• Hot off the press (hat tip: RalstonFlash): A new book coming out Monday reveals that Republican Sen. John Ensign once characterized Barack Obama as a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” What an outrageously insensitive racist thing to say!
• No, wait. Sorry, it wasn’t Republican John Ensign. It was Democrat Sen. Harry Reid. So it’s OK. No problem. Whew.
• In other Harry Reid news, new poll numbers from the Las Vegas Review-Journal this morning show the Majority Leader’s popularity is still above Jack Kevorkian’s….but just barely.
• Nice full-house at last night’s First Friday Happy Hour at Stoney’s in Vegas. What a great group of conservative/libertarians. Still got a touch of hangover this morning. But I’ll soldier on for you, dear readers.
• More than one local Republican approached me last night about the upcoming elections to fill vacancies on the Clark County Central Committee. As I predicted days ago when first learning of it, people are none too happy with the party’s officers unilaterally changing the rules to ban nominations from the floor, opting instead to require potential candidates to register at least two days prior to the meeting on January 19th. After all, every one of the officers who are currently in office was nominated from the floor themselves at the last election in June. If that process was good enough for them then, the argument goes, why isn’t it good enough for others now? Good question.
• In an interview on Face-to-Face with Jon Ralston yesterday, Elaine Wynn of Wynn Resorts fame stated that it’d be crazy for Nevadans to dump Harry Reid, maintaining it was not in the state’s interest to go from #1 on the Senate seniority ladder to #100 if he’s replaced. Republican candidates campaigning against Harry on ideological grounds are missing the boat. Wynn’s argument is the one which could sway the day among the small group of undecideds who decide elections. So the GOP better find a counter to that argument….and fast.
• Helpful Hint: South Dakota traded in the Democrats’ top leader for a freshman back in ’04 when John Thune bumped off Tom Daschle. GOP researchers should be combing through all kinds of census reports, etc., and come up with stats showing how South Dakota’s fortunes actually IMPROVED with a freshman in the Senate instead of the Minority Leader. After all, a freshman senator is focused 100% on the interest of his or her state, but the party leader is focused primarily national party matters.
• Critics of Gov. Jim Gibbons’ education reform proposals are targeting his call to eliminate the class-size reduction MANDATE. But what these folks are missing is another key piece of the proposal: parental school vouchers. You see, for every parent who uses a school voucher to take their kid out of an overcrowded public school classroom, that’s one less kid in the overcrowded public school classroom. Therefore, vouchers = class size reduction for absolutely no additional cost. It’s just that simple. Who could possibly be opposed to THAT?
• Without a doubt, Gov. Gibbons gave Nevada Republicans their campaign theme yesterday, because without a doubt, Harry Reid and Rory Reid will be the Democrats’ nominees for U.S. Senate and governor. And as Gibbons said, “Two Reids don’t make it right.” Get those bumper stickers, t-shirts and coffee mugs printed!
• GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval appears to be twisting himself in knots over the state’s budget challenges, saying shortly after announcing his candidacy last fall that he wouldn’t raise taxes, but telling folks at the Hispanics in Politics breakfast yesterday that he would “not to be one of those people who has got to cut, cut, cut, cut.” (Hat Tip: Ralston Flash) So everyone’s predicting a $2 billion-plus budget gap next biennium and as governor, Brian Sandoval isn’t going to raise taxes or cut spending? Even Houdini couldn’t rival that trick. Can’t wait to see it.
• Former Clark County Republican Party Chairman George Harris is opening a new restaurant in Las Vegas. Mundo, “a culinary haute spot,” opens it doors at the World Market Center downtown this Thursday.
• Final note: Nevada News & Views introduces two new writers to our pages today: Josh Hicks, former general counsel to Gov. Jim Gibbons, and Phillip Moyer, a rather talented young intern who will be working with Sean Whaley and the Nevada News Bureau in Carson City for the next several months. Welcome aboard, gentlemen!
