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Yes, the Democratic nominee for governor is "None of These Candidates." The goofy Nevada ballot choice won with 30 percent of the vote to Bob Goodman's 25 percent. They each spent the same amount of money: None. Because the choice has no teeth, Goodman goes on to the general. So is this unprecedented? Not quite.  It has happened four times in primaries. NOTC passed in 1975, and then won GOP primaries for Congress in 1976 and 1978, a secretary of state's primary in 1978 and then a Democratic...
It’s all over but for the voting. So to try – I fear in vain – to blunt the hyperbole and spin to come, here’s what to watch for once the results come in tonight: 1. Ignore all extrapolations for the general election. The primary electorate is a different animal; no matter how partisans try to claim victories or losses that are meaningful for November, they are spouting unscientific nonsense. Five months to go, so much to happen, many more voters to turn out. 2. Watch how many of the Republican...
Yes, it's nuts to predict in low-turnout primaries. But to do what I do for as long as I have....I'm nuts. So here are a few, with emphasis on GOP primaries that feature moneyed candidates vs. insurgents: ►Lieutenant governor: If Sue Lowden wins this race, it should be regarded as one of the greatest upsets in Nevada political history, low turnout or no. She has not written a very big check. Her campaign has been at times childish, at times unfathomable. Her ads have been singularly amateurish...
Once, I almost got Bob Faiss to dish. After all my years of cajoling and needling, all those times I had tried to get him to tell stories out of school, to learn who he didn’t like or respect, I persuaded him to do something he had never done in my presence: Have a drink. As he sipped the Margarita at an eatery in his beloved Boulder City, Faiss started to loosen up. I sensed the dirt was coming. And then he did it. He reined himself in, regained his otherwordly discipline and natural...
Rarely has there been a process that so obviously flouted the Open Meeting Law as was the one Friday when Clark County commissioners approved 18 medical marijuana dispensaries. Through a series of rounds of voting on tally sheets, mostly unseen by the public, and without commissioners explaining their votes, the board selected the winners, many of whom have political connections. But there was no discussion of the merits of each appliant being chosen vis a vis the others, and commissioners...
On May 20, Clark County commissioners decided how the medical marijuana dispensary licensing process would work: Two weeks later, in a series of hearings, they would award the golden tickets. Two days earlier, Commissioner Susan Brager, under siege by ex-state Sen. Mike Schneider in a primary, accepted four $5,000 contributions from members of a group lobbying for a license -- one from ex-Henderson Mayor Bob Groesbeck and three from companies contolled by ex-Henderson Councilman Larry Scheffler...
In what was one of the most efficient and most opaque processes in local government history, Clark County commissioners picked 18 winners of medical pot dispensaries. At times during the hearing, commissioners seemed not to know their own rules, then switched rules after a break, then tallied their votes on sheets in a series of rounds and then picked winners. With 18 winners, some very well connected, and 61 losers, some with enough money to protest in the courts, my guess is some of the...
After immigration reform protesters came to Rep. Joe Heck’s Las Vegas office Wednesday and a handful were arrested, Democrat Erin Bilbray sent out a petition to, among other things, call out the congressman’s “decision to call the police on Nevadan's (sic) exercising their First Amendment rights - Heck is not for us.” The congressman already had put out a release declaring: “Joe Heck will not be bullied into amnesty.” Amid all the high dudgeon on both sides is that this was choreographed on...
Read this:   Friend -- Nevada State Assemblywoman Lucy Flores is running for Lieutenant Governor -- and she’s facing a huge deadline today. Lucy is in a tough fight against a field of Republicans that could make up the cast of “Survivor: Tea Party Edition.” One is touting an endorsement from Mitt Romney. Another, an endorsement from Newt Gingrich. One even looks like she’s trying to become the next Sharron Angle. No matter who Lucy faces, their agenda will be awful for...

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