This is the third in a series of quizzes to test your knowledge of the Silver State. This time, the category is politics. Good luck!
1. How many governors has Nevada had?
a. 20
b. 28
c. 25
d. 29
2. What Nevada city is Harry Reid from?
a. Boulder City
b. Searchlight
c. Las Vegas
d. Elko
3. How many years did Oscar Goodman serve as mayor of Las Vegas?
a. 10
b. 4
c. 12
d. 8
4. Who was the first woman to represent the state of Nevada in the United States Senate?
a. Catherine Cortez Masto
b. Betty Willis
c. Carolyn Goodman
d. Jackie Rosen
5. What senator opened a probe into organized crime with a hearing in Las Vegas?
a. Joseph McCarthy
b. Herbert O’Conor
c. Estes Kefauver
d. George W. Malone
6. What US president had a two-week show at the Last Frontier Hotel?
a. John F. Kennedy
b. Ronald Reagan
c. Jimmy Carter
d. Bill Clinton
7. What year did the Nevada Tax Commission create the Gaming Control Board?
a. 1954
b. 1955
c. 1951
d. 1949
8. What year did the Limited Test Ban Treaty go in effect, thereby ending above ground testing at the Nevada Test Site?
a. 1960
b. 1963
c. 1955
d. 1959
9. How many Nevada electoral votes went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election?
a. 10
b. 6
c. 4
d. 7
10. What Nevada Senator got caught up in an affair scandal triggering the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate?
a. John Ensign
b. Chic Hecht
c. Dean Heller
d. Richard Bryan
11. What Nevada governor fell off the roof of his home and died?
a. Robert List
b. Bob Miller
c. Paul Laxalt
d. Kenny Guinn
ANSWERS:
1. D. Nevada’s current governor is Steve Sisolak, who is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a graduate of UNLV. He was sworn into office in 2019.
2. B. Harry Reid served as Nevada’s senator from 1987 to 2017. The city of Searchlight was founded eight years before the city of Las Vegas.
3. A. Oscar Goodman began his Las Vegas career as an attorney and represented several infamous mob members in the 1970s, including Tony “The Ant” Spilotro.
4. A. Catherine Cortez Masto was born and raised in Las Vegas and served two terms as Attorney General of Nevada before making history by becoming the first woman from Nevada and first Latina ever elected to the US Senate.
5. C. The famous Kefauver Hearings ran from 1950 to 1951. The Kefauver Committee held hearings in 14 cities across the country, including one in Las Vegas inside the federal courthouse which now houses the Mob Museum.
6. B. Ronald Regan served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Years before he took office he was a successful screen and TV actor. Regan’s final film, a remake of The Killers, came out in 1964.
7. B. Just four years later Nevada created the Gaming Commission. Both the Gaming Commission and Gaming Control Board govern Nevada’s gaming industry through strict regulations, investigative and licensing practices and the proper collections of taxes and fees.
8. B. More than 1,000 nuclear explosions were detonated at the Nevada Test Site, now known as the Nevada National Security Site.
9. B. While President Donald Trump secured 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227 to win the presidential race, Clinton won more than 2.8 million of the popular vote than the president.
10. A. John Ensign’s parents paid the family of his mistress, Cynthia Hampton, $96,000 out of concern for her and her family’s well-being, which in turn triggered the investigation.
11. D. Kenny Quinn served from 1999 to 2007 as Nevada’s 27th governor. He was 73 years old when he died from injuries sustained from falling off the roof of his Las Vegas home.
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