Nevada speaker under fire for racist, sexist columns will quit post A conservative Nevada assemblyman who upset a longtime party leader to become the speaker-in-waiting abruptly quit the position over the weekend after controversial columns he wrote for a local newspaper caused a firestorm. Assemblyman Ira Hansen (R) said in a statement on Sunday he would not take over the speakership. He accused those who unearthed the old columns of "a carefully orchestrated attack to remove a conservative Republican from a major leadership role in State government." "The deliberate character assassination and the politics of personal destruction have totally distorted my views and record," Hansen said in a statement. Hansen came under fire for columns he wrote for the Reno News & Review over a 13-year period, some of which included inflammatory rhetoric. In the columns, he described a "cult of negro worship" surrounding the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the "master-slave relationship" between Democrats and "Negroes," blamed the "women's liberation movement" for a rise in "illegitimacy" and suggested that gays were more likely to be molesters. Hansen's rise to power came just a few weeks after Nevada Republicans reclaimed control of the state Assembly; few political observers expected Republicans to win the lower chamber, but a low-turnout election in which Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) won a huge victory swept his party to power. Hansen won the speakership over Assemblyman Pat Hickey (R), the incumbent minority leader, though the vote was unanimous after it became clear Hansen had the support necessary to win. But after the columns came to light, top Nevada Republicans, including Sandoval and Sen. Dean Heller (R), piled on the criticism. Hickey and Assemblyman Paul Anderson (R), the majority leader-designate, have not said whether they will run to become speaker.