Jon Ralston is a Premature Pontificator

(Chuck Muth) – Let’s not bury the lead: Jon Ralston is the biggest horse’s ass in Nevada politics.

He hates conservatives with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns and reads campaign finance reports on his laptop like a pedophile reads kiddie porn.

And Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger (everyone else is tied for #1) was in pure, full-blown rapture last night after “discovering” what he believed was some kind of smoking gun, twit-tweeting…

“For months, political hit man @chuckmuth has mocked those who suggested he was on Team Lombardo’s payroll as he seemed to be RTing every attack on Dem lawmakers (and making some of his own) and praising the gov in his writings. Well, color us all shocked: Chuck is on the payroll.

“Maybe while Chuck was misleading people about being paid by gov’s PACs, he didn’t realize his company would be disclosed on forms submitted to the SOS. But he’s supposedly ‘the campaign doctor.’ Did he not care? Maybe he should just be transparent that he is paid for his play.”

Nice try, sport.  Here’s “the rest of the story” he never bothered to check…

I’ve made no secret of my support for Gov. Lombardo since his primary victory in 2022 and throughout the 2023 legislative session when Democrats tried valiantly to “californicate” Nevada.

I’d been all but begging Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald to let me train candidates, party officials, and grassroots activists for over a dozen years – something I’ve been doing nationally for almost three decades now – only to be shined on.

So at the end of the session I had dinner with the governor in Carson City and expressed my concern that the GOP was losing races it could have and should have won due to a lack of campaign training.  He agreed.

In October, I went back to DC and attended an intense, 9-day campaign management training program put on by the Leadership Institute for the purpose of adapting it and bringing it back to Nevada.

When I returned, the governor and I had breakfast in Las Vegas and I outlined the candidate development, training, and ongoing support program I wanted to put together – which would be similar to one the Democrats’ have had for its candidates (“Emerge”) for years.

And yes, a pair of PACs that support the governor and his efforts to elect more Republicans this cycle provided the start-up funding needed to get the program off the ground.  It was no “secret,” nor was it some kind of “pay to play” payoff.

I launched the program in December, fine-tuned it, and rolled it out this month – with full-day Campaign Boot Camps already scheduled in Las Vegas (tomorrow), Reno and Pahrump, along with a half-dozen “mini”-boot camps covering a wide range of campaign activities.

It includes one-on-one consultations with candidates – some who have already been endorsed by the governor; others not.  And here’s an example of what I do…

In one consultation I noticed the candidate hadn’t bought their personal domain name for use in the campaign – like chuckmuth.com.

I pointed out that even if the candidate didn’t want to use that name for their campaign, they should buy it to keep an opponent from buying it and turning it into an opposition website.

Like what happened to www.jonralston.com. 😊

And as for the governor’s endorsed candidates, with one exception I’ve had nothing to do with the recruitment or vetting process.  The governor and Team Lombardo made their endorsements and I learned of them on social media the same time as everyone else.

My role is to simply help the candidates run better campaigns – something that surely scares the pants off Ralston and his Democrat allies.

So yes, as I’ve told attendees at all the training workshops – most of which are free (except to cover the cost of lunches for the full-day sessions) – the only reason these programs exist is thanks to start-up funding from the pair of PACs that also support the governor’s endorsed candidates.

That funding includes paying for my time to conduct these programs, the cost of the meeting rooms, travel expenses, training materials, Internet support, advertising, etc.

Ralston’s just mad that Gov. Lombardo is building a political operation that can go toe-to-toe with the Democrats’ vaunted “Reid Machine.” The LAST thing he wants to see is more conservative Republicans elected to the Legislature or anywhere else.

So naturally, he’s trying to tarnish the effort by calling it some kind of nefarious “pay to play” scheme.

By the way, if you want to know where and when the boot camps are being held over the next two months – as well as what is being taught – please visit campaigndoctor.com/bootcamp.

And THANK Gov. Lombardo for supporting it!

P.S.  What really has “Jihad Jonny’s” tights in a twist is the fact that I’m the person who actually launched his non-profit “Nevada Independent” newsblog way back in 2009.

It was started as the “Nevada News Bureau” – the same name the non-profit is registered under with the IRS today.  I tapped Elizabeth Crum (later Thompson) to be the editor.  But we had “creative differences.”

So a couple years later I turned it over to her and it quickly went out of business.  But then Ralston and Crum hooked up and he resuscitated the publication using his own connections and “pay to play” funding, and changed the name.

It’s got to kill him every day knowing his paycheck comes from an organization I founded.  No wonder he’s always in such a surly mood.

You’re welcome, Jon.  And the beat goes on…

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Jon Ralston is known for stirring the pot, so to speak, and he is quite frequently wrong. He has no clue…” – Democrat Nevada Attorney General A.Ron Ford, Nevada Week, 8/2/23

“I don’t understand much about politics…” – Liberal blubber-blogger Jon Ralston, 1/2/20

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com.  You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com.  His views are his own.