• Thom Reilly is a former Clark County manager who is highly-respected and well thought of by a lot of people in southern Nevada. And during his tenure from 2001 through 2006, Reilly regularly warned the County Commission that government worker salaries and benefit packages were far too generous and couldn’t be sustained in the long run…warnings that turned out to be dead on balls accurate. (“It’s an industry term.”)
• However, Reilly’s also part of the problem we have with government today at all levels. In a Las Vegas Sun article published yesterday, Reilly declared that “The role of government is to deliver services and to facilitate services,” complaining that “we don’t have the health care or social services infrastructure we should have in this community.”
• Of course, limited-government conservatives will tell you that is decidedly NOT the role of government as envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The proper role of government is to protect individual liberties. And as long as folks such as Mr. Reilly are running the government, the government will continue to grow, blob-like, out of control.
• The hearing in the challenge to the qualifications of so-called “Tea Party” candidate Scott Ashjian has been set for tomorrow at 9:30 am with Judge Russell in the First District Court in Carson City. Joel Hansen, the Independent American Party (IAP) candidate for attorney general, will be serving as the attorney in the challenge brought by IAP U.S. Senate candidate Tim Fasano.
• State Sen. Mark Amodei (R-Carson City) is apparently again interested in the vacant chairman’s job at the Nevada Republican Party. MyNews4.com reported this morning that Amodei is in the “discussion” stages about the job with party leaders and is “on his way to Las Vegas for two days of meetings.” Sounds like he’s serious.
• The only other name surfacing right now is that of Clark County GOP Chairman SpongeBob Ruckman of LaMancha. The party better hope it can persuade Amodei to take the job.
• Meanwhile, the grapevine reports that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Danny Tarkanian, panicked over the wheels coming off his latest campaign apple cart, may be thinking of dumping out-of-state general consultant James Fisfis and out-of-state campaign (mis-)manager Brian Seitchik. Too little, too late to save his campaign – but maybe not too late to save his now-tarnished reputation.
• Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval announced yesterday the launch of a statewide “listening tour.” Dubbed “100 Schools, 100 Businesses – Working with Nevadans,” the tour will take Sandoval across the state to listen to and work with Nevadans. It kicks off today in Fallon where Sandoval will tour the Northside Kindergarten & Early Learning Center and Churchill County High School.
• Look today for that Democrat-backed television ad slamming Sandoval for his role in the notorious 2003 tax hike. The D’s hope to derail Sandoval and help Gov. Jim Gibbons win the GOP nomination in the June primary, believing Gibbons is the only Republican Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid can beat in the general.
• “The negative attack ad launched today by the Rory Reid shadow campaign is a lie,” the Sandoval campaign said in an official response this morning. “Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid and his former campaign manager Dan Hart (the individual heading the group behind the ads) should tell the voters of Nevada exactly why they have launched this negative attack ad in a Republican primary. Further, they should disclose the donors behind their shadow group and come clean with the people of Nevada.”
• OK, fine. But here’s the problem: Nevada law doesn’t require candidates or PACs or any other entity to disclose the source of their campaign funds until June 1, 2010, just a week before the election. That law should be changed, but legislators seem to like hiding this information from the voters until the last minute and have consistently refused to change it.
• If the Sandoval campaign wants the Hart group to immediately disclose its donors rather than wait for the June 1st deadline, then Mr. Sandoval ought to lead by example by disclosing his OWN campaign’s donations immediately (or within, say, 48-72 hours) on the Internet. What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander.
• Now THAT would be leadership Nevadans could believe in again.
• Meanwhile, fellow GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Montandon will spend the rest of this week discussing his pro-nuclear energy platform, contrasting his stance with his opponents, and highlighting the economic benefit of opening Yucca Mountain and bringing the nuclear industry to Nevada. Montandon said yesterday that the action of Governor Jim Gibbons, Brian Sandoval, and Rory Reid “have already cost Nevada thousands of jobs and millions in lost revenue.”
• Michelle Fiore, GOP candidate for Congress in District 1, announced yesterday that she’s been endorsed, personally, by Monte Miller (Keystone Corporation), Bob List (Nevada Republican National Committeeman) and Ed Goedhart (Republican Assemblyman, Amargosa Valley).
• And finally, some wingnut named Juan Rivera has launched a jihad against yours truly, claiming I’m a racist because I made fun of Nathan “Li’l Nate” Taylor yesterday for promoting a “Cinco de May” campaign event rather than a “Cinco de Mayo” event. According to Mr. Rivera, making jest of court jester Li’l Nate, a friend of his (birds of a feather and all), somehow equates to “hating the Hispanic Community.”
• Wow, that’s some leap. But being the good Latino-hating, beaner-bashing racist that I am, I suggested that Don Juan take an English course in reading for comprehension. I sure hope that didn’t offend him somehow.
