Nevada Republicans began their annual Lincoln Day fundraising events in Ely on Saturday morning, and a veritable who’s-who of GOP elected officials and candidates showing up to lend their support to the local party.
Rep. Dean Heller, Gov. Jim Gibbons, gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval, U.S. Senate candidates Sue Lowden, John Chachas, Sharron Angle, Mark Amodei and Danny Tarkanian. Even Mike Wiley beamed down for a visit.
But no John Ensign. “Mr. Republican” was, as usual, AWOL. What a surprise.
According to a Ralston Flash on Friday, Republican state Assemblyman Chad Christensen is actually thinking on jumping into the U.S. Senate race. You read that correctly. Not the STATE Senate race he’s said he was running for against incumbent RINO state Sen. Dennis Nolan. The U.S. Senate race – for the opportunity to take on Harry Reid next November.
According to Jon Ralston, Christensen says he’s been asked to jump into this race by LDS church leaders and believes he may have the “most broad appeal” among Nevada Republican voters – about 98 percent of whom have never even heard of him. OK, I like Chad….but somebody better tell him that marijuana use is NOT legal in this state yet.
Turns out Las Vegas bureaucrats and elected officials failed to adequately spend some $45 million the feds gave ‘em to help rehab and sell the huge inventory of foreclosed homes in the local market and, therefore, didn’t get any additional funds for this year. Gross incompetence if not malfeasance in office.
Oh, and let me mention – since there doesn’t appear to be any organized Republican Party out there to do it – that every elected official on the Las Vegas City Council and Clark County Commission, save one, is a Democrat.
“In one of the more interesting legislative primaries, Republican Ben Kieckhefer reported raising just $55,000 last year, putting him at a significant money disadvantage to his opponent Assemblyman Ty Cobb, R-Reno,” reported Anjeanette Damon of Inside Nevada Politics on Friday. “Cobb is a conservative, anti-tax Republican who often bumped heads with Senate Republicans, who have endorsed Kieckhefer. . . . Cobb reported raising $123,000 last year.”
Republican Elizabeth Halseth, who has been a whirlwind of grassroots campaign activity and Internet communications since announcing last fall, reported raising just $2,400 for her Assembly District 13 campaign. While that may be five times what “Li’l Nate” Taylor raised, it’s nowhere near enough to scare off the multitudes of other candidates ready to jump into that race, including Matt Passalacqua and Joshua Gust.
