• In case you missed it, America’s Toughest Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, announced yesterday that he will not be running for governor of Arizona this year. Though the idea of forcing state legislators to meet in tents, eat green baloney and wear pink underwear had to have been tempting. Sheriff Joe will still be our First Friday Happy Hour guest at Stoney’s this week.
• Caution: Pro-illegal immigration illegal alien protestors may show up. Please do not let them goad you into a six o’clock news incident by trying to affect a citizen’s arrest. Remember, this is a HAPPY hour.
• The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported yesterday afternoon that “A SkyWest Airlines flight from Helena, Mont., to Salt Lake City was diverted to Idaho Falls after a passenger began banging on the cockpit door, saying he was a space alien and wanted to fly the plane.” And no, it wasn’t Mike Wiley.
• Say what you will about Sue Lowden, what you will not be able to say after this primary is that she’s untested on the campaign stage. Not that her performance has been stellar to date, but she’s certainly been under withering fire.
• Danny Tarkanian has been yapping at her stilettos since last fall; but truth be told, he’s been more of a nuisance than a true threat. However, as we enter the final month of the primary campaign season, Lowden is being hit by Tark, Harry Reid, Reid’s allies running those Patriot Majority ads, and even the Tea Party Express. She’s probably being outspent on the air right now by a factor of 10-1.
• If Lowden holds on to win the GOP primary on June 8th, she will be bloodied – yes, some from self-inflicted wounds – but she will also be battle-tested unlike any of her primary opponents. And that experience will certainly come in handy next fall against The Reid Machine when they whip out The Vaporizer.
• The Joe Heck for Nevada campaign officially opens its campaign headquarters today with special guest, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The BBQ is scheduled to begin at 12:00 pm at the Heck for Nevada campaign HQ located at 6675 S. Tenaya Way #140 in Las Vegas.
• Correction: We were misinformed about Republican assembly candidate Tibi Ellis signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. She has not. We regret the reporting error in yesterday’s Mini-Muth’s Truths….but nowhere near as much as we regret another otherwise promising Republican candidate not willing to stand firm against raising taxes and fees on Nevada’s citizens and businesses.
• Indeed, in a campaign email I received just this morning, Ms. Ellis writes: “Year after year the politicians in Reno passed budgets that grow at a rate that is unsustainable. While cutting the budget this year alone will not get us out of the hole, being fiscally conservative each year will get us back on the road to prosperity.”
• First, the Legislature meets in Carson City, our state capital, not Reno. A legislative candidate should know that.
• But secondly, in declaring that “cutting the budget this year alone will not get us out of the hole,” Ms. Ellis certainly appears to be endorsing some kind of tax and fee hikes which would certainly explain why she has decided not to sign the Tax Pledge. Voters beware!
• BTW, I should also note that Republican Assembly District 13 candidate Joshua Gust has also informed me that he, too, has chosen not to sign the Tax Pledge because he wants to be free to raise some fees on businesses if he finds it appropriate to do so.
• Something tells me the next legislative session isn’t going to be any better for Republicans in the Assembly than the last one. Or the one before that. Or the one before that. Or the one….
• Meanwhile, William M. Epstein, professor of social work at UNLV and William N. Thompson, professor of public administration at UNLV, inked on the pages of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday the latest “How Nevada Sucks; Let Us Count the Ways” piece from the state’s system of higher education.
• In this iteration (“Nevada’s Depravity”), the taxpayer-funded professors at the taxpayer-funded university complain about Nevadans who, using their own money, decide to play blackjack, slots and roulette once in a while rather than pay higher taxes for education.
• Still looking for places to cut in the state budget? How about starting with whiny professors who bite the hands that feed them?
• Ralston Flash reports that Gov. Jim Gibbons wowed the crowd at the monthly Republican Men’s Club luncheon in Las Vegas yesterday, declaring that he “didn’t raise taxes in that special session” he called back in February.
• Yes…he did. On gaming. And on mining. And once again, it’s not so much that Gibbons broke the Taxpayer Protection Pledge that he signed in 2006 (they’ve been, arguably, relatively minor infractions), but that he continues to outright lie about breaking it that I find so objectionable.
• Speaking of Gibbons, I’ve been lax in noting that he opposes Arizona’s new tough-on-illegals law while his primary GOP primary opponent, Brian Sandoval, supports it.
• Then again, Gov. Gibbons has been in denial about the problem of illegal immigration in Nevada for years now. Remember back during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign when he told Nevada Appeal online editor Kirk Caraway, “I don’t think casinos are hiring illegals”? Talk about blind to reality.
• And finally, blogger Dullard Mush isn’t exactly impressed with the Guv’s re-election campaign:
“And what better way to sum up Gibbons’ latest than this closing paragraph in his email announcement: ‘The (new campaign radio) ads will run Monday through Friday on KOH 780 AM News Talk. Visit Jim Gibbons’ campaign web site at http://www.jimgibbons2010 to listen to more radio ads, donate to his campaign or volunteer.’ I kept getting an error when I clicked on his campaign site link, until I realized it was because his camp forgot the .com in the address. No matter, though, once I did arrive at his site no radio spots were to be found.”
• Amateur hour.
