Blurbs, Links, News Clips & Snippets

CARSON CITY – A Las Vegas physician and small business owner today announced his GOP candidacy for Senate District 9, a seat formerly held by Republican Elizabeth Halseth, who resigned in mid-term last week for personal reasons.

Vick Gill is a managing partner of CVR Management, a privately held company that owns an ob/gyn practice and a farming operation. At CVR Management Gill employs over 65 workers.

Gill will try to hold on to the seat for state Senate Republicans, who are trying to regain the majority in the 21-member body for the 2013 legislative session. Democrats currently hold an 11-10 advantage.

Gill said he believes that with the current state (Continue reading…)

CARSON CITY – Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto today issued a legal opinion concluding that a $10 million Catalyst Fund created by the Legislature to help aid in business expansion and economic development does not violate the state constitution.

“The Nevada Constitution does not prohibit the state from disbursing Catalyst Fund money to regional development authorities that by definition must be local governments, or prohibit local governments from disbursing Catalyst Fund money to companies,” the opinion released today says.

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. / Nevada News Bureau file photo

The opinion, requested by Steve Hill, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, (Continue reading…)

CARSON CITY – Nevada state Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, announced today he will seek re-election to District 32 in the 2012 general election.

Under the new court-approved redistricting map, Hansen’s district is the largest in size in the Assembly, and includes Lander, Humboldt, Pershing, Mineral and Esmeralda counties and parts of Washoe and Nye counties.

“My goal is to bring common sense solutions and real life experience to issues that affect ordinary workers and small business entrepreneurs,” Hansen said.

Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks. / Nevada News Bureau file photo.

Hansen served as a member of the Judiciary, Education, and Natural Resources, Mining and Agriculture committees in his first (Continue reading…)

CARSON CITY – The city of Ely is preparing to celebrate former First Lady Pat Nixon’s 100th birthday next month with a variety of events.

Thelma Catherine Ryan, nicknamed “Pat” by her Irish prospector father, was born March 16, 1912 in Ely. Ryan became the wife of the 36th president, Richard M. Nixon. She served as first lady from 1969 to 1974.

Former First Lady Pat Nixon.

On March 16-17 Ely will recognize the anniversary with a special dinner, train ride, a Pat Nixon exhibit at the White Pine Museum and many other events.

The general public is invited to participate in the many activities. (Continue reading…)

Kelli Ross, the spouse of Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross, said today she will be a Democratic candidate for state Senate District 18 in northwest Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting.

No other Democrats have announced their candidacies, but two Republican Assembly members, Scott Hammond and Richard McArthur, are running for the seat.

The Senate 18 seat was created by the redistricting process, which moved a rural Nevada seat south to reflect the population shift based on the 2010 census.

The state Senate is currently in Democrat control with an 11-10 majority. Both Republicans and Democrats are fighting for control of the house ahead of the 2013 legislative (Continue reading…)

Senator Elizabeth Halseth has finally resigned her state senate seat after weeks of being effectively absent from the Nevada political landscape including not attending the Interim Finance Committee meeting this week.

Halseth won the district by 5 points in 2010 even though Democrats had a 2 point advantage.

Democrats now have a 5 point registration advantage.

Paging Dennis Nolan…

In answer to the clamoring GOP masses, some party officials called for and state Sen. James Settelmeyer has ordered a bill draft to bring back the Nevada presidential primary.

State elections chief Ross Miller says he is not opposed to the idea but thinks setting a hard date is a bad plan. He believes any measure ought to include date-choosing discretion for future Nevada Secretaries of State.

“If the history of the presidential nomination calendar has taught us any lessons, it is that, in order to stay in the game, flexibility in the date of the primary is a necessity,” said Miller.

Miller points out that the national parties often change (Continue reading…)

State Sen. Ruben Kihuen this afternoon announced he was dropping out of the primary race for the urban and heavily Democratic NV-01, which means smooth sailing for his opponent and former Rep. Dina Titus.

Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, acknowledged he has not been able to raise the money to compete.

“Unfortunately, the reality is that continuing my efforts to win in what would promise to be a resource draining primary at this time is not in the best interest for me, my family, my community and my party,” Kihuen said in a statement.

