We’ve been critical of state Sen. Mark Amodei on this blog, after he sought out a job as head of the Nevada Mining Association and thus created an unacceptable conflict of interest with his public duties. We’d taken to referring to him as a “senobbyist,” a terrible mutation of public official and special-interest advocate that flaunts common sense and good government at every turn.

Because ethics laws in Nevada are so weak, and because respect for common sense and good government is typically not a feature of public life in the Silver State, we worried that Amodei would simply continue to serve in his dual role, just as fellow senobbyist Warren  Hardy does. That fear grew especially acute after Amodei continued to serve during the 24th special session back in June.

Since then, we’d heard rumors that he was planning to quit the low-paying-but-powerful part-time job as state senator in favor of the far more lucrative but less powerful post as head of the mining lobby. But today comes word (via my colleague Jon Ralston) that Amodei instead ditched the mining job.

In his resignation letter, Amodei says “After a considerable amount of thought I have concluded that my past public service in the Nevada Legislature could very likely place one of Nevada’s greatest industries in a position where future policy may be made, in part, based on who the NvMA president is, rather than focusing on the relevant facts to promulgate the best policy.”

Quick side note here: It’s not Amodei’s past service in the Legislature that was the issue. It was the fact that he was currently serving as both a senator and the head of a major special interest that was the issue. He was a person who could propose legislation, vote for or against legislation and manipulate legislation inside the Republican caucus with unprecendented access to his colleagues, all while taking a hefty paycheck from the industry. (In other circumstances, that paycheck could easily be seen as the quid in a quid pro quo.)

Now, had Amodei resigned before seeking the job (rather than seeking it while he was serving as vice chairman of the committee that regulates the industry, a grotesque and ethically questionable act if ever there was one) there would not have been any issue whatsoever.

And there’s more: “Over the last 12 years of legislative service, I have learned the value of getting it right as opposed to self-centered considerations being the priority. It appears presently that my affiliation with the Nevada Mining Industry would be distracting in the 2009 legislative session where it is paramount that we get Nevada’s probable new fiscal policies correct.”

Quite side note, again: If Amodei had really learned the value of “getting it right,” he would never have entertained the “self-centered consideration” of subordinating his public duty to his constituients and the state to his private self-interest in making money as the head of a special interest organization! No one is denying him the right to make a living, especially given that we have a citizen Legislature. But if he wanted the mining job, he should have done the right thing and quit his Senate post to pursue the mining job. That way, his obligation to his constituents would have ended, and he’d have been free to pursue a lucrative salary. But so long as he serves as a senator, he owes his highest loyalty to the voters, even at personal cost to his income. To create a conflict where none existed is simply wrong.

Oh, and “distracting” would hardly cover the open scandal that Amodei’s dual service would have caused in the 2009 Legislature.

More? OK, then. “Accordingly, it is my hope that with my resignation, the focus will return to its rightful context and objective. I also hope that this will be a step in ending the recent and unfounded speculation and criticism visited on one of Nevada’s most valuable modern industries.”

Yeah, another side note: If by “recent and unfounded speculation and criticism” you mean people saying that Nevada mining is getting off easy by not paying anywhere near its fair share of taxes, a situation likely to be preserved with a senobbyist in the statehouse, then, yeah, this pretty much should end that speculation. But we doubt it will end the criticism, since that criticism has the virtue of being pretty much true.

Unless…?

Unless Amodei plans to return someday to head the association?!

Ah, well, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. We can’t worry about what somebody who — as his resignation letter clearly shows — is still tone deaf to the true ethical issues at hand might do in the future. It’s enough to say that, for whatever reasons that make sense to him, Amodei has done the right thing by stepping down from a job that would have been nothing but an ethical swamp. To thank him would be too much — one doesn’t thank a tree for producing oxygen, since that is what it is supposed to do. But to affirm that a higher ethical purpose has been served, and that Amodei ultimately made the right choice? Sure, we can do that.