For the greater good of the State of Nevada and the cause I support it is necessary for me to withdraw as Speaker Designee. 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.

Assemblyman Ira Hansen (R), who was recently elected as the Nevada State Assembly‘s next speaker. Hansen has had a column in The Sparks Tribune, a local Nevada newspaper, for 13 years. The Reno News and Review recently examined all of his columns — many of which were not online — and published a number of excerpts from his writings last week“The lack of gratitude and the deliberate ignoring of white history in relation to eliminating slavery is a disgrace that Negro leaders should own up to,” Hansen wrote in one column.

“Today, when Army men look at women in the ranks with ‘longing in their eyes’ it very well may constitute ’sexual harassment,’” he wrote in another. “The truth is, women do not belong in the Army or Navy or Marine Corps, except in certain limited fields.”

Hansen also wrote at one point that he proudly keeps a Confederate flag on the wall of the room where he writes his columns.

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