In the Elko Daily Free Press on January 28, policy proposals via op-ed from U.S. Senate candidate John Chachas. He talked about all of them in his January interview with me, but the piece is a bit more concise if you want to take a look.
Archive for February 12th, 2010
Chachas OpEd: A Plan for Economic Recovery for Nevada
By Elizabeth Crum | 5:39 pm February 12th, 2010Governor Will Sign Proclamation Calling for Special Session
By Elizabeth Crum | 5:26 pm February 12th, 2010From the governor’s office to my Inbox at 5:13 p.m.:
M E D I A A D V I S O R Y
Carson City – On Tuesday February 16, 2010, Governor Jim Gibbons will sign the proclamation calling for Special Session of the Nevada Legislature. The proclamation will contain the specific matters the Nevada Legislature may consider when they meet in special session beginning on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. News media are welcome to photograph/videotape the signing and ask questions of the Governor and staff.
WHO: Governor Jim Gibbons, staff
WHAT: Signing of proclamation calling for a Special Session of the Nevada Legislature
WHERE: Governor’s Office, Capitol Building, Carson City, Nevada
WHEN: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 10:30 AM
So the Gibbons fundraiser on the 17th will have to be canceled. Maybe he’s had enough of folks accusing him of deliberately holding up the proclamation so he could keep raising money for his campaign.
ProgressNow Nevada Circulating “Save Our State” Petition
By Elizabeth Crum | 5:16 pm February 12th, 2010While we’re putting citizen eyes on petitions (I will now prepare for my Inbox to be flooded with petitions of all kinds), here’s another one. Here’s the text:
We the undersigned citizens of Nevada believe that these sensible and fair solutions that combine minor cuts with new revenue should be adopted first to help balance the state budget:
Lawmakers must — shuffle available funds to fill the hole ($150 million one-time as outlined by Speaker Buckley).
Lawmakers must — eliminate statutory deductions the mining industry uses to avoid paying its fair share. ($150 million annually).
Lawmakers must — implement a state activity tax of .50 percent on all businesses earning more than $350,000. This will exempt most small businesses in the state (estimated $500 million annually).
Lawmakers must — cut the remaining $82 million in expenditures with the care of surgeons. We urge no layoffs of state employees or teachers. We support shortening the school year or adding an additional furlough day to achieve this cut.
PLAN Circulating Petition re: Mining Taxes
By Elizabeth Crum | 5:12 pm February 12th, 2010The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada has a new website called Nevadans for Fair Mining Taxes. Includes a petition, a call for volunteers, donations, and sign up for action alerts. Explains itself thusly:
Nevadans for Fair Mining Taxes is a coalition dedicated to ensuring a stable and equitable revenue source for our state by undoing antebellum Constitutional provisions which allow the mining industry to evade paying its fair share of taxes.
If you think the mining companies are under-taxed or are just curious, go check it out.
San Fran Liberals to Protest Outside Harry Reid Fundraiser
By Elizabeth Crum | 3:39 pm February 12th, 2010So says Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle politics blog today:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is facing some serious re-election trouble in Nevada this year, with everybody from the Tea Party to the RNC targeting him for a takedown.
So what do Dems do when they’re in trouble? They come to the warm bosom and 24/7 ATM that is California’s liberal coast. First stop for Harry: A Monday night soiree ($2,400 a pop suggested) at the home of George and Judy Marcus. On Tuesday morning, Reid’s pockets will be stuffed at an 8 a.m. fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel thrown by Joseph Alioto (son of the former SF mayor). (H/t to the Sunlight Foundation for the par-tay tip.)
The Senator best be careful because that bosom may be colder than a witch’s. Looks like the progressive activists from San Francisco’s CREDO Mobile are doing a Facebook shout-out to see what message Reid should hear from progressives who will be waiting to greet him here.
Garofoli’s post includes examples of some not-very-nice sign suggestions from the CREDO FB page (go read them if you wish) and then adds:
Welcome to San Francisco, Senator.
But don’t feel too bad for the Maj Leader. In this election cycle he has raised almost as much in California as he has in his home state, according to our pals at the Center for Responsive Politics, (h/t California Watch).
Personhood Appeal Filed with Nevada Supreme Court
By Elizabeth Crum | 3:21 pm February 12th, 2010NewsReview.com has a post on the appeal of the petition that was overturned by a District Judge in early January.
Reid Announces, Berkley and Titus Applaud Funding for Health Care Jobs Training
By Elizabeth Crum | 3:02 pm February 12th, 2010KOLOTV.com has the AP story on some stimulus money announced today. HHS will get just over $6 million, the NV Cancer Institute will get a touch over $3 million and HealthInsight of Nevada and Utah will get nearly $7 million. Training will happen via community college nursing, lab tech and health IT programs to prepare unemployed and displaced workers for jobs.
