After serving in the 2015 and 2021 sessions, O'Neill is spending the 2023 session navigating a challenging landscape as leader of the Assembly Republican Caucus.

Attorneys for the state of Nevada are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit against the secretary of state regarding voter roll maintenance, asserting that the court does not have jurisdiction over the subject matter and that the plaintiffs have misrepresented the secretary of state’s role in maintaining voter rolls.

While Senate Democrats have been eyeing state Sen. Heidi Gansert’s Washoe County seat in their quest to secure a supermajority in that chamber, they have largely been playing defense on the Assembly side.

Members of the Assembly, after a five-hour hearing Wednesday night, voted 31-10 to grant final approval to SB4, the last major piece of legislation to advance in the special session. It mandates certain health and safety protections for hospitality workers, in addition to granting broad liability protections to nearly all businesses, governmental bodies and nonprofit groups in the state so long as they follow required local, state and federal health protocols.

But unlike federal candidates, who are required to disclose their donors and political spending ahead of primary and general elections, no such requirement was made in Nevada law for statewide or legislative candidates — leaving voters and the public in the dark on the last two months of fundraising before the state’s primary election.

An amendment dropped late Wednesday in the state Senate to SB3 will pull the entirety of the state’s Governmental Services Tax (assessed on car registration fees) toward the battered state general fund, which is one of the changes expected to add back $58.6 million to the state’s $1.2 billion budget shortfall. Gov. Steve Sisolak’s original budget proposal called for that tax revenue stream to be split between the general fund and the state’s highway fund.

At least one legislator has lost their re-election bid, while several caucus-backed candidates remained locked in close contests as mail-in ballots continue to be counted in the wake of Tuesday's election.

Members of the Interim Finance Committee — a group of lawmakers that oversees spending and grants between legislative sessions — met on Monday to officially approve more than $118.5 million dollars in federal grants to help fund the response to COVID-19, including a sizable $96 million for contact tracing and expanded laboratory testing.

Of the 42 seats in the state Assembly, almost a quarter will be decided in the primary election. Four races will actually be decided in the primary — including three incumbent Republicans fending off challengers — because no other candidates filed to run in those districts. Another five races will effectively be decided in the primary, given vast disparity in voter registration totals making it all but impossible for the opposing party to gain a foothold.

Of the approved disbursements, $1.25 million will be the state’s match for a federal emergency management grant, while the remaining $5 million will go directly to the emergency management division for the acquisition of emergency supplies and the “immediate assistance” of state, local, county and tribal governments.