Why I’ll be working my ass off to get Kate Marshall elected

Because the guy who approved this jaw-droppingly asinine ad should not be let any where near the halls of power. Ever.

H/T Las Vegas Gleaner who writes:

No massive defense contractor nor any other large corporation in America is ever going to have to pay their fair share of taxes, no matter what — certainly not if Mark Amodei has anything to say about it — and that’s the important thing. If it’s a choice between the Chinese Red Army and Islamic Jihadists partitioning America up post-war Germany style, on the one hand, or reducing the federal debt by making people and corporations who can most afford it start paying their fair share of taxes for a change, Amodei and the people in control of his party have sworn an oath — no, not the oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies. The real oath: No new taxes.

Yeah!

What I Fear vs What I Hope

What I fear will happen:

Yes, yes, however the process shakes out to replace putative senator Dean Heller in CD2, the larger Angle’s role, the better the chance for some Republican-lite Nevada-style Democrat to win that seat.

What I would like to see:

Mainstream Republicanism is now defined by the vote to kill Medicare. Greg Brower, Brian Krolicki, Mark Amodei and other assorted potential CD2 wannabes would have to discuss that cornerstone of contemporary Republicanism, even if Angle hogs the spotlight. Yet with Angle screeching about guns, god and other goofiness, the race would ultimately be about her.

The proposed elimination of Medicare gives Democrats something big to be against. That’s probably about as good as it’s going to get, agenda-wise, for customarily spineless Democrats, and a special election should be a fine opportunity to take it out for a spin in a ruby red district, open it up and see how it does.

Voters need a real choice.  They need to see someone willing to take it to the Republicans, not another faded-out version of a Republican. Harry Truman was right.

The conventional wisdom is that a “real” Democrat/Liberal/Progressive doesn’t stand a chance in CD-2.  I wouldn’t know. We’ve never had the opportunity to really hear from one.

Nevada races I watched…

Well, such is the nature of Nevada politics that on the Rep side, the GOP nominated the most wild-eyed winger of them all to face Harry Reid in November, and on the Dem side, a great woman was nominated to run against the current Republican Lt. Governor (eat your heart out MZ).

Harry, I hope you are paying attention. 25% of your party did not support you in yesterday’s primary. Hell, more than 10% chose None of the Above. In the primary! And Harry, the answer is NOT to tack further to the right, got that? I’m sure you’d like to think that the Tea Party just clinched your re-election, but as radical as Sharron Angle is, I put nothing past the Nevada electorate. Nothing. Start talking some populist smack and really back your words up with action in the Senate, or you may be retiring to Searchlight come November.

In the NV-02 race (no Dem has ever won that district) an activist Democratic woman appears to have pulled it off against her RINO opponent. The third person in the race is a local crank, and surprisingly, he got 10% of the vote. Sam Dehne is certifiable. And he got 10%. The NV-02 Dem primary was a nail biter all night, and when I went to be the RINO had jumped ahead. This morning, it’s Nancy Price in the lead. I assume the closeness of the vote will trigger an automatic recount. Under 1% and it is supposed to happen. I don’t know if the absentees have been counted yet.

Joy of joys, Jim Gibbons went down to humiliating defeat. Doing the happy dance. Brian Sandoval (R) will face Rory Reid (D) in the general. While I support Rory, Brian Sandoval is not the wild-eyed radical the shadow group Don’t Bet on Sandoval makes him out to be. Jeebus on a triscuit, I keep getting their emails which allow me no way to “opt out” – nor is there any way to contact them via their web site. Rory needs to publicly distance himself from this group, but my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. If Brian wins, I won’t be as crushed as I was when the empty suit, the Man With No Plan, Jim Gibbons, whose re-election campaign motto was He kept his promise, beat out Dina Titus in 2006.

Locally, it appears that our Lyon County Sheriff, Allen Veil, will not have to face an opponent in the General Election. With 53.6% of the vote in a non-partisan race, he has been re-elected. Good.

A tale of two Democrats

Rory Reid - A man with a plan.

Ken McKenna - A man with a lot of words, but no plan. In fact, his website is a joke and his billboards embarass me. His billboards consist of a picture of McKenna and his wife with the nonsensical statement: “Say NO to taxes.” What the … ? He is supposedly running as a Democrat for NV-02, a formidable task, most assuredly. But dude, the idea is to differentiate yourself from the Republican, not sound just like him.

And yeah, I’ll be re-registering as a Democrat in time for the primary.

Cindy Trigg ends bid for Congress

From my inbox:

Dear Family, Friends and Supporters:

As of today, I am ending my campaign for Congress.  This decision came after a sudden series of unforeseen professional obligations that required and will continue to require more of my attention than a campaign for Congress will allow.  As long as I sit on the School Board Trustees, school board responsibilities are my priority, issues affecting our children in Douglas County, advocating for our parents will continue to be and always be my first priority.

While I believe that Dean Heller can be defeated next year, I cannot dedicate the time required to mount a winning campaign.  I stand ready to assist the Democratic nominee in 2010 in pushing a message that Democrats are the party of job creation, economic recovery, healthcare reform, energy independence and most importantly to me education reform. 

