What a great day for taxpayers and true conservatives. Where to begin?
Actually, that’s an easy one: incumbent Republican Assemblywoman Francis Allen, who steadfastly refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, lost to Republican challenger Richard McArthur who signed the Pledge and campaigned on it. McArthur didn’t just win; he crushed Allen by a 2-1 margin.
And while I certainly beat up Francis here in News and Views on a regular basis, credit for actually taking her out goes to former Clark County GOP chief George Harris who coordinated the blizzard of independent expenditures into that district, including our automated phone calls on the Tax Pledge.
And then there was the defeat of “Republican” Assemblyman Bob “Scooter” Beers, who very reluctantly signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge after he was elected in 2006, only to end up breaking it during the 2007 legislative session. He lost to Republican Jonathan Ozark, who had no reservations about promising the voters of his district that he won’t vote to raise their taxes. Ozark didn’t just win; he crushed “Lite” Beers by a 2-1 margin.
Meanwhile, forget “Welcome Back Kotter.” Welcome back Gustavson! As in former Republican Assemblyman Don Gustavson, who defeated incumbent Republican Assemblyman John Marvel. You may recall that Marvel is the man who broke his Tax Pledge by flip-flopping and voting for that gigantic tax hike in 2003. Gustavson is a solid conservative who signed the Tax Pledge and campaigned on it.
Oh, and as a side note, professional gadfly Mike “Soapbox” Weber, who also ran in that race, eked out a paltry 17 percent of the vote. So much for the power of the Paultards, who adopted Weber as their spiritual leader before, during and after the Nevada Republican Party convention this year.
So at this point, you have to say a big winner in yesterday’s election was…Gov. Jim Gibbons. Gibbons has been steadfast in saying he’s not going to raise taxes - and three wishy-washy legislative Republicans have just been replaced (subject to expected general election wins) by Republicans who have joined him in signing the Pledge.
Moving on to the upper house, Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio pulled out a squeaker over Republican challenger and former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle. Despite three decades of service to this district, the power which comes from his leadership position, and the fact that he out-raised his opponent by more than 10-1 (not counting independent expenditures on his behalf), the good senator pulled it out by only around 500 votes. This race NEVER should have been this close, and Raggio’s campaign team was very, very lucky on this one.
In other news, former Planned Parenthood chieftess Nancy Allf was widely expected to win yesterday’s battle for the Supreme Court. She spent a ton of money, is married to a big-time Democrat campaign consultant, had the full backing of practically the entire Democrat Party establishment, as well as some rather curious support by some high profile Republican social conservative leaders. But she didn’t come in first. And she didn’t come in second. Indeed, she didn’t even come in third. She came in dead last.
In a much-watched county commission race in Clark County, GOP leaders dodged a real bullet when former Clark County Chairman Brian Scroggins handily won the primary in which highly-regarded longtime Commissioner Bruce Woodbury’s name still appeared on the ballot despite being ruled ineligible for the November election due to the state’s new artificial term limits law. Had Woodbury come out on top, a major brouhaha at the Clark County Republican Central Committee would have erupted over who to appoint to replace Woodbury on the general election ballot. Now the party can simply unite behind Scroggins - probably their only hope of keeping at least one Republican on arguably the state’s most powerful governing organization.
Other potentially big winners yesterday were Nevada’s school children and their parents.
The Nevada State Board of Education voted last December to slap a moratorium on the approval of any new charter schools, despite waiting lists of parents hoping to get their kids into one. Under enormous pressure, the Board finally was forced to lift its moratorium at their meeting last weekend. But that’s not the end of the story.
Four of the nine Board members who voted against charter schools, under pressure from challengers who filed to run against them, opted not to seek re-election - including Harry Reid’s daughter-in-law, Cindy Reid.
Then on Monday, the goofy Greg Nance quit after his bizarre conduct with his new wife during the weekend meeting of the Board became public.
And yesterday Board member Barbara Myers barely topped challenger Dave Cook in a three-way primary fight. The pair will square off again in November - and with any luck, she’ll be wiped out as well.
All of which means this totally dysfunctional board could possible end up with six new members who, hopefully, won’t be as anti-parent, anti-school choice and anti-education. Keep hope alive.
Posted on August 13th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Whoa. That is almost to much Pundritry for a LayZeke to absorb.
I thought you said Raggio was going to lose… make up your mind… “The teacher’s union endorsement is the kiss of death”… remember when you said that?
Yo, did you pay any attention to the election numbers at all, or did you fall down and hit your head? Raggio, who should have won by a wide margin as most incumbents did (except for the leftist Republicans, who outright lost) won by a mere 500 votes. I would argue that it is DIRECTLY because of the teachers union endorsement of Raggio that Angle even kept up with him. With all the money and party leaders he had backing him, the elder statesman of the Republican Party shouldn’t have even had to go knocking on doors if he didn’t have the union working for him.
Wise up, Yo.