Must-See TV: My Sit-Down with Michelle Mortensen

(Chuck Muth) – Remember what email did to the Post Office’s snail-mail?  Well, the same thing is happening now to mainstream news programming with the rise of independent streaming podcasts.

And a pioneer of using the new technology is former television news personality Michelle Mortensen.  Her State of the State podcast covering Nevada politics, especially from the “right” side of the aisle, is “must-see TV.”

I first met Michelle when she was running for Congress as a first-time candidate back in 2017.  In fact, here’s a shot of us with ol’ St. Nick, who witnessed her signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge…

Since that time, we’ve been both political allies and political adversaries in various races…but never enemies.  As it should be.

And it was a true pleasure being invited on as a guest of her podcast this week, where we talked extensively about Nevada’s gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and all four of the state’s congressional races.

We discussed…

• Joe Lombardo’s money advantage
• John Lee’s party switch
• Guy Nohra’s come-from-behind prospects
• Joey Gilbert’s supporters
• The Sam Brown Adam Laxalt money chase
• Dina Titus in the danger zone
• Carolina Serrano’s unique opportunity
• A possible primary challenge to Mark Amodei
• April Becker’s battle-tested background
• And the Annie Black Sam Peters vs. Jessie Vargas race

A lively and fun interview – and I thank Michelle for having me on.  But don’t touch that dial!

After Michelle and I solved all the problems in the world, she interviewed Capt. Sam Brown and Assembly candidate Charlie De La Paz.

To watch the show, click here.

The Chattah Box

As I wrote on Sunday, Sigal “Beth Dutton” Chattah, Republican candidate for Nevada attorney general, has caused Democrat and trans-Republican snowflakes to melt down and shed liberal tears over her use of the phrase “hang ‘em from a crane” when referring to antagonists and opponents.

So out of respect for their tender widdle feelings, I understand she plans to avoid that phrase in the future and will now only call for them to be “taken to the train station.”

If you don’t understand the reference, you haven’t been watching “Yellowstone.”  You should.  It’s GREAT.  Lots of “toxic masculinity”!

Fiore’s Keyboard Warriors Shoot and Miss

In politics, there’s spin…and then there’s bad spin.  Here’s an example of the latter.

In a fundraising email with the subject line “Michele Fiore and (Dean) Heller now tied,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Fiore (or, more likely, her new campaign consultants) wrote breathlessly…

“Now, less than 10 months away from Election Day I find myself only 1 point away from facing off with Joe Lombardo according to a poll by Nevada Independent/OH Predictive Insights!”

Umm…

First, before she can get to the general election “10 months away,” she has to win the GOP nomination in June…just 4 months away.

Secondly, in the referenced poll, primary opponent Heller has just 9 percent of the vote. Fiore has 8 percent.  And Joey Gilbert has 7 percent. So in that context, all three are “tied.”  But it’s even worse than that…

In the same poll, fellow GOP candidate Lombardo has 28 percent…more than three times that of the other three…as well as more than the other three combined.

Nevertheless, polls don’t determine who faces off against who in the primary.  Provided all ten so-far-announced candidates file in March, they’ll ALL be on the primary ballot.  Moving up one percentage point does NOT mean Fiore will face off against Lombardo.

Props, however, to both Fiore and Gilbert for signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.  Which reminds me…

UPDATE: Tax Pledge Signers ‘22

• Sam Brown – U.S. Senate
• Mark Amodei – Congress District 2
• April Becker – Congress District 3
• Noah Malgeri – Congress District 3
• John Kovacs – Congress District 3
• Annie Black – Congress District 4
• Sam Peters – Congress District 4
• Chance Bonaventura – Congress 4
• Guy Nohra – Governor
• Joey Gilbert – Governor
• Michele Fiore – Governor
• Tom Heck – Governor
• Tony Grady – Lt. Governor
• Jim Wheeler – State Senate District 17
• Jeffrey Stone – State Senate District 20
• Heidi Kasama – Assembly District 2
• Richard McArthur – Assembly District 4
• Stan Vaughan – Assembly District 20
• Sam Kumar – Assembly District 25
• Tom Daly – Assembly District 26
• Melissa Blundo – Assembly District 36
• Vida Keller – Assembly District 38
• Ken Gray – Assembly District 39
• Leo Blundo – Nye County Commission
• Alan Bigelow – Las Vegas City Council Ward 2

If you’ve already signed and your name is not on the list, please forward a copy of your signed Pledge to chuck@chuckmuth.com.  If you need a copy of the Pledge to sign, shoot me an email noting what seat you’re running for and I’ll send it to you.

The Rob Lauer Report

Why did Rob Lauer return the jigsaw puzzle he bought at WalMart?

He thought it was broken.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Eating bat-sh*t soup in the bathroom of a secret coronavirus lab in Wuhan China – now has a higher approval rating than Joe Biden.” – @caturd

“The U.S. bobsled team has renamed their sled ‘Biden’ because nothing has taken America downhill faster.” – Author unknown

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views and blogs at MuthsTruths.com