Made me think of Janice Conway-Klassen, director of the Clinical Lab Sciences program at UNLV, who was on Ralston’s Face to Face yesterday. She said her department runs on a budget of only $12K but might be shut down due to higher education cuts.
Klassen reminded viewers that 70% of a doctor’s diagnostic decisions are based on lab results so it is a crucial health care field. She typically trains 1o to 15 students a year but this year the program has 20, and she said her program’s job placement stats are 100% within 3 months of graduation (stellar) because there are typically 20 to 30 vacancies for these kinds of jobs in the state at any given time.
I wonder if any of this stimulus money will (or could) “trickle down” to Klassen’s program? I’ve got a call in to her office and will update if I hear back.
Latest Cuts From Governor’s Office
By Elizabeth Crum | 2:31 pm February 12th, 2010Ralston just posted a spreadsheet from the statehouse showing how Team Gibbons gets to within $237M of the target cuts. IF all cuts were accepted, but (Ralston says) the Dems don’t like about $160M of ‘em so that really leaves $397M to go.
RGJ: Sandvoal ramps up campaign at Latino Lion’s Club
By Elizabeth Crum | 1:12 pm February 12th, 2010Saw the headline yesterday but just read Anjeanette’s Sandoval piece now. Some snippets, starting with a blurb from his speech:
“They discouraged me from running (for the state Assembly) because they felt a Hispanic could not win a district that was 99 percent Caucasian,” Sandoval said of his first race, which he won with more than 80 percent of the vote. “When I ran for attorney general, no Hispanic had been elected to statewide office in Nevada. But I decided it was very important that I take that challenge.”
If he wins this year, he would become the first Hispanic Nevada governor.
And:
Sandoval was asked about immigration reform and side-stepped another question about whether undocumented immigrants should get driver’s licenses. Both are hot-button issues with staunch conservative primary voters.
“That’s a very very difficult issue and there are two arguments with regard to that,” Sandoval said about driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. “I need to learn more about it. I would be happy to sit down with you so I could learn the positives and what the advantages would be.”
Asked by a reporter later why he wouldn’t take sides on the issue, Sandoval said the law doesn’t allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses.
“So right now, I support what the law is,” he said.
And (oddly):
His late entry to the public speaking circuit perhaps was evident when a campaign staffer tried to tell a reporter his speech was off the record.
Silly staffer.
Tax Pledge Revisited
By Elizabeth Crum | 12:33 pm February 12th, 2010Chuck Muth, staunch fiscal conservative and Nevada’s steward of The Tax Pledge, today had this to say in response to statements in a Governor Gibbons’ fundraising email yesterday:
Meanwhile, in an email fundraising solicitation to supporters yesterday…Gov. Jim Gibbons said he promised not to raise taxes and that he kept that promise. The governor also wrote that the “liberal media (was) playing their deceptive game of lies” by pointing out that he initially included a $292 room tax hike in his 2009 budget, claiming the “tax increase was approved by voters in Clark County and Washoe County.”
Yikes! I guess I belong to the liberal media – because as much as it pains me to have to do so, I must be honest and call the governor on this (again).
First, the voters of NEVADA didn’t approve that tax hike because only the voters of three of Nevada’s seventeen counties got to vote on it – and one of those counties rejected it. Secondly, what the voters of Clark and Washoe voted on was an advisory question only; the actual initiative presented to the governor and legislators was never on the ballot and the wording was completely different.
Third, the promise the governor made to the people of Nevada, in writing, was to oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes. Putting a $292 million tax hike in your budget is proposing a tax hike, not opposing it….and letting it then become law without your signature sure as heck isn’t vetoing it.
Sorry, Governor. You were great on the tax issue most of the time, but you absolutely did fall off the wagon in this one instance. And that’s no liberal media conspiracy. It’s simply fact.
The uber-liberal Steve Sebelius over at SlashPolitics also mentioned this issue the other day, first quoting from the governor’s speech and then commenting:
The statement, tellingly, reads in parts like a campaign speech:
“Nevada government must reduce its spending. Just like everyone at home, the State of Nevada must live within its means,” Gibbons said. “The Democrat-controlled Legislature raised taxes and increased spending, while I stood by my promise to the voters by vetoing their higher taxes and spending. But they wouldn’t listen and now we have to endure the consequences of their actions.”
Technically, Gibbons didn’t stand by his promise entirely — he allowed the room tax increase for casinos in Clark and Washoe counties to go into effect without his signature.
Whether viewed from right or left, a fact is a fact. Gibbons did include a tax increase in his ’09 budget and allow a tax increase to go into effect, so in one instance he did not keep his pledge on taxes.
Finally: Nevada is Number One!
