Photo credit: Guinn Center
Habits of Effective Lawmaking: CEL Highlights Bipartisanship at Nevada’s Gallagher Dialogues
This February, Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Co-Directors Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman were honored to be keynote speakers at the 3rd Annual Gallagher Dialogues, convened by the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities in Reno, Nevada. First convened in 2023, the Gallagher Dialogues pay tribute to the legacy of Tom Gallagher, the late founder of the Guinn Center, who was deeply committed to advancing democracy, bipartisanship, and the free exchange of ideas.
Now the Guinn Center’s largest annual event, the Gallagher Dialogues bring together Nevada leaders, lawmakers, and community members for an evening of dialogue, reflection, and civic engagement. This year’s gathering, which drew several hundred attendees, took place at the Nevada Museum of Art, coinciding with the opening days of the 2025 Nevada legislative session. Several members of Nevada’s executive branch of government were in attendance this year, including Governor Joe Lombardo, and State Treasurer Zach Conine; and nearly half of the current sitting members of Nevada’s state legislature attended, as did numerous former members of the state House and Senate.
Volden and Wiseman described the mission and activities of the Center for Effective Lawmaking, highlighting the ways in which they have strived to tie academic and data-driven research to questions about contemporary governance and politics in legislative settings, and explaining the scope of their ongoing state legislative effectiveness projects. They also highlighted particular insights from their published research, such as their “habits of highly effective lawmakers” and spoke about how those lessons translate to the practices and strategies of state legislators.
Photo credit: Guinn Center
Volden and Wiseman concluded their presentation by drawing attention to Nevada-specific trends in lawmaking effectiveness, to explore the relationship between bipartisanship and political polarization on the legislative process in the state. They noted how national trends might contribute to, or detract from, the prospects for effective lawmaking in Nevada. These topics served as the foundation for an engaging Question and Answer session with members of the audience.
“We could not ask for better experts to speak to our executive and legislative branch leaders at the start of our legislative session. It set the tone and reminded Nevada’s lawmakers and the public audience what effective governance looks like when tackling substantive and significant legislation for the good of our citizens. In addition to all the expertise Alan and Craig brought to the table, they were engaging and funny! We received praise for the event from Democrats and Republicans alike. It would be wonderful to see states nationwide embrace their findings and incorporate the habits of highly effective lawmaking in the legislative process,” said Jill Tolles, the Executive Director of the Guinn Center.
As noted by Co-Director Alan Wiseman, the Gallagher Dialogues event was a “wonderful night, and an amazing opportunity for public officials and other members of civil society to learn more about the Center and its activities, and to collectively think about the implications of the Center’s work for how they think about, and, in some cases, engage with the tasks of governing in Nevada.”
CEL Co-Director Craig Volden commented, “I was really encouraged by the degree to which everyone involved embraced the themes of bipartisanship and effective lawmaking. We left very hopeful for solutions-oriented public policymaking in Nevada.”
For those who missed the event, PBS Reno will broadcast the full conversation later this summer.