I would like to thank all the wonderful people who contributed and supported my short campaign.  I am forever grateful to all of you. I hope to continue to work with you as I still believe together we can make a difference and bring about change to the citizens of the 2nd congressional District.
 
Sincerely,

Cindy Olivas Trigg

 

The Rise of Independents

I read a comment out in the blogosphere that indicated that independent voters are the fastest growing voter segment in the country. I went looking for evidence to back that up but couldn’t find any national numbers to verify the commenter’s assertion, so I decided to look a little closer to home. 

If the registration numbers from Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District are any indication of what’s happening in the rest of the country, it appears that many of us are getting fed up with both major parties.   I made a quick visit to the Nevada Secretary of State’s web site and pulled the latest voter registration numbers (May 2009) and compared them to registration totals at the end of the registration period for the November 2008 General Election.  I was pretty startled.  Total registration in NV-02 is up just 381 voters, but the shift in affiliation is striking.  Even more striking is that this change has happened during the slow months following a major election when most people don’t even want to think about politics, let alone make the effort to change their voter registration.

Having done a fair amount of voter registration over the last five years, I know that many people who wish to register as “Independent” or “unaffiliated” choose either Non-Partisan or check off “Independent American”  on the Nevada Voter Registration form, not realizing that IA is an actual political party (see also: IAP of NV) and probably not what most of them had in mind when they chose their party affiliation.

Butt Out, Brian

Steve Sebelius:

And, not for nothing, but we think it’s totally ass (as the young people say) for the guy in charge of electing Democrats to governors mansions nationwide to come out and favor one candidate over another more than a year before the primary election is even held. It smacks of intimidation, of good old boy, backroom politics. And we’re not sure how they do things up in Montana, but here in Nevada, voters tend not to like that kind of thing. Especially Democratic primary voters. Just ask U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, who enjoyed their generous support in 2006.

So, Gov. Schweitzer, with all due respect, drop your money on the tables and then fly back to Montana. We’ll call you next year, once we’ve decided who best to defeat the Republican nominee, OK? And then we expect you to make with the campaign cash — regardless of who we pick, even if it’s not the candidate you like — because, well, that’s your job.

Spot on. I like Brian Schweitzer. I think he’s doing a bang-up job in Montana, but like Sebelius, I’m shocked that the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association would publicly support one Democratic gubernatorial candidate over another, even though he is mandated to remain neutral. Go read Molly Ball’s article. It’s stunning what he admits to. If this is the road he wants to go down, then he needs to step down from the chairmanship. As in: right now.

On another note, further into Molly’s article linked above we find this little gem:

Jack Schofield, a member of the university system Board of Regents, has a Web site touting him as a 2010 congressional candidate.

The site, http://www.jack2010.com, touts a lifetime of experience for Schofield, 86, who was a fighter pilot in World War II. But it doesn’t say what seat in Congress he’s interested in.

Reached for comment, Schofield said the campaign is in the “making preparations” stage. A Democrat, he said he would run for the only Nevada congressional seat currently held by a Republican, the 2nd District, represented by Dean Heller.

Schofield doesn’t live in the 2nd District — he lives in Democrat Shelley Berkley’s 1st District — but that’s not a requirement. Another Democrat, Douglas County School Board President Cindy Trigg, has already announced a challenge to Heller.

It may not be a requirement, but we voters in CD-2 prefer to have our representative actually live in our district. We’re funny that way.

Cindy Trigg for NV-02, Campaign Kick-Off

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the campaign kick-off event for my good friend, Cindy Olivas Trigg, who has thrown her hat in the ring for NV-02.  The event was well attended and I had my video camera in hand.  This is a Republican dominated district, but I firmly believe that Cindy can win.

I’ve known and worked with Cindy for years. She is passionate about the working class, children, education, civil liberties, health care and veterans. I can say with no reservation:  Cindy is never is in it for herself.  I’ve seen her work on behalf of others to the point of exhaustion, yet the fire continues to burn and she continues to smile through it all. She will work for us in Washington.

Cindy needs our support now, both in time and treasure, so please click  here to donate at my ActBlue page (permalink in the sidebar) and start showing Cindy your support now. If you can’t swing a large donation, do like I did and set up a recurring monthly donation. You won’t even notice it come out of your account.  If you are interested in volunteering or attending any events, email me at bluelyonblog@gmail.com

Video of Cindy’s announcement speech (I am awaiting a transcript from the campaign and will post it as soon as I have it).

More shameless pitches for $$ – Alison Gaulden

Cindy Trigg for NV-2

I am so excited. My good pal and long-time Democratic Party activist, Cindy Trigg is throwing her hat in the ring to oppose Dean Heller in 2010!

I’ve known and worked alongside Cindy for years and a harder working soul you are not going to easily find. She will be an excellent voice for CD-2 and I am happy to do what I can to support her candidacy. I will be posting more as time goes on, but for now, if you’ve got a few extra dollars, please send some Cindy’s way at my ActBlue Fundraising page:

http://www.actblue.com/page/bluelyon

If you can’t afford a lump sum, consider doing a $5 or $10 recurring per month donation. Thanks so much!