First, Republican State Sen. Elizabeth Halseth (R-Las Vegas) quit under pressure last month thanks to a messy divorce of her own making.
That was followed almost immediately by the Senate Republican Caucus announcing it already had a replacement candidate for the newly created vacancy, Dr. Vick Gill, and endorsed him.
Then this morning, Mari Nakashima St. Martin – who has worked for the Nevada GOP, Rep. Joe Heck and Sen. Dean Heller - announced her Republican candidacy for the seat.
Less than a half-hour later, Gill dropped out without explanation.
Hmm. The back story on this one oughta be good.
HAMBRICK TO SEEK THIRD TERM
Conservative Assemblyman John Hambrick (R-Las Vegas) announced today that he is running for a third term in the 2nd District. Hambrick earned a 72% score (fourth highest) in Citizen Outreach’s ratings of the 2011 Legislature, is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and voted against the $620 million tax hike in the last session. We need more like him.
THIS IS JUST SICK
“Since (Clark) county officials began questioning firefighters’ use of sick leave two years ago, sick-leave requests in the Clark County Fire Department have fallen by 57,000 hours,” Joe Schoenmann wrote for the Las Vegas Sun last week.
“A county report obtained in response to a Sun request found that within those 57,000 hours, battalion chiefs’ sick leave fell from an average of 164 hours a year two years ago to about 16 hours last year, a 90 percent decline. For rank-and-file firefighters, the average hours of sick leave taken fell from 227 hours two years ago to 136 hours last year, a 40 percent drop.”
In other words, county firefighters were hosing taxpayers big time. As County Commissioner Steve Sisolak noted in the story: “This just goes to show that the abuse was even greater than I anticipated, especially with battalion chiefs.”
But don’t dare say anything, folks, or they might threaten not to come put the fire out if your house is burning. The union is pretty shameless about making outrageous veiled (and not-so-veiled) threats like that.
ABOUT REPLACING THE CAUCUS WITH A PRIMARY
The following is exerpted from a column by our friend Rich Galen of Mullings.com on Virginia’s upcoming primary which will feature nothing but a choice in the GOP presidential nominating contest between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul:
“In most cases only registered Republicans can actually vote, but Democrats and Independents, citizens and non-citizens, likely voters and people who have never darkened the door of a precinct polling place all get to participate. How?
“Public tax money is used to fund this most partisan of activities so everyone who pays taxes gets to help Republicans choose their nominee.
“I called my friend Alex Vogel and asked him if he would ask his wife, State Senator Jill Vogel (R-27th) if she could find out how much the primary election was going to cost the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He did, and she did.
“St. Sen. Vogel had a member of her staff contact the State Board of Elections and the answer to my question was: The cost of the GOP Primary is over 3 million dollars. Whoa! Check please!
“By my count 14 states have caucuses which, by their nature, don't require the transport and set up of voting machines, nor the deployment of thousands of paid poll workers. That leaves 36 states which have primaries.
“At $3 million a pop that's $108 million dollars (assuming small states balance out California, Texas and New York) that all taxpayers have to chip in to help one political party chose its nominee. It's not like states are rolling in extra money just looking for things to spend it on.”
Exactly. Got it, Nevada Republicans?
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
* An interim legislative sub-committee made up of 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans this week will approve a push by Democrat Secretary of State Ross Miller to repeal an exemption to the state’s $200 business licensing fee for small, home-based businesses – which was doubled in 2009, supposedly for just two years, and then extended for an additional two years in 2011.
Instead of trying to screw small, home-based businesses, Miller and the Democrats should be trying to repeal the biz license fee altogether – if they were really interested in stimulating the economy and creating jobs, that is.
* Steve “Master &” Commander has moved from being bounced as head honcho of a local Las Vegas tea party group to giving investment advice. “A New Sun City Investment Club is being established,” Master & Commander wrote in an email on Friday. “If you would like to be a member and partake in ALL the valuable information that will be provided by expert speakers kindly respond to this email.”
I’m guessing the club is going to be about as successful as his “tell all” book about the Sharron Angle campaign that no one read.
ALL THE RIGHT MOVES
Iraq War Veteran Wes Duncan announced his candidacy for Assembly District 37 today. Duncan served on active duty in the United States Air Force as a JAG attorney for 4 1/2 years and is currently a Captain in the Air Force Reserve.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“The truth is, this issue (Koran burnings) is being used by our enemies, and I think we don't have the nerve to stand up to them and describe it for what it is. And I think this is a huge problem for us, because it puts us in a position again and again and again of apologizing, which is something this president has done all around the world. And I think it's wrong. I think America in fact has been trying to help the people of Afghanistan. And if they don't believe us, I don't think we need to be there having them try to kill us.” – Newt Gingrich on “This Week”
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