Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) is a coalition of more than 30 left-leaning groups which provides research, campaign support, and legislative agenda guidance in Nevada. Its membership includes prominent left-leaning organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union’s Nevada chapter, Planned Parenthood, and NARAL in addition to a number of environmental, gender, and union groups. [1]
The group’s priorities include a $15 per hour minimum wage, left-leaning environmental policies, and a number of other left-leaning priorities such as shifting Nevada away from the coal industry. [2]
Initiatives
State Level
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada functions as the major advocacy coalition for the left wing of Nevada politics. A number of its priorities were adopted by the 2019 legislature, the first Democratic Party “trifecta” in the state since the turn of the 21st century. It was on the steering committee for an immigration advocacy coalition which led a push to allow non-citizens to secure state occupational licenses. [3]
The group pushed for Nevada to compensate people exonerated after being in prison. [4] The adopted measure provides financial compensation for years of being improperly behind bars and offers non-monetary benefits such as health care and expunging of criminal records. It also provides protection to federal and Nevada taxpayers by requiring exonerees to reimburse the state if they receive federal compensation, and vice-versa. Nevada is the 35th nation to have an exoneree compensation law. [5]
The Alliance supported a new law which will raise the minimum wage for Nevadans to $12 per hour over five years. [6] It also backed a bill to prevent eviction based upon unpaid fees, though its efforts for an affordable housing bill were blocked in the legislature. [7]
The group pushed unsuccessfully for a ban on the death penalty and a ban on payday lending. [8] It also advocated for reductions in cash bail, and decriminalization of certain traffic offenses in the state’s 2019 legislative session. [9]
National Politics
The group signed a letter in June 2019 urging the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to not approve former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Sponsored by the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, the letter cites a number of Cuccinelli’s past statements to claim that he was unfit for the job. [10]
The Alliance’s influence is also recognized outside of the state. New York Mayor (and 2020 Presidential candidate) Bill de Blasio (D) met with the group during a swing through Nevada in April 2019. [11]
Criticism of Trump Administration
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada signed a letter condemning the immigration policy of the Trump Administration and urging American CEOs not to employ anyone involved with the policy. It accused these officials of being directly guilty for physical abuse, sexual assault, and even the death of illegal immigrant children. The letter was titled “An Open Letter to America’s CEOs” and was dated April 6, 2019. [12]
Leadership
The Alliance’s board president is Raquel Cruz-Juarez, an official with Planned Parenthood’s Nevada affiliate. [13] Its co-founders and directors emirita are left-wing activists Bob Fulkerson and Jan Gilbert.
Executive Director is Laura Martin. Martin’s background includes union organizing. She is on the Board of Directors for the Nevada chapter of the environmentalist group Sierra Club, and is the Alliance’s representative to the left-wing organizing and advocacy group People’s Action. [14]
Funding
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada’s revenues were $1.26 million in 2017, with expenses of $1.1 million and assets of $378,000. [15] Almost all of its revenue came from “contributions and grants,” according to its 2017 tax return.
PLAN receives funding from a number of major liberal funding groups, including the Tides Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. [16] The Service Employees International Union-backed Fast Food Workers Committee also paid PLAN substantial amounts, including $139,543 for “contracted services” in 2014. [17]