Nevada’s incumbent governor Steve Sisolak (D), has been running a bizarre, but expensive campaign. And it just keeps getting more weirder. Before we dive into the embarrassing endorsements that he lost and the ill-fitted guests who are joining him on the campaign trail, let us recap how uncomfortable the Sisolak Campaign is so far.
We’ve seen him running on an absurd abortion platform. That has nothing to do in Nevada with the governor, since it is only the voters who can amend the law that was passed almost 30 years ago. Read more about why this issue is irrelevant in the Silver State here: Too stupid: Nevada Democrats’ Abortion Lies Insult voters’ intelligence
Sisolak’s ads feature bizarre campaign themes, such as riding the coattails sports franchises and blaming bacon-manufacturer greed for the high price of bacon. Sisolak is now using Southwest Airlines to promote his re-election campaign. Voters who believe politics is not a game for white-collar lobbyists but a representative democracy are disturbed by corporate presence in election ads. It seems like companies don’t know how PACs work…that you can support candidates without alienating customers and signaling that corporate elitism really is the name of power-structure. Oof. Oof.
Endorsements that Matter
Sisolak lost endorsement from the Nevada Police Union. This week, the Governor was disqualified by 95.3 percent of state police. The Governor’s spokesperson said that the union’s decision not to endorse Sisolak was “stooping at political stunts” and was countered with a list detailing the reasons for the union’s vote of no confidence. There are several reasons for this, including increased costs to the state police, mandated vaccinations, charging workers and dependents if the worker was not vaccinated, adversarial bargaining negotiations, the ignoring of a 135 per cent turnover rate in fiscal year 2020, no action on pay inequality and the non-allocation of federal funds, including from the American Rescue Plan, to support and address state police issues.
Currently, Joe Lombardo is the Republican nominee to be Nevada Governor. He is the current Sheriff for Clark County and has strong support from law enforcement organizations, associations and sheriffs throughout the state.
All this comes as police groups demand that Everytown for Gun Safety cease running anti-police attack advertisements targeting Lombardo.
The Nevada Police Union rebuked Sisolak. However, the Clark County Education Association (teachers union) declined endorsement of Sisolak in the race. They had previously supported his 2018 bid. It is difficult to show the state’s absurdity for readers. Half-jokingly, public education is often referred to as the third largest industry in the state. The phrase, regardless of whether the numbers support it as a fact, is more about creating political understandings than graphs. CCEA, while Nevada’s Culinary Union is by far the most prominent and visible, is more interesting.
CCEA circulated petitions in order to have a question placed on the ballot that would target the mining industry. They offered a better deal to the legislature. The mining industry became eager to lobby for its own taxes. This resulted in Republicans holding enough seats to block fiscal legislation’s passage, but some voted for the bill. This was a defeat for the GOP base because they entered the session with the power to block monetary bills and ended up with a group of reps known as the “sacrifice caucus”. CCEA is not well tolerated by Republicans. They fight their own affiliates and cause uncomfortable results in previous legislative sessions. Republicans are now applauding CCEA’s positions against Governor Sisolak, who was previously an ally of the union. Sisolak is having a difficult time, let’s just say.
The mines were taxed, and CCEA withdrew the initiative. Republican constituencies had to settle the blame game. The conclusion seems to be “What the hell was it?”
Unusual Guest Appearances
Barack Obama, the former President of the United States, will stump for Nevada Democrats on November 1, just days before the November 8th elections. Obama’s presence demonstrates the absence of President Joe Biden, which is a call back to the glory days of the Harry Reid Machine.
Julie Jacobson
Sisolak supported Biden during the Governor’s Debate, saying that Biden had done a great job with the tasks he was given. He also criticized a PAC for putting up signs showing Sisolak and Biden together. CNN reports:
Sisolak condemned billboards erected in Nevada by a pro-Lombardo super PAC – Better Nevada PAC – that featured a photo of Biden next to the governor with the words “The Democrat Dream Team For Nevada.” He also noted that he had not invited Biden to campaign alongside him in the last stretch.
He said that the President is welcome to visit any state in the country, including the Silver State.
The Biden/Sisolak signs, for what it’s worthwhile, are funny and effective- they rattled Governor after all.
It’s not just that Sanders is a strange politician, but it becomes more ridiculous when viewed in the context of Berners and socialists within the Democrat Party. The bigger picture is that the coalition known as “Harry Reid Machine” that facilitated a Democrat takeover of Nevada politics is now dysfunctional. The Berners rebelled against the establishment and helped Sanders win the Nevada caucuses, allowing him to take a lead in 2020 national elections. The Culinary Union, one of the Reid Machine coalition partners, campaigned against Elizabeth Warren and Sanders based on their Medicare for All platforms. This threatened Culinary’s highly prized healthcare package. A socialist slate won the election for the party chair, defeating Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. In the midst of a fractured party Adam Laxalt is leading the charge in the polls to win a GOP Senate Majority.
Nevada is a state of working-class voters, and the D’s are a part of that problem. It’s their problem in Latinos, with independents, and with the police and teacher’s unions. Culinary is also having problems (20 percent of its members are still out-of-work). It is an eye-opener for Nevadans to see them trying to fix it by playing nice to the socialists who overthrew the Reid establishment. Sisolak, undoubtedly, is the epicenter for all things absurdly nonsensical Nevada.
