Posted on 03/17/2014 7:08:19 AM PDT by Seattle Conservative
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! From the first Morning Jolt of the week:
This Sandoval Guy Looks Like He Knows What He’s Doing in Nevada
Congratulations on your second term, Nevada Governor Gov. Brian Sandoval! Okay, it’s not official, but he’s pulling a Jindal – putting together such a solid record in his first term that no top-tier or even second-tier Democrat challenger is throwing a hat into the ring to prevent a second term. The AP is saying it’s just about over before it begins:
Fifteen challengers filed for the Nevada governor’s race by Friday’s deadline. But with little name recognition, none pose much of a threat to the re-election of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval in November.
Sandoval will face four opponents in the June 10 GOP primary. All are newcomers or candidates who file every election with little chance of winning. Nine Democrats also filed, but none can be considered a front-runner to defeat the popular incumbent.
An Independent American Party and a Green Party candidate also filed by the 5 p.m. deadline.
Challengers to Sandoval who make it to November will face a huge financial hurdle. Reports show Sandoval took in more than $3 million last year in contributions for his re-election.
You may recall that four years ago, Rory Reid, the son of Sen. Harry Reid ran against Sandoval. He raised $2.1 million and lost, garnering 41.6 percent to Sandoval’s 53.4 percent.
Oh, and one other detail:
Rory Reid kept using the word “transparent” last week to describe an elaborate ruse so he could accept a $750,000 contribution from a single political action committee — 75 times the legal limit.
He’s right. It was transparent. But not in the way he means it.
This was a transparent attempt to find a loophole in the campaign contribution laws by a gubernatorial candidate apparently desperate for money to try to revive his moribund campaign. And it was specifically designed to be opaque — a master PAC created with a name that belied its true purpose and 91 phony entities with names concocted to mislead.
Whether what Reid did was legal — or should be legal — will be determined later. But this was nothing short of a conspiracy to commit the equivalent of money laundering in a political campaign, where Reid solicited contributions in large amounts for a PAC ($850,000 during one reporting period) and then the money was washed through sham entities in smaller amounts ($10,000 increments) to appear in the candidate’s war chest…
The man who insisted during the campaign “we need to build a foundation of trust in Nevada,” the man who claimed to have cleaned up the ethical morass left at the Clark County Commission by G-Sting, the man who assailed his opponent for being controlled by special-interest money, began a subterfuge that required cunning deception, murky ethics and special-interest cash.
Remember this the next time his daddy starts yammering on and on about the Koch brothers trying to buy elections and all that nonsense.
The great Jon Ralston recently examined the possibility of Sandoval running against Reid in 2016. Sandoval says he’s not thinking about it… but Reid certainly seems worried about it.
Sandoval will unseat Harry Reid in a couple of years.
Harry Reid is trying to prevent a republican from becoming Lt. Governor, because if that happens, Sandoval would likely run against Reid in 2016. And the old coot wants to keep an iron grip on his power.
Whatever gets rid of Reid in 2016 is alright by me.
That would be super!
I know you’ve done a lot of research on and written a biography on Harry Reid. Thought you might be interested in this re his son.
Weird that we hear how bad the Republican brand is, but we have a lock at the state level on a lot of blue and purple states. I think it’s the national party that has the branding issues. Yet, they are the idiots lecturing us how to win.
Though I will be voting for Sandoval if no conservative beats him in the primary, I am very disappointed with his not opposing the travesty of the so-called common core curriculum in Nevada. He ran as a reformer for education, but has not delivered on it. He rammed through what was supposed to be “teacher accountability”, where teacher salaries are partially tied to student performance on tests.
That sounds good until you try to implement that in the real world. I think what would work better is to get rid of “tenure” in the elementary and secondary level. Why should an elementary teacher get tenure? That’s what makes it doubly difficult to get bad teachers out of the system.
Also, he never tried to promote confirming the legal citizen status students prior to enrollment - nothing is EVER said about it.
On the plus side, he has kept taxes lower and refused to raise them during the “big bust” of the housing market and the Great Recession (still ongoing in my opinion). The school districts were screaming for higher business taxes - instead he stuck to his guns and made the districts actually CUT their spending! What a concept!
Let’s hope a conservative Pubbie wins the Lt Gov spot!
I agree! We need new Pubbie consultants (and not the same, tired ol’ retreads of the GOPe). As an example, Nicole Wallace should just become a Dim IMHO.
A good candidate doesn’t need a consultant....did Reagan need one?
Thanks for the info! I totally agree about tenure! IMHO get rid of the teachers’ unions and the Fed Dept of Ed!
Perhaps Rory Reid is as detestable as his father.
I don’t know if Reagan had one (don’t have time to bing it now but will try to remember to do so later). I suspect he did. The key is whether one has one or not, the candidate needs to stick to their principles and do what they believe is the best for the city, state, country. IF they have a consultant(s), then sometimes that means going against their advice. IIRC President Reagan did that with his speech writers when he insisted the “tear down this wall” language be included in his famous speech.
Speech writers is one thing, when you can’t afford to spend time writing one, even though you know what you want to say.
I’m talking about consultants that tell candidates where they should stand on issues.
Sounds like it to me.
Thanks Seattle Conservative.
Being as he's a Democrat I'm sure the Koch's didn't. Likewise I highly doubt that Soros contributed to Sandoval's campaign.
He sure did. It was this guy...
"Presidents, regardless of party, face constant pressures from the Left -- from the Big Brother government, neofascist, high tax, property-confiscating liberals, from the econazis and global warmists, from the pro-abortionists, from those who are pro-one world and anti-American and from those who advocate cradle-to-grave socialism. (Have I left anyone out?) And, unless there are constant counter-pressures from those on the Right who believe in small government, low taxes, America first and individual liberty, presidents, under Left-wing pressure, tend to drift that way." --Lyn Nofziger
re: “IMHO get rid of the teachers’ unions and the Fed Dept of Ed!”
Amen!
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