NEVADA NEWS & VIEWS 02/04/2015

New Citizen’s Committee formed to recall Edwards

February 3, 2015
By Stephanie Frehner
MESQUITE LOCAL NEWS

Assemblyman Chris Edwards (Assembly District 19) has been in the news this past week over reports of extortion investigations. His recent actions as the legislature prepared to go back to session have also triggered some of Mesquite’s residents to take action in beginning a recall of his position.

In a press release Monday, three local residents, David Ballweg, Kathleen Williams and Pamela Gillick have formed a Committee for Political Action  (PAC) to explore the recall of Edwards due to his failure to answer questions about the current proposed tax increase by Governor Brian Sandoval as well as not signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

According to committee director David Ballweg, “The PAC had to be filed for us to organize and start the process. The actual recall filing has not been made and cannot be made until 10 days after the session starts. The motivation for getting the PAC started was because Edwards was not being responsive to our inquiries. I was not going to sit by during another legislative session hoping for the right outcome. About 80% of the Chris Edwards Assembly District 19 voted against the Margins Tax in the election, I was not going to be silent when the same tax was going to be slipped in the backdoor in a new State Business License tax.”

The proposed tax mentioned is a new push for Governor Sandoval to raise nearly $4 billion to repair the deteriorating education system Nevada has developed into, bringing it to one of the worst in the country according to multiple studies over the past few years. Since the Margins Tax was defeated by a 78.74% vote of Nevada residents last November, the Governor is seeking other ways to fund an increased spending budget set for the school systems in the state.

Edwards’ campaign had made it clear throughout last year on his website that he was adamantly against the raising of taxes, stating that “the Nevada Legislature has looked for ways to increase taxes on out-of-work Nevadan’s. This is the wrong approach”. The PAC states that his actions now, since he has been elected, are severely contradictory to his position that may have won him the election.

While Ballweg stated to the MLN that the current extortion investigations have no bearing or relation to the PAC and their explorations to recalling Edwards from the Assembly, it is clear that the American people, and Nevada’s residents, are done with being misled with broken promises.

As of Tuesday morning, Edwards was unavailable for comment to the MLN and his voicemail was full.