State Sen. Barbara Cegavske (R-Las Vegas) is running for the newly-created Fourth Congressional District in southern Nevada. Danny Tarkanian, a fellow Republican, is expected to join that race – which also features at least three other Republicans.
In a pre-emptive shot at Tark on Monday, Cegavske tweeted, “I have won 6-straight elections. Danny has an 0-3 record. Enough said. I am in it to win it.”
Allow me play devil’s advocate here…because that’s not “enough said.”
The Republican presidential race is coming to Nevada in just a couple weeks – and not only have Nevada Republicans blown their opportunities leading up to it, but there’s a good chance they’ll end up botching the caucus itself on February 4.
Last January, the Nevada GOP was awarded the prestigious Western Republican Leadership Conference (WRLC) – the first time the event has been held in Las Vegas since 1995. But the October event was so sparsely attended that most of the speakers spoke to a room full of empty chairs. Even A-list speakers, including presidential candidates, attracted only a couple hundred in the audience.
By contrast, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in June drew several thousand.
More importantly, while the WRLC should have been a fundraising gold mine for the Nevada GOP – raising enough dough to fund the presidential caucus, as well as the party’s operations for the duration of the campaign season, as well – I’m told it ended up barely breaking even.
And then there’s voter registration. Continue reading »
Sunday morning’s NBC debate was moderated by David Gregory, who did a much better job than ABC’s Stuffin’envelopes/Sawyer duo. Then again, that bar was high enough for a worm to crawl over.
Gregory wanted the GOP candidates to tell Americans how much pain they were going to cause if elected, what they would do to make fellow Republicans uncomfortable, what Americans will “have to learn to do with less of,” what the candidates would do to support gay rights, to tell everyone just how great labor unions are…and asked Rick Santorum if he was a socialist.
Good grief. Continue reading »
The real “epic fail” of this debate season is the GOP allowing liberal media figures to host and moderate REPUBLICAN debates in the first place. That said, let’s start with Saturday night’s ABC debate.
First, George Stuffin’envelopes, a smug former Clinton water boy, is a major league liberal dick. Sorry, but I couldn’t think of a more appropriate word.
Banning contraceptions? Really? That’s the issue you want to talk about? Really, George? Really?
And was Diane Sawyer moderating a debate last night or hosting a political episode of This is Your Life? “What would you be doing tonight if you weren’t debating?” Really, Diane? Really? Continue reading »
The Republican presidential nomination race just got even a little more complicated.
Most people probably thought the difference between Mitt Romney winning by eight votes or Rick Santorum winning by eight votes was a big deal because whoever won would win the state’s 25 delegates to the national convention…and its delegates that will determine who the nominee is.
But a change in the nomination process this cycle means no more winner-take-all in the early states…meaning states holding primaries or caucuses before April. Instead, delegates are being awarded proportionally depending on the percentage of the vote a candidate receives in the primary or caucus.
So with both Romney and Santorum both getting 25% of the Iowa vote on Tuesday evening, you’d expect that each would get 6 votes. And with Ron Paul getting a little over 20% of the vote, he’d get 5 delegates. Newt Gingrich would get 4 delegates, Rick Perry would get 3 delegates and Michele Bachmann would get 1 delegate.
But that’s not how the game is being played in Iowa. Continue reading »
The most whiny, paranoid people in politics today are SOME of Ron Paul’s most ardent supporters.
These people just can’t seem to get it through their thick skulls that you win elections by addition, not subtraction, and have apparently never even heard of “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” let alone read it. And they sure as heck can’t comprehend the Reagan doctrine that someone who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is your ally, not your enemy.
These are people who prefer catching flies with vinegar instead of honey. Continue reading »
In assessing the Iowa caucus results, we can safely say that social conservatives Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry lost big in this rural, white socially conservative state. They’re out.
Jon Huntsman was never in. And never will be.
Rick Santorum ran on a social conservative anti-abortion/anti-gay platform in a rural, white socially conservative state in which the voters have a far greater interest in those issues than most of the voters in most of the other states. He also darned-near literally lived in Iowa for a year.
And yet….he still only pulled a quarter of the vote.
Santorum claimed in a fundraising email this morning that he is “the only authentic, passionate conservative who can unite the GOP.” Not. He has no national network, and while his fundraising will surely enjoy a bump, it won’t be anywhere near what he needs. I predict his fifteen minutes of fame is more likely to last about seven.
As I noted the other day, Democrat Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller has filed a lawsuit against our organization, Citizen Outreach, over a pair of mailers we sent out criticizing Democrat Assembly Speaker John Oceguera in October 2010. The mailers noted “Johnny O’s” record of voting for tax hikes over and over again, as well as being a double-dipping government employee.
For the record, the mailers were completely accurate.
And in no way called for the defeat of Assemblyman Oceguera in the 2010 election. And young Mr. Miller knows it.
Which is what makes his lawsuit even more outrageous!
Get this…
Conservative citizens showed up in force at a hearing on Thursday to protest a series of election regulations Democrat Secretary of State Ross Miller is proposing for the 2012 campaigns. For their trouble and concern, those citizens were roundly criticized and ridiculed by Miller’s office for daring to raise objections at the public hearing.
“It is unfortunate that these individuals apparently haven’t taken the time to fully read the proposed regulations or completely digest their impact,” Deputy Secretary of State Bob Walsh told Sean Whaley of the Nevada News Bureau.
Mr. Walsh’s claim that these concerned citizens didn’t take the time to read the proposed regulations is a load of flapdoodle. But if they DID have difficulty digesting and understanding them, they could surely be excused. Continue reading »
Government employee/public defender/lobbyist Orrin Johnson of Reno slammed “Republicans in Clark County” as rubes and yahoos in his blog on Friday for protesting election regulation changes being proposed by Secretary of State Ross Miller “because nowhere is there any hint of the actual substance of what is being protested.”
One of those “Republicans in Clark County” who actually showed up at the hearing this week to show her opposition and express her concerns responded thusly (name withheld):
“Orrin is a nobody and I could not care less what he says. It is very clear from his article he has not even bothered to read the proposed changes or what actually happened in the hearings, which he could have viewed on his computer live or archived before running his mouth.
“If you have not looked at the changes you might want to. I think you will be surprised on just how much this waters down our election law. It removes the oath from the registration form and essentially removes any penalty for voting illegally. So if you do and you get caught it is no longer illegal! Plus if you are inactive you no longer have to show ID to state who you are to vote.
“And then there are new strict provisions the military must follow to vote. Imagine that…the Military who put their lives on the line to protect a free nation has to jump through hoops to vote but everyone else no rules!”
Orrin is a moderate Republican who criticizes conservatives. I’m a conservative who criticizes moderate Republicans (as well as idiot Republicans like Mark SureWould and Pudd’nhead Bob Hastings). Take your pick.