In response to Kihuen’s withdrawal, Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange released a statement including the following:

“Senator Ruben (Continue reading…)

As first reported by David McGrath Schwartz of the Las Vegas Sun, state Sen. Mo Denis said he plans to resign from his job with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC), possibly rendering moot the recently filed lawsuit challenging his ability to be employed in two branches of state government.

Denis, who is the heir apparent to Sen. Majority Leader Steven Horsford, told the Sun he’d already been looking for a new job with more flexibility in preparation for his Senate leadership role. He said the decision is not related to the lawsuit from conservative think tank Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI).

The NPRI suit contents that Article III (Continue reading…)

Nevada’s congressional delegation is currently split 3-2 on the latest bill temporarily extending the payroll tax cuts.

Rep. Shelley Berkley favors the measure passed by the U.S. Senate (by an 89-10 vote Saturday) and supported by Sen.s Harry Reid and Dean Heller.

However, both Rep.s Joe Heck and Mark Amodei say they oppose the two-month extension of the payroll tax cuts on the basis that it is too short-term.

House Speaker John Boehner this morning said Republicans will most likely vote down the measure, objecting to the temporary fix and saying he favors the year-long extension approved last week. He now wants to establish a conference committee to negotiate a different deal.

But Senate Majority Leader (Continue reading…)

Gov. Sandoval was one of the few GOP governors who did not attend last week’s Republican Governors Association (RGA) annual pow-wow in Orlando.

He cited schedule conflicts including the conference on tourism in Las Vegas and said “Nevada comes first.”

More than two dozen of the nation’s 29 Republican governors attended the event, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, vice chairman of the national organization, and Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, who is serving as chairman.

McDonnell touted “historic victories in Louisiana and Mississippi” in 2011 and said the organization is raising “record sums” in remarks made at the conference.

Next year, Democrats will defend in eight of 11 states scheduled to (Continue reading…)

Time to close some of these open internet browser tabs, Dear Readers, so here are the most interesting “In Case You Missed It” stories I’ve read this past few days:

– Nevada’s congressional delegation chimes in on the failure of the Supercommittee to be, well, super.

– State Sen. John Lee says (D) he is out of the CD-4 primary against Sen. Steven Horsford. Instead, he’ll run to hold his senate seat.

– Secretary of State Ross Miller to First Judicial District Court in Carson City about an LCB request related to incumbents using the word “re-elect” during campaign season:  ”Objection!”

– Does Nevada’s CD-1 mirror a national (Continue reading…)

Update/correction:  Danny Tarkanian did not commission this poll.

Strategic National has conducted a (very) small-sample robopoll in NV04.

In a primary match up against state Sen. Barabara Cegavske, Tarkanian is ahead 54 percent to 8 percent. (Chalk most of this margin up to Tarkanian’s advantage based on name recognition — but it means that Cegavske would have to work hard and spend a significant amount of money in a primary race against him. I’m sure Tarkanian is hoping this poll will discourage her.)

In a match-up against a generic Democrat, the poll says Tarkanian wins 44 percent to 29 percent with this group of (303) likely voters. Undecideds were at 27 percent. Based (Continue reading…)

A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows Gov. Brian Sandoval’s approval numbers hovering in the mid-40s, with 45 percent of the voters in the state approving of him and 38 percent who disapprove. He continues to show relatively strong crossover support with 26 percent of Democrats approving of him.

Other survey findings:

– Sen. Harry Reid’s plus/minus numbers are holding steady with 42 percent of voters approving and 52 percent disapproving. Reid’s numbers are even worse with independent voters who show him at 31/65 approval/disapproval.

– Nevadans are divided on the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party protest movements. By a narrow margin, more see Occupy Wall Street favorably (42/40) (Continue reading…)

Voter registration numbers released today by Secretary of State Ross Miller show a statewide increase in the number of registered voters at the end of October compared to the previous month.

The elections division reported that 4,336 residents registered to vote during the month, and of that amount, 1,819 registered as Republican while 926 registered as Democrat.

Notably, there were 1,591 residents who registered with either the minor political parties or as Non-Partisans, which may be a message to the two major parties.

At the end of October, 410,950 active Republicans and 475,218 active Democrats are registered in Nevada, a difference of 64,628.

There are 181,960 active registered Non-Partisan voters and 52,535 Independent American (Continue reading…)