- The freshman Democrat replaces Republican Joe Hardy, who cannot seek re-election due to term limits.
- Represents the 12th District of Southeast Las Vegas
- The 12th District leans slightly toward the Democratic Party (33% Democrat, 27% Republican, and 31% Independent, according to December 2022 active voter statistics).
- She will chair the Natural Resources Committee and serve on the Business and Labor Committee and the Growth and Infrastructure Committee.
Family and Education
State Senator Julie Pazina was an only child who grew up in Atlanta. When her grandfather’s health deteriorated in 2002, her family moved west to Las Vegas to be closer to him. She’s lived within a five-mile radius since then.
Pacina dabbled in politics at an early age, and by the time she was 11, she was knocking on doors and making phone calls for local candidates. She decided to run for the 20th Senate district in 2018, but lost by just 24 votes out of a field of more than 55,000 senators.
“I’ve loved political process citizenship all my life,” she said. “From a very young age, I believed in the process.”
In college, she earned a double major in Communication and Political Science from the University of Georgia.
her mother is an editor atlanta constitution, a major metropolitan newspaper, partly influenced Pazina’s love of sports and journalism. She became a sports writer for the student newspaper before realizing that journalism was not her path.
Julie and her husband Joel both love sports, including the Atlanta Braves baseball team. At their wedding, their table was named after the historic Warriors player.
Pazina loves her 18-month-old golden retriever, Henry (named after Henry Aaron, a right fielder who spent 23 seasons with the Braves), despite his tendency for mischief, including One time he ate drywall, another time he ripped out the couch. She also cared deeply for her late dog Molly, who died of cancer in August.
Profession
Pazina is National Sales Director for Edlen Electrical Exhibition Services, which provides electricity for trade shows, conferences and special events. She has been with Edlen since 2006.
Prior to Edlen, Pazina worked as an Assistant Cruise Director on cruise ships from Europe to the Panama Canal to the Caribbean and the Mexican Riviera. She said she didn’t miss it.
“You make a lot of friends…but I love being in Vegas, being in Henderson. I don’t want to be at sea. Having said that, I love the sea. And I do love vacations,” Pazina said. “One of the things I miss is when you’re on the top deck when you’re out at sea, you just look at the water and you see how massive it is.”
carson city road
After narrowly losing the 20th District race in 2018 to Republican Keith Pickard, Pacina is all-in for the 2022 race. She said she knocked on thousands of doors and learned about her neighbors and her community. It paid off when she defeated Republican Cherlyn Arrington with 52 percent of the vote.
“The exciting part is finally starting to develop policy and listening to issues that neighbors think are important,” she said. “I can finally transition from campaign to policy and legislation.”
Pazina said she has had the opportunity to meet some of her colleagues and has begun engaging with them on different pieces of legislation.
“It’s important that we work together across party lines, across sectors. Because at the end of the day, what we all want is to help our neighbors. That’s the end goal of all of us,” Pazina said.
about the question
“In essence, things have to be bipartisan” to get the job done in this session with a Democratic-led Legislature and a Republican governor, Pacina said.
A new representative in a swing district — her predecessor was a Republican — she said her constituents expect her to “communicate and cooperate” with the legislature.
“I come from the business world. If I don’t communicate with everyone in my company and my client base, and I don’t collaborate, we don’t get anything done,” says Pazina. “I think it comes down to communication in both chambers and bipartisan … to pass the best legislation possible and work with our new governor to make sure he signs it.”
As chair of the Natural Resources Committee and a member of the Business and Labor Committee and the Growth and Infrastructure Committee, she said her areas of focus include economic development, education, accessible health care and the environment.
economic development
Pazina said she is in the early stages of working on a bill that would simplify some of the state’s processes and let businesses bring jobs and taxes to Nevada.
“I think one of the concerns has always been that if we don’t streamline some of our processes in that state, these companies will choose Arizona or California,” Pazina said. “When people talk about bringing good-paying jobs and more income to the state, obviously, that’s what we all want. That money goes to education, health care, our infrastructure.”
Accessible Healthcare
Pazina said she wants to address Nevada’s shortage of specialists by creating more specialty-focused residencies for graduating medical students and encouraging them to stay in the state.
“We just don’t have enough specialties and some specialties where we don’t have any residency, it’s very frustrating… I think the dean of the UNLV School of Medicine shared with me that when you go to medical school here, there are 50 -50 chance you’ll stay,” Pazina said. “But if you live here, it’s 80-20. So that’s what we want … we’re trying to keep people here.”
educate
Improving education in Nevada is all about workforce development and preparing students for the real world, Pazina said.
As president of the Las Vegas Hotel Association, she said she was able to create mentoring and internship opportunities for students. She said she has brought speakers to high schools, UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada to showcase the hospitality industry and give students a better idea of what they want to do after graduation.
“People are now challenged to meet their employment needs. I don’t think it will always be that way. But I think it’s important that when we look at our students, we identify what they’re excited about. How do we foster that?” Patsy Na said.
Additionally, Pazina said she hopes to work with educators on how to excel on the job and how she can help them become “effective educators,” including discussing salary increases and reduced class sizes. She added that she is a “big fan of public education” and would not consider the idea of breaking up the Clark County School District or allowing municipalities to opt out of the district without a step-by-step plan.
“It’s one thing to say ‘Hey, let’s do this.’ But without any plan, I feel like it’s going to be absolute chaos,” Pazina said. “When I think about making any decisions, I think about having a plan.” . How do you do this? What’s your first step, what’s your second step? “
environment
Tackling climate change is important to Pazina, who plans to legislate to address record-breaking summer heat and water conservation.
“One of the things I would say is that in Nevada, I think we’ve done a good job of looking to the future and seeing what we can do to look to the future and try to protect our resources,” Pacina said. “But I’m excited to continue this work.”
New tax?
Pacina said she sympathizes with Nevadans struggling to make ends meet, especially as rising inflation affects housing and food costs.
“I think people are struggling, and now to have new taxes for that is inherently challenging coming out of a pandemic,” Pazina said. “So at this point in time … trying to Adding new taxes is really problematic. But that’s why I’m focused on bringing in new business and bringing in revenue that way.”
Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who has a veto, said there was “no need for any kind of tax increase” in the upcoming legislative session.