By Elizabeth Crum | 11:45 am February 12th, 2010In most dissatisfied residents, according to CNS News:
Bottom Ten States for Resident Satisfaction with Standard of Living
50-Nevada 69.0
49-Rhode Island 69.8
48-Michigan 70.1
47-Ohio 70.9
46-Georgia 71.0
45-Florida 71.2
44-Arkansas 71.4
43-South Carolina 71.4
42-West Virginia 71.6
41-Tennessee 71.6
Here are the states in which people are happier:
1-North Dakota 82.3
2-South Dakota 80.8
3-Alaska 80.4
4-Minnesota 79.4
5-Iowa 79.0
6-Nebraska 78.3
7-Montana 78.0
8-Idaho 77.6
9-Hawaii 77.4
10-New Mexico 77.4
Mike Wiley Drops Out of U.S. Senate Race
By Elizabeth Crum | 11:29 am February 12th, 2010I guess Wiley dropped out sometime yesterday, according to blogger Dullard Mush. I try to stay on top of all things political, Dear Readers, but I missed this one. With Kozak’s withdrawal and switch to AD-31 the other day, that reduces the field to…8. I think.
Update (2/13/10): Here’s the missive Wiley sent out at the time:
Update (2/15/09): If you did not click through to Wiley’s good-bye letter or Dullard Mush’s post, you missed the best part of the Wiley rant:
“My biggest mistake was thinking that the alleged ‘Conservative’ Radio Talk Show Hosts in Las Vegas and Reno would give everyone running an equal opportunity to meet the listeners and answer questions. I was wrong and many good conservative candidates could not get their message out because the local talk show hosts were playing G-d with the radio waves.”
I provide it here as an update because over the weekend Heidi Harris, KDWN’s first lady of conservative talk radio, emailed me with the following (amusing) statement:
”I soured on Mr. Wiley when he demanded to be on my show, accusing me of favoring certain candidates….the viable ones, I guess. When that didn’t work, he gave me an ultimatum. “I’ll give you until September 15th to have me on your show, or your NEVER will”.
Sadly, I had to pass on the Charming Mr. Wiley’s limited time offer. Seems to me that if you’re rude to the people who can provide you exposure that may help you get elected…how will you treat your constituents?”
Wiley says he will never run for office again, but I have a feeling we have not seen/heard the end of him.
You Know It’s a Slow News Day When…
By Elizabeth Crum | 11:15 am February 12th, 2010You announce that an ethnically-oriented Political Action Committee that corresponds with your ethnicity has endorsed you (as Danny Tarkanian’s campaign did today):
Here’s the ANC-PAC’s About blurb:
The ANC-PAC is a non-partisan federally registered political action committee established to support campaign committees for Members of Congress who share the values of the Armenian American community. The ANC-PAC is at the forefront of efforts to ensure that the voice of the Armenian American community is clearly heard in our nation’s capital. The ANC-PAC continues a century old tradition of Armenian American engagement on the public policy issues facing national political leaders, both in the U.S. Congress and the White House.
To be fair to the ANC-PAC, Tarkanian is bidding to become the first ever Armenian American elected to the US Senate, so it is exciting stuff — for them. And I can see how Danny Tarkanian would feel a sense of pride about it.
The country’s thus-far most successful Armenian politician is George Deukmejian, a former governor of California (1983-1991).
ANC-PAC also recently endorsed John McGoff in the Republican primary against incumbent Representative Dan Burton in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. Their press release calls Burton an “Armenian genocide denier.”
If you were not aware of it, the term “genocide” was first coined in reference to the plight of the 1 to 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred or marched to death by the Turkish government after World War I.
Las Vegas High School Students Walk Out to Protest Budget Cuts
By Elizabeth Crum | 8:17 am February 12th, 2010From the RJ:
Desert Oasis students walk out of class to protest budget cuts
About 400 to 500 students walked out of Desert Oasis High School between 8:05 and 8:35 a.m. Thursday to protest possible state budget cuts to education.
The students will not be punished, Clark County School District officials said. Students at the southwest valley school got permission from Principal Emil Wozniak before they walked out, officials said.
The school is located at 6600 W. Erie Ave., south of Blue Diamond Road and east of Rainbow Boulevard. Last year, the school had about 1,500 students.
The district has absorbed about $250 million in state budget cuts over the past three years.
It is preparing for a new round of budget cuts that may come out of a special session Gov. Jim Gibbons has called to make up an $881 million shortfall in the state budget.
#1: Expect more walkouts next week as other high school students get wind of this. Who’s gonna pass up the chance to get out of a class with no threat of punishment?
#2: Here’s the Rebel Yell piece and the LV Sun piece on the walkout at UNLV on Tuesday.
Obama to Visit Las Vegas Next Friday
By Elizabeth Crum | 8:00 am February 12th, 2010So reports Lisa Mascaro at the LV Sun. Says no fundraiser “specifically for Reid.”
Curious to see the nature and tone of the statements (especially: Oscar, Gibbons, Berkley, Reid) about the visit. Will post updates as I see ‘em.
