. “We need to give every child who wants to go to college the opportunity to do so,” says Titus, who voted for the biggest boost to higher education since the GI bill, including increased funding for Pell Grants and guaranteed low-interest student loans.

Titus supports family leave policies that allow maternity and paternity leave, and leave for family emergencies. She supports offering tax breaks to companies that provide on-site day care or employee subsidies for day care.

Titus supports free trade that is fair and includes strong labor and environmental protections. “We need to fix our economic problems at home to expand our trading presence under favorable terms abroad,” she says, which includes resolving the credit crisis and reining in spending. She supports budget policies that foster new technology development. “We must also reinvest in our infrastructure to promote efficiency — for example, consolidated air, rail, and ground transport hubs,” she adds.

“Tax policy should require all of us to pay our fair share, based on what we earn,” Titus says. “I do not believe companies that locate off-shore should escape responsibility. I do not believe oil and gas companies with record-breaking profits should receive special tax protections if they promise to develop more fossil fuel products. And I don’t believe very wealthy individuals should receive special tax status just because they are very wealthy, on the promise that those savings will be reinvested in the economy. Those trickle-down economics have not worked over the last eight years.”

Climate change is our most significant global challenge, Titus says. “Unless the U.S. participates in global efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions by reducing our own fossil fuel consumption and helping other countries do the same, we will continue to see weather and other environmental events disrupting food supplies, dislocating populations, and spawning clashes among nations over dwindling resources,” she says. “I support international efforts to address the causes and effects of climate change to foster a sustainable world economy — and avoid the foreign policy problems we will face if we don’t address this issue.”

Titus cosponsored legislation in Nevada to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation, enhance penalties for hate crimes, strengthen anti-racial profiling policies, and increase funding for the state’s equal rights commission. Recent laws enacted by Congress are but a first step on the path to pay equity, she argues. “We need to make it easier for workers to take legal action against employers that discriminate on the basis of gender or race,” she says.

As a state senator, Titus fought to strengthen domestic violence statutes, create an Amber Alert system for missing children, and toughen the sex offender registration law. She helped pass strong laws to combat the methamphetamine epidemic, and believes the federal government can do more to help local law enforcement crack down on producers and dealers. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, Titus is pushing to ensure that first responders have state-of-the-art equipment so they can communicate with each other in an emergency.

“I support the Affordable Health Care for America Act because it will improve quality of care and access, while decreasing costs throughout the health care system,” says Titus. “I fought for critical changes to ensure that small businesses have greater access to the health insurance exchange so that their employees can purchase affordable health insurance. I strongly support investing in health information technology and weeding out waste, fraud, and abuse in the health care system to keep costs under control.”

Education is the key to reducing poverty, Titus argues, giving children from lower socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to rise above their circumstances. She supported measures to increase Nevada’s minimum wage and will continue to do so in Congress. “To reinvigorate local economies, economic development should target regions that have experienced extreme hardship as a result of industrial changes,” she says.

“The American Clean Energy and Security Act will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and create new investment opportunities across the country,” Titus says. She opposes relaxing rules for coal- fired power plants and supports measures to curb greenhouse gases, including promoting mass transit and vehicles that run on renew- able energy. Titus voted for the Public Lands bill and will fight to protect open spaces and fund national parks.

Titus has been a consistent and unequivocal advocate for choice throughout her career in the Nevada legislature and in Congress.

January 2010