|
RECALL FEVER: CATCH IT!
I’m about to do what “normal” people do this time of year:
take a break from politics and enjoy Christmas.
But before going, I know there are a lot of you out there
champing at the bit to recall Nevada Assembly Republican Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick for “pulling a Roberson”
and betraying the very conservatives who are responsible for him getting
elected in the first place.
So here’s some information about how to recall a state
legislator in Nevada…
According to Article 2, Section 9 of our state Constitution,
“Every public officer in the State of Nevada is subject to recall from office…”
That includes Mr. Hambrick.
To qualify a recall election, 25% of the number of voters
who voted in the November 2014 general election in Mr. Hambrick’s district must
sign a recall petition.
In Assembly District 2, the district Mr. Hambrick is
currently misrepresenting, 16,462 people voted in last month’s general
election.
That means to qualify to hold a special election to recall
Mr. Hambrick, 4,116 people need to sign a recall petition.
You folks should be able to get such a small amount in your
sleep!
THE RECALL COMMITTEE
But before you can begin collecting signatures, a “Recall
Committee” must be formed.
The Recall Committee must consist of “three registered
voters who actually voted (in Hambrick’s district) at the last preceding
general election.”
Now this is important…
While ANY registered voter in the district will be
able to sign the recall petition, and if the recall election qualifies and is
held, ANY registered voter in the district will be able to vote in the
special election, in order to be one of the three members of the official
Recall Committee…
You MUST have voted in the November 2014 in Assembly
District 2.
Got it?
OK, once a Recall Committee is formed, an official recall
petition will be drafted – including the wording explaining why a recall of Mr.
Hambrick is justified.
“The dirty, rotten skunk betrayed us” is probably
sufficient, but we’ll work on more flowery language.
WHEN TO DROP THE BOMB
According to Section 2, Article 9 of our state Constitution,
a recall effort against a Nevada state legislator cannot officially begin until
“ten days from the beginning of the first session after his election.”
The next session of the Nevada State Legislature isn’t scheduled
to begin until February 2, 2015. That
means the recall effort cannot officially commence until February 12, 2015.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t start organizing NOW.
We can start identifying people in the district who say they
will sign the petition, and we can start recruiting volunteers to gather those signatures
as soon as D-Day arrives.
Now once D-Day arrives and the official “notice of intent”
to recall Hambrick is filed with the Clark County Elections Department, the
signatures of those requesting the recall must be submitted “within 90 days
after the date on which the notice of intent was filed.”
After the signatures are submitted, the Secretary of State’s
office must verify “that the number of signatures on a petition to recall is
sufficient” and notify the Clark County Clerk and the Clark County Elections
Department.
Then…
I love that part: “The people”!
THE COURT CHALLENGE
Naturally, as soon as the signatures are submitted, Hambrick’s
attorney will challenge the petition in district court.
By law, that challenge must be filed “not later than 5 days,
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays excluded, after the Secretary of State
completes the notification” to the county clerk and elections department.
Once filed, “The court shall set the matter for hearing not
later than 30 days after the complaint is filed and shall give priority to such
a complaint over all other matters pending with the court, except for criminal
proceedings.”
This is important.
Because Hambrick obviously would LOVE to stretch this recall
campaign out through a legal challenge until after the session is over and the damage
is done. Fortunately, state law will
prevent him from going into a “four corner stall.”
Now once the court challenge is over, “if the court
determines that the petition is sufficient, it shall order the officer with
whom the petition is filed to issue a call for a special election.”
That officer, in Hambrick’s case, will be the Clark County
Elections Department.
And according to Article 2, Section 9 of the Constitution, the
Election Department will then be required to hold the election “within 30 days
after the issuance of the call…to determine whether the people will recall said
officer.”
I love that part: “The people”!
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Organizing an official “Recall Hambrick” committee will be
easy.
In fact, if you live in Mr. Hambrick’s district, voted in
last month’s election, and would like to be considered as one of the three
people needed to form the official Recall Committee, just email me your full
name and address as it appears on your voter registration card and we’ll get
that part taken care of before Santa arrives tonight!
Email your information to chuck@chuckmuth.com
The hard part will be this…
If we file the recall petition on February 12 and take the
full 90 days allowed to gather the signatures, that will take us to May
12. And by the time the legal challenges
are finished, that would push us into June.
Then the special recall election wouldn’t take place until sometime in July.
After the tax-hiking session is already over.
So the only way to be sure the recall election takes place
in time to remove Hambrick from office before the really important votes are
cast in the final days of the session is to submit the signatures REALLY
FAST.
I mean, we need to gather and submit the signatures in a
matter of weeks, not months.
Like…two, three or four max if at all humanly possible.
And that’s going to require a very high level of
organization and advance planning. Which
is why I noted earlier that plans for any recall of any state legislator needs
to begin NOW, not in February.
Ideally, we’ll have the number of people willing to sign
such a recall petition identified before the session begins, and then once we
are able to legally and officially gather signatures, we just go out and get
them from people who have already said they’ll sign.
Make no mistake…this ain’t gonna be a walk in the park.
But with proper preparation and coordination, it’s
absolutely doable.
HAMBRICK’S NOT THE ONLY PROBLEM
While some discount the possibility of five or more
Republicans voting with the Democrats to make moderate, tax-hiking Assemblyman Paul Anderson the Speaker on February 2nd
- regardless of who the Republican Assembly Caucus ultimately chooses for that
position - it’s still a possibility.
