KVIG Informative

Nevada doesn’t just have a revolving door between government and lobbying. At one firm, it has a hereditary one.

R&R Partners, one of Nevada’s largest advertising and public affairs firms, operates a government affairs division representing major interests including NV Energy, the Nevada Resort Association and the Nevada Mining Association, according to the firm’s own public materials.

Billy Vassiliadis has led R&R Partners’ government affairs work for decades. His son, Nick Vassiliadis, also works in the firm’s lobbying practice after beginning his career in Washington, D.C., and at the Nevada attorney general’s office, representing clients including the Nevada Rural Electric Association, the Nevada Hospital Association and the Vegas Chamber, according to the Nevada Legislature’s lobbyist registry.

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Pete Ernaut, a former Nevada state assemblyman, now serves as R&R Partners’ chief government affairs officer. His son-in-law, Chase Whittemore, began lobbying through an externship while attending Boyd Law School at UNLV and now works at the same firm.

Will Adler began his own lobbying career working alongside his father, former Assemblyman Ernie Adler, before starting Silver State Government Relations in 2017 — a firm both of his parents subsequently joined, according to the Nevada Legislature’s lobbyist registry.

None of these arrangements violate Nevada’s revolving-door statute. The law restricts former legislators from lobbying the Legislature itself for roughly a year after leaving office; it says nothing about a lobbyist’s spouse, child or parent working the same building on the same industry’s behalf, whether or not a cooling-off period has run.

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Nevada’s lobbyist registry requires firms to disclose which clients they represent each legislative session, but it does not require disclosure of family relationships between registered lobbyists, former officeholders, or the officials those lobbyists are lobbying.

A law written to stop one person from cashing in on their own public service says nothing about a family doing it across three generations, inside the same firm, representing the same industries the state regulates. Nevada’s revolving door isn’t just open — in places, it’s a family business.