Against my better judgment last week, I stuck my neck out and added Republican state assembly District 37 candidate Wes Duncan to my “Chuck’s Picks” list, almost entirely because he’s running against Marcus Conklin, the Democrat leader who will be the next Speaker of the Assembly if he wins re-election.
Duncan is the GOP establishment’s “Golden Boy” this election cycle, and the opportunity to rub out the other team’s lead sled dog would be a nice consolation prize for a GOP caucus that will, once again, be in the minority no matter what next session.
But then I had to go and read the Sunday paper this morning…
In a Las Vegas Sun story about the Conklin/Duncan race written by the estimable David McGrath-Schwartz, the issue of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge came up. And I’m guessing you can guess where this is going to go.
In the original web edition of the story, McGrath-Schwartz reports that Duncan boasts “that he hasn’t signed the pledge not to raise taxes.”
Nor has he bothered to speak to me or Grover Norquist about it.
Don’t you love candidates who take public policy positions without even bothering to talk to, you know, the leading experts on those issues? Kinda like voting for ObamaCare without bothering to talk to leading doctors and medical professionals about it. You know, the way so many congressional Democrats did.
“I’m not saying I’m not going to raise taxes,” Duncan is quoted as saying. “We have to see what revenues are.”
Good…grief.
That’s the exact same position taken by his opponent! So much for contrast. A vote for Duncan, and most every other “Gumby Republican” on the ballot this year, is not, as the saying goes, so much a choice as an echo. Talk about raising a banner of pale pastels.
Making matters worse, on October 24, 2012, Duncan’s campaign issued a press release accusing the Conklin campaign of “trying to steal the election.” According to Duncan, members of Conklin’s “field team” were “caught red-handed” illegally removing Duncan’s literature from neighborhood doors.
So of course Duncan filed an official complaint, right?
Wrong.
All he filed was the whiny press release announcing: “I do not plan to prosecute them.”
Lovely. An underdog challenger candidate going up against arguably the most powerful Democrat in the lower house who has outraised him by almost 4-1 has made the brilliant strategic decision to just “stay positive.” Can’t we all just get along? All we are sayyyy-ing…is give peace a chance.
Wonderful. Another go-along-to-get-along Republican afraid to pick a political fight with an entrenched Democrat opponent. Just what Nevada taxpayers and consevatives need.
Not.
If you’re afraid to run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.
As such…and again, thank goodness I didn’t vote early…I am hereby withdrawing and removing Wes Duncan from my “Chuck’s Picks” list.