But even if the collaborators don’t screw up enough nerve to
go forward with the “nuclear option,” we still have a huge problem on our hands
when it comes to the Mother of All Tax Hikes II that Gov. Brian Sandoval (R&R-Advertising) is about to drop on us.
Remember, Sandoval hid his plans for the coming billion
dollar tax hike during his re-election campaign.
He also never said whether or not he intended to again
pursue extending the $600 million-plus package of “temporary” tax hikes that
were supposed to expire/”sunset” in 2011 and 2013.
As such, candidates running for the Legislature were never
asked if they supported or opposed such tax hikes during their elections. Indeed, if they had been forced to declare
one way or the other whether or not they would vote for such tax hikes, their
elections may have turned out very differently.
Of course, that’s exactly why Sandoval kept his tax-hike
plans secret!
But now that we know – and Sandoval will make it official
next month – that a huge tax hike is coming, we need to figure out how to stop
it.
Forget the state Senate.
You have 10 Democrats there who will support any and all
proposals to increase taxes. And to get
the 2/3 necessary to approve a tax hike, Sandoval will need only 4 of the 11
Republicans to go along with it.
There are only 2 conservative Republicans in the Senate who
are likely to vote against the tax hike – Sens. Don Gustavson and James
Settelmeyer. So Sandoval’s Mother of
All Tax Hikes II will be approved in the Senate by a vote of 19-2.
That means the last line of defense for taxpayers will be in
the Assembly – just as it was in 2003 against then-Gov. Kenny Guinn’s Mother of All Tax Hikes I.
THE TAXPAYERS’ FIREWALL
There are 17 Democrats in the Assembly. Thanks to the 2/3-majority Gibbons Tax
Restraint Law, it will take 28 members of the Assembly to pass the Sandoval tax
hike. That means Sandoval and the
Democrats will need 11 Republicans to sell us out.
There are 25 elected Republicans in the Assembly. Right now, 9 have signed the Taxpayer
Protection Pledge and can be depended upon to oppose Sandoval’s tax hike.
Well, 8 actually.
Hambrick’s one of the 9 and he’s already said he’s only going to honor
his pledge “by and large” and is prepared to break his word to the voters of
his district and the people of Nevada.
I love that part: “The people.”
Anyway, we need 15 stand-up, fearless, principled,
fiscally-conservative GOP members of the Assembly to block the Sandoval tax
hike.
We have 8 Pledge signers.
And even though they haven’t signed the Pledge, I believe that
Assemblymen John Ellison and Ira Hansen, based on statements they’ve
already made, will not go along with the tax hike.
So we need 5 more.
And at this point, I don’t think we have them.
Indeed, in order to get them we probably need to recall some
RINOs in addition to recalling Hambrick before the end of the session in late
May/early June when the tax hike votes will take place.
So if you live in any of the following districts, you might
want to start planning a recall effort of your own…
Chris Edwards,
Assembly District 19
Signatures needed for recall: 3,266
Derek Armstrong,
Assembly District 21
Signatures needed for recall: 3,004
Stephen Silberkraus,
Assembly District 29
Signatures needed for recall: 3,412
Randy Kirner,
Assembly District 26
Signatures needed for recall: 5,163
Pat Hickey,
Assembly District 25
Signatures needed for recall: 5,631
Paul Anderson,
Assembly District 13
Signatures needed for recall: 3,805
James Oscarson,
Assembly District 36
Signatures needed for recall: 3,412
Lynn Stewart,
Assembly District 22
Signatures needed for recall: 3,971
Melissa Woodbury,
Assembly District 23
Signatures needed for recall: 4,410
Erv Nelson,
Assembly District 5:
Signatures needed for recall: 3,703
P.K. O’Neill,
Assembly District 40
Signatures needed for recall: 4,803
What? You’re not sure
which district you live in?
Well, they don’t call me Mr. Thoughtful for nothing!
Just click here
Then enter your full address – street, city and state – in the
“Enter an Address” box in the upper right corner of the webpage.
Then click on the blue dot that you’ll see indicating the
location of your residence on the map.
That will pull up the district number and name of your elected
representatives, including the State Assembly.
STEEP HILL’S WORTH CLIMBING
Now let’s be honest here…
The odds of successful recalls of these folks are long. But there are two very good reasons to do it
anyway...
1.) The very fact
that a recall effort was launched will be a powerful issue to use against them in
a 2016 GOP primary race, and...
2.) The organizing
effort itself will help identify supporters of a conservative GOP opponent and
give our team some “practice” leading up to the 2016 GOP primary race.
Think of these recall projects as “pre-season.”
Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines.
AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Chuck Muth
Nevada’s #1 Irritator of Liberals and RINOs (but I repeat
myself)
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"Dear John, I have already booked two days of vacation
from work on day 10 and 11 of the legislative session to walk the second assembly
district in Summerlin to collect the required signatures for your recall. I have 100% confidence that you will be
recalled. This means you will not be around for the end of the session when the
final votes happen, so you will not accomplish your goal.” – James
Grindstaff, Las Vegas, NV
“Dear John, You have
shown that you are not a leader and have never been a leader, Leaders do not cave in, period. You caved! Please resign from both the speaker ship and
your assembly district. We the people
will find a much better person to take your place. Resign, shut up, go away.” -
Rodney
Bloom, Reno, NV
“Mr. Hambrick, Please step down as Speaker of the Nevada
State Assembly. Your tortured and twisted treatment of Assemblywomen Fiore and
Seaman are beyond the pale, and show you no longer should be trusted with intellectual
nor moral leadership. Nevada taxpayers deserve and have voted for better.” - Ralph
R. Sacrison, Elko, NV
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