It was Assemblywoman Debbie Smith - serving as an alternate for Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson - who voted last Thursday to screw Nevada’s small home-based businesses by going along with Secretary of State Ross Miller’s scheme to repeal, by fiat, their exemption to the state’s business license fine..er, penalty…er, fee, not, as I reported on Friday, Benetiz-Thompson.
We regret the error (made by voters in electing both of these women).
THE BEERS SMEAR AND A DEBATE DUCK
KDWN 720 AM talk-show host Alan Stock will host a debate tonight featuring the candidates for the special election for the vacant Ward 2 Las Vegas city council seat. Conservative mensch Bob Beers will be there. So will all of the other candidates…except one:
The real estate developer trying to “juice” himself into it: Ric Truesdell.
SIDENOTE: For the record: There is only one Republican on the Las Vegas City Council, and no Republicans on the Clark County Commission. So if you want to know why things are so screwed up in the valley – crime, traffic, air quality, congestions, economic recession, unemployment, foreclosures, education, etc. – well, just take a look at whose policies and ideas have been implemented over the last few years.
Beers - a proven, solid fiscal conservative Republican - is just what the doctor ordered. His signature issue while in the Nevada Legislature was an effort to – get this – cap the amount of money the government could spend at the rate of inflation plus population growth. Go figure.
For which Mr. Truesdell recently called former Sen. Beers “a partisan hack” with political views “far outside the mainstream.”
Yeah…if by “mainstream” you mean far left!
So one has to wonder…if fiscally conservative views – low taxes, limited government spending – are “outside the mainstream,” exactly what political view DOES Mr. Truesdell consider “mainstream”? To answer that question, let us consider the old saying that “you’re known by the company you keep.”
Or hire.
Mr. Truesdell’s campaign manager is Steve Redlinger…and here’s what conservatives and Republicans should know about the man running Mr. Truesdell’s race (from a March 2008 story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal):
“Alison Schwartz, Steve Redlinger and Dylan Shaver -- have come together, joining their complementary skills in a consulting firm called Sagebrush Nevada. The firm will be a general public affairs and marketing shop.
“Schwartz, a former executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party, was political director of Barack Obama's campaign in Nevada. Redlinger, who is married to Schwartz, did some fundraising for Obama and for a number of Democratic candidates in the 2006 election cycle, including County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani and state Treasurer Kate Marshall.”
Ah-hah!
So now we know why Mr. Truesdell would call the Honorable Bob Beers a “partisan hack” with views “outside the mainstream.” It’s because the partisan hack he’s hired to run his race is an extreme liberal who represents the very public policies that’ve been killing southern Nevada’s economy.
A separate point here: On Saturday, candidates interviewed with Veterans in Politics (VIP) for that organization’s endorsement.
First, VIP reports that Mr. Truesdell showed up late because his “campaign manager indicated that Mr. Truesdell had a prior event.” Alas, that apparently was a fib by Mr. Redlinger, because when “Mr. Truesdell showed up he was in a campaign T-Shirt and made reference that he was walking the ward.”
Why tell a lie when the truth would have been a perfectly acceptable defense, Mr. Redlinger?
Secondly, VIP member “Ronda Baldwin-Kennedy asked Ric Truesdell if he could name any Las Vegas citizen that he sided with over a Land Developer while being a member of the Planning Commission.”
Reportedly, Mr. Truesdell started rattling off some names - leading Sen. Beers to expose the fact that “some of those private citizens have funded Mr. Truesdell’s campaign.” Oops.
In addition, another VIP member, Roberta Boyers, added that “Mr. Truesdell, as a member of the Planning Commission, has never met with any home owners associations that she is a member of within Ward 2”.
Hmm.
On the other hand, as conservative blogger Ron Futrell pointed out this weekend, “Bob Beers has been endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce, the NRA, the Las Vegas Review Journal, and the local Firefighters Union.”
Indeed, the firefighters union - which usually endorses Democrats - had this to say:
"Mr. Beers is an advocate for limiting spending. That's what we need at the local level. We need somebody there to look at the finances of the city.”
Whoa! By extension, that means Mr. Truesdell has declared that Las Vegas firefighters are “partisan hacks” and “outside the mainstream.”
