Democrats in the Senate are looking at an electoral massacre this year. The Kennedy seat is gone. The Biden seat is on life-support. Dorgan is cashing it in. The Burris seat is up for grabs. Specter is going down. The Dodd seat is in jeopardy. Blanche Lincoln may well be retiring. Evan Bayh is in danger. So is Barbara Boxer. Heckuva a job, Harry.
Wal-Mart, generally considered the most successful retailer in the world, announced over the weekend that it is cutting 11,200 jobs, about 10 percent of its workforce, at the company’s Sam’s Club stores and will essentially “privatize” many of those jobs to an outside marketing company. It’s also closing 10 stores which are “underperforming.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if Nevada’s Legislature would make similar decisions regarding to non-essential state workers and “underperforming” agencies, departments and programs?
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee is circling up the ol’ firing squad in Hawaii this week, preparing to vote on a resolution calling on the party to withhold support from any Republican who doesn’t meet eight out of ten stated positions on various issues. The Wall Street Journal notes that newly-minted Republican U.S. Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts might not have met that threshold, concluding that “litmus tests are for losers.”
The decision by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman not to run for governor as an independent this year means the gubernatorial race will come down to a straight up Democrat vs. Republican contest between Harry Reid’s son against either Gov. Jim Gibbons or former federal judge Brian Sandoval or former North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon. And odds are the only way Sandoval loses that primary is if either Gibbons or Montandon drops out, thereby allowing conservative GOP primary voters to coalesce around one candidate.
Don’t hold your breath.
Word out of Carson City is that Democrat Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley is torqued over the upcoming special session because Gov. Jim Gibbons is meeting with, get this, elected legislators to discuss possible budget solutions. How dare he?!!!
According to a well-placed source who requested anonymity, Buckley was overheard in the capital complaining that the governor was working with any and all legislators and not with just the leaders of the Legislature – meaning, particularly, her and Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford. You know….the folks who conspired behind closed doors last year to craft a billion dollars worth of higher taxes. Those leaders. Go figure.
As I reported on Saturday, Republican GOP U.S. Senate candidate Robin Titus announced yesterday that she was dropping out of the race, having failed to raise anywhere near enough money in 2009 to make her a viable candidate. Titus also exercised her God-given right as a woman to change her mind and now is not endorsing another candidate in the race.
Meanwhile, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden officially opened her campaign HQ in Vegas last night. A pretty large crowd of supporters, candidates and party VIPs stopped by, including Assemblyman John Hambrick, Republican National Committeeman Bob List, University Regent Mark Alden, Nevada GOP executive director Brent Hussman, former state Sen. Bob Beers, former Clark County Chairmen Bernie Zadrowski and Richard Scotti, David Isbell, Andy Matthews, Ciara Turns, Calanit Atia, Matt Passalacqua, Tibi Ellis, Grant Hewitt, Dave Williams, Paul Workman, Dave McGowan, Nathan Emens, Mark Risman, and a cast of thousands.
And finally, fellow Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Wiley also christened his new campaign office last evening. It’s located under an I-15 overpass just north of the Spaghetti Bowl. A crowd of three homeless men, Republican gadfly Nathan Taylor and a three-legged dog celebrated the opening over a shared bottle of Mad Dog 20-20, after which they all roasted their weenies over a make-shift fire. Ah, good times.
