Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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POWER STRIP continued from page 47 and his youth as the son of an illegal bookie who moved his family west from Chicago to start a new life. ���You need to know where you came from to see the changes that were made and how we got to where we are,��� says Miller, who advises local leaders to do the same as we plow through this recession. ���People don���t remember our roots. We���re at a difficult time in this community���s history. If we don���t understand who we are, are we able to cobble the necessary responses?��� Miller���s dad, Ross, was the former owner of a Chicago burlesque club and bookie parlor when he moved his family to Las Vegas in 1955, a familiar story that found crossroaders, card sharps, bookies���tens of thousands of Runyonesque characters coming to the desert city in search of legitimacy and a fresh start on the right side of the law. In his book, Miller wanted to make sure that this ���early Vegas��� wasn���t forgotten. ���We discussed the concept at gatherings with family and friends: a book that talked about the early history of Las Vegas,��� he says. ���It���s an autobiography about my family, but people who read it say that what���s most interesting is how it portrays Las Vegas through the years.��� Miller entered politics while the Las Vegas casino industry was in the midst of its violent transformation from lucrative subsidiary of organized crime to capital generator for Wall Street financial interests. While the region���s politicians were rarely shy about seeking campaign donations from the mob-run properties, Miller found that his father���s association with Upper Midwest crime bosses was fodder in his 1978 bid to become Clark County���s district attorney. Defense lawyer Bucky Buchanan, whom Miller calls ���the SOB attacking my mother,��� ran a series of ads questioning Miller���s impartiality toward the Nevada casino industry, because his mother still ran the Slots-A-Fun slot parlor at the time. (His father had died three years earlier from throat cancer.) Miller won that four-way primary for district attorney ���BOB MILLER with 42 percent of the vote, and he took the general election by a two-to-one margin. Miller went on to become the longest-serving governor in Nevada history. His 10 years as the state���s chief executive found him presiding over an unprecedented growth period in Nevada while he advocated for increased spending on public schools, class-size reduction, and greater taxes on the mining industry. At the same time, he cut the state���s budget in response to the deep national recession of the early ���90s. He was elected president of the National Governors Association in 1996. ���I played hard,��� says the 6-foot-5 basketball fan. ���I wasn���t afraid to take chances in any of the offices. When you���re down by a point at Gov. Bob Miller at a 1998 press the end of the game, I was the guy who wanted conference. to take the shot. I wasn���t going to hide.��� V ���You need to know where you come from to see how we got to where we are.��� 48 Miller with his parents at his 1967 graduation from Santa Clara University. VIEW FROM THE TOP Bob Miller���s inspirations and inclinations. *retirement plan ���I never intended to be in public office my entire life and always intended to move on to other things. I love living in Nevada and served as a judge, Clark County district attorney, lieutenant governor, and governor. But I wasn���t enamored with the concept of living in DC.��� *growth spurt ���As we go forward, we have to diversify to sustain our economy. We���re the only city in the history of the United States that doubled its population in every decade. But it���s not going to continue to grow at the same pace.��� *good sport ���In the eighth grade, I broke a leg, an arm, and a finger. I was gangly and uncoordinated. I went to Dodgertown baseball camp one summer and won the swimming award. That says enough about my baseball skills.��� *6-foot-5 advantage ���Our basketball games included three governors, some state troopers, and my son, Ross. Mario Cuomo, thengovernor of New York, played once and said he didn���t want to play because I was a ringer.��� VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 047-048_V_SP_PowerStrip_Spring13.indd 48 2/11/13 1:08 PM