Monthly archive

You may recall that Secretary of State Ross Miller has been taking guff from a GOP-aligned group that clearly wants to stop him -- or at least wound him -- before he becomes attorney general. There have been mailers and a web site, not to mention some stenographic, unquestioning treatment from the "newspaper." Much of this started when Miller was trying to get a transparency bill through an unfriendly Gang of 63, which eventually gutted and then killed the excellent proposal. The Republican...
Sen. Dean Heller was adamant about the DREAM Act. “I believe it is an amnesty program, a back-door amnesty program for the 12 to 15 million people who are here illegally,” Heller declared, apparently not caring or not knowing that the DREAM Act applied to a small subset (hundreds of thousands) of the total undocumented population (those who go to college or are in the military). In his zeal to brandish the “amnesty” sword, which had proven to be a cutting issue for Republicans, Heller tossed...
One day after he penned a scathing op-ed in Forbes about online gaming, Gondolier Numero Uno Sheldon Adelson called web poker a "cancer" and derided itd description as a game of skill in an interview with Bloomberg News. The interview, parts of which are embedded below, with Deirdre Bolton, also featured Adelson equating online gambling with the potential legalization of heroin, cocaine and prostitution, saying the arguments for government to make money are similar. The Las Vegas Sands chairman...
Clark County Commissioner Mary Beth Scow is getting started early for her re-election, with a fundraiser next week hosted by the Nevada Resort Association, the lobbying arm of the industry the incumbent oversees. This is known as the "I'm trying to scare people away" event -- the invite and large host committee are attached here. Subtle, it ain't. But subtlety has little place in getting anointed. I'm looking for someone on that list who will not need something from Scow in the coming months...
Full disclosure: I hate Yucca Mountain. Not the place; the political issue. Ever since the 1987 Screw Nevada Bill, singling out Nevada as the site for nuclear waste disposal, the public (well, mostly the media) has endured local pols posturing and visiting electeds pandering. It is endless and mindless. There is no new dump rhetoric. Democrats still wield it occasionally to pummel Republicans, who have been more pro-Yucca than Democrats through the years. But since Barack Obama committed to...
In case you think the Culinary is too focused on those contract negotiations to continue its campaign to organize Station Casinos, a new letter designed to hurt the company's chances of getting a prestigious imprimatur indicates the effort continues unabated. Culinary research boss Ken Liu has written to a group that is conducting a survey of Station employees as a prelude to the company's application to be on the FORTUNE's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list. Obviously, Station covets the...
It's only June of the off year, but already the political skies are teeming with trial balloons for the most exciting race of 2014 in Nevada: lieutenant governor. Yes, lieutenant governor. It may be a measure of how far Nevada has fallen from being a presidential battleground in two of the last three cycles and having a marquee Senate race in the last couple. But with a Sandoval anointment nearly assured, and unending speculation that the governor might leave at midterm to joust with Prince...
As part of a national campaign to pressure undecided senators, including Dean Heller, the AFL-CIO has started an ad campaign in English and Spanish. The labor folks also have a series of "webisodes" featuring different stories. Will this have much effect on someone such as Heller? Not sure he cares much what labor thinks. But I suppose every little bit could help. Here are the TV spots:
UPDATE: Tonight is the vote. And the Realtors apparently don't like how they are being portrayed. I've attached the latest correspondence.     UPDATE: There are a whole batch of new mail pieces going out from the Realtors PAC, and attached here. The group also has done a lot of field work in advance of Wednesday's vote, aided by experts Sarah Jaffa and Billy Rogers. They have been collecting hundreds of comment cards to be presented at the council meeting. And their canvassing indicates huge...
Republican Assemblywoman Michele Fiore sent a missive to her list this week, thanking Gov. Brian Sandoval for vetoing the background check bill and lambasting Democrats for entombing her campus carry bill. Permit me to annotate: Friends, I'm so thankful that Governor Sandoval has listened to the thousands of Nevadans who have contacted his office urging him to oppose SB221. (He made up his mind long before those calls started.) Less than an hour ago Governor Sandoval vetoed this bill. Senate...

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