Why is Steve Redlinger’s candidate attacking firefighters and fiscal responsibility? And why won’t he appear at tonight’s debate and answer legitimate questions from the voters of Ward 2 about this - as well as address the obvious and legitimate concerns that he’s in the pocket of big land developers?
Bob Beers, on the other hand, will be at the debate and is “direct and open about his plan for Las Vegas,” Futrell wrote yesterday. “He welcomes anyone to call him on his cell phone and ask away! (702) 592-8822. How many politicians do you know who will do that?”
How many, indeed. Certainly not Ric Truesdell. Here’s how I know.
First, Mr. Truesdell – whom I do not know and never met - called me directly on the morning of February 22 asking for my support…so I know he knows how to use a phone, as well as what my phone number is.
Now, last Thursday afternoon, I emailed Mr. Truesdell through his campaign website (and left him a voicemail at the number listed there) asking to discuss privately a matter involving his campaign manager – who had gone a little nutso, bordering on “postal,” over a campaign issue and was acting like a real ass-clown. I’d hoped that Mr. Truesdell would intervene, call off his dog, and resolve the matter quickly and privately.
The next morning, I received an email response – not from Mr. Truesdell, but from Redlinger. “Ric has an interview this morning……how can I help you?”
“You can’t,” I wrote back. “Need to speak with Ric. He can give me a shout after his interview.”
To which Redlinger responded, “I’ll pencil you in for a call around 9:00 am on the 21st of march…..will you be available at that time?”
What? Almost two weeks?!! The man can’t find time to talk to someone about his campaign – someone he called to seek an endorsement from – for TWO WEEKS?!!
Oh, yeah. This guy’ll be responsive to his constituents.
Not.
Now, just in case you might be thinking that maybe Mr. Truesdell never got my original message; that maybe Redlinger intercepted it and never passed it on to his candidate - not.
On Friday morning, Mr. Truesdell himself emailed me: “I'm tied up this morning please give my campaign manager a call at 271-5248., thank you.”
To which I responded: “Call me when you’re not tied up. Mr. Redlinger is the problem I’d like to discuss with you, directly and privately.” I also wrote that if he preferred we discuss this matter through an intermediary who we both know and trust, that would be fine.
No response.
So I gave him another chance early yesterday morning, still hoping to resolve the situation privately.
“I’m off to the NASCAR race with my boy this morning, but will be back late afternoon,” I wrote in a follow-up email. “You can try calling me on my cell during the day, but there’s a good chance I won’t be able to hear a thing. Or shoot me a number and times when you’ll be available tonight to chat and I’ll call when I get home.”
No call. No email. No good.
If this is how badly Mr. Truesdell handles business on the campaign trail, I can only imagine how badly he’d handle the people’s business on the city council. Maybe the voters of Ward 2 should just stick with the “partisan hack” who’s been endorsed by the firefighters?
(For the record, I am a longtime friend and political ally of Bob Beers; however, I have not made an endorsement in this race, nor am I an adviser, paid or unpaid, on Mr. Beers' campaign.)
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“More than half of (Ric) Truesdell’s $100,000 came from three sources. The Binion family, lobbyist Jay Brown and attorney Will Kemp were responsible for $50,000 out of the just under $100,000 developer Ric Truesdell raised for that special Las Vegas council election, disclosures show. . . . The rest of the money generally came from City Council insiders…and other developers and supplicants.” – RalstonFlash, 3/8/12
UPCOMING EVENTS
- March 5-16: Candidate filing in Nevada
- March 10: Clark County Republican Party Convention
- March 15: Third Thursday center-right coalition Leadership Lunch (invitation only)
- March 23-25: Republican Jewish Coalition conference at the Venetian
- March 24: Monster Truck Finals, Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, Las Vegas
- March 28: Las Vegas Valley Tea Party, Tommy Rockers, 6-8
- April 1: Wrestlemania XXVIII
- May 2: Campaign Training Seminar, Libertarian Party National Convention at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada
- May 3-6: Libertarian Party national convention at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, NV
- May 4-5: Nevada Republican Party state convention a the Nugget in Sparks, NV
- June 8-10: 2012 Conservative Leadership Conference in Las Vegas
- June 12: Nevada Primary Election
- July 11-14: Freedom-Fest at Bally’s in Las Vegas
- August 27-30: Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida
- November 6: General Election
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