|
DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS
Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Glen Cook reminds us today that Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval once said that if he had
a GOP state Senate and Assembly, he would pursue the same kind of bold,
aggressive agenda that Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker has pursued.
Well, I guess we’ll find out if he’s as good as his word
this time soon enough.
I know it was to be expected, but I still find it funny
watching the Nevada GOP establishment’s political consultants taking credit for
election victories that had everything to do with the unprecedented low voter
turnout among Democrats and absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their
supposed brilliant “strategery.”
Indeed, the ONLY credit for the GOP’s surprising abundance
of victories goes to Republican candidates who put their names on the ballot despite being given little or no chance
of winning - including attorney general candidate Adam Laxalt (everyone *knew* he couldn’t beat Ross Miller, remember?) and assembly candidates Jill Dickman, Vicki Dooling, Brent Jones,
Victoria Seaman, Shelly Shelton, John Moore, David Gardner
and Derek Armstrong.
Nevada Republicans were 20 years late to 1994’s “Contract
with America” party in which the GOP achieved an historic and unexpected
majority in the legislative lower house.
But unlike Newt Gingrich’s
House of Representatives in ’94, Nevada Assembly Republicans not only won a
majority this year, but conservatives won a majority of the majority.
The election to oust former Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey initially broke down to 15
conservatives vs. 10 moderates – with a couple of moderates harboring conservative
leanings but who had sold out their philosophical souls to the “establishment”
for various amounts of magic beans.
So there will be no excuse if Assembly Republicans don’t
propose and pass an extremely bold, conservative legislative agenda next year,
especially additional tax-and-spending restraint measures (Bob Beers’ TASC) and universal school vouchers (Ed Goedhart’s EIEIO).
And no, the state Constitution does NOT have to be amended
to make Nevada the Voucher Capital of America.
Just ask former gubernatorial General Counsel Scott Scherer.
Republicans should also put forward a Constitutional
amendment extending the state’s 2/3 super-majority requirement for passage of
tax hikes to ballot initiatives. That’s
the loophole liberals tried to use with their so-called Education Initiative
this year. Time to close it.
By the way, there is a HUGE hole in Nevada’s budget
that almost no one is talking about…yet.
It’s been created primarily thanks to Gov. Brian Sandoval’s decision to expand Medicaid as part of his embrace
of ObamaCare. That ill-considered
decision needs to be fixed – at the very least by implementing a co-pay requirement
for recipients.
Two other pieces of advice for legislative Republicans:
a.) Dust off your copies of Bruce James’ SAGE Commission report, or see if you can pick up a copy on eBay, and…
It will be interesting to see if Senate Majority Leader
Moderate Mike Roberson kills the
Assembly’s conservative agenda the way then-U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole killed the House conservatives’
agenda in ’95.
Organizers of a petition drive to make marijuana legal in
Nevada for recreational use say they have almost twice the number of signatures
needed to qualify the measure for the 2016 ballot – where it will surely pass
overwhelmingly. The 2015 Legislature
should see the writing on the wall and just go ahead and pass it themselves and
get the tax revenue rolling in much sooner.
Speaking of 1994, following the GOP takeover of the House,
Republicans were extremely successful nationwide in getting Democrats to switch
parties – including here in Nevada where then-Nevada GOP executive director Dan Burdish oversaw a voter
registration program that resulted in Republicans becoming the majority party
for the first time since Reconstruction.
That same opportunity now presents itself again – but this
time the focus should be on winning back the trust and registration of
disaffected conservatives who for the last ten years have been abandoning the
GOP for “independent” status.
Word on the Street: Front-runner to replace Lieutenant Governor-elect
Mark Hutchison for his
soon-to-be-vacant state Senate seat is former State Sen. Ray Rawson.
The fix is rumored to be in for UNLV’s new university
president. Regent Cedric Crear, who happens to be black, is pushing the promotion of
UNLV Provost John White - who
ironically, but surely not coincidentally, is also black – for the top job. Will University Regents get trumped by the
race card and suckered into another affirmative action hire? You can probably make book on it.
REMINDER: VOTE TODAY IN $100,000 TEACHER CHALLENGE
Remember, you can (and should, please) vote every day for
Brenda Moynihan in her
effort to secure a $100,000 grant for C.T. Sewell Elementary School in
Henderson.
CLICK HERE to vote. And remember, you can vote every day until
the deadline on November 30th.
You know, just like in Chicago elections!
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Nov. 4 was a national vote of no confidence in Barack
Obama. Had a British prime minister
received a vote like this, he would have resigned by now.” – Columnist
Pat Buchanan
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
Silver State
Confidential is an email newsletter on Nevada politics, public policy and
current events published (usually) daily by Chuck Muth, Nevada's #1 Renegade
Conservative and the man voted "Most Likely to Irritate Liberals!" Click on the link below for subscription
information…
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment