Recall Fever: Catch It!

I’m about to do what “normal” people do this time of year: take a break from politics and enjoy Christmas.

But before going, I know there are a lot of you out there champing at the bit to recall Nevada Assembly Republican Speaker-of-the-Weak John Hambrick for “pulling a Roberson” and betraying the very conservatives who are responsible for him getting elected in the first place.

So here’s some information about how to recall a state legislator in Nevada…

According to Article 2, Section 9 of our state Constitution, “Every public officer in the State of Nevada is subject to recall from office…”

That includes Mr. Hambrick.

To qualify a recall election, 25% of the number of voters who voted in the November 2014 general election in Mr. Hambrick’s district must sign a recall petition.

In Assembly District 2, the district Mr. Hambrick is currently misrepresenting, 16,462 people voted in last month’s general election.

That means to qualify to hold a special election to recall Mr. Hambrick, 4,116 people need to sign a recall petition.

You folks should be able to get such a small amount in your sleep!

THE RECALL COMMITTEE

But before you can begin collecting signatures, a “Recall Committee” must be formed.

The Recall Committee must consist of “three registered voters who actually voted (in Hambrick’s district) at the last preceding general election.”

Now this is important…

While ANY registered voter in the district will be able to sign the recall petition, and if the recall election qualifies and is held, ANY registered voter in the district will be able to vote in the special election, in order to be one of the three members of the official Recall Committee…

You MUST have voted in the November 2014 in Assembly District 2.

Got it?

OK, once a Recall Committee is formed, an official recall petition will be drafted – including the wording explaining why a recall of Mr. Hambrick is justified.

“The dirty, rotten skunk betrayed us” is probably sufficient, but we’ll work on more flowery language.

WHEN TO DROP THE BOMB

According to Section 2, Article 9 of our state Constitution, a recall effort against a Nevada state legislator cannot officially begin until “ten days from the beginning of the first session after his election.”

The next session of the Nevada State Legislature isn’t scheduled to begin until February 2, 2015.  That means the recall effort cannot officially commence until February 12, 2015.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t start organizing NOW.

We can start identifying people in the district who say they will sign the petition, and we can start recruiting volunteers to gather those signatures as soon as D-Day arrives.

Now once D-Day arrives and the official “notice of intent” to recall Hambrick is filed with the Clark County Elections Department, the signatures of those requesting the recall must be submitted “within 90 days after the date on which the notice of intent was filed.”

After the signatures are submitted, the Secretary of State’s office must verify “that the number of signatures on a petition to recall is sufficient” and notify the Clark County Clerk and the Clark County Elections Department.

Then…

“(N)ot sooner than 10 days nor more than 20 days” after the Secretary of State notifies that the number of valid signatures is sufficient, the Elections Department “shall issue a call for a special election in the jurisdiction in which the public officer who is the subject of the petition was elected to determine whether the people will recall the public officer.”

I love that part: “The people”!

THE COURT CHALLENGE

Naturally, as soon as the signatures are submitted, Hambrick’s attorney will challenge the petition in district court.

By law, that challenge must be filed “not later than 5 days, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays excluded, after the Secretary of State completes the notification” to the county clerk and elections department.

Once filed, “The court shall set the matter for hearing not later than 30 days after the complaint is filed and shall give priority to such a complaint over all other matters pending with the court, except for criminal proceedings.”

This is important.  Because Hambrick obviously would LOVE to stretch this recall campaign out through a legal challenge until after the session is over and the damage is done.  Fortunately, state law will prevent him from going into a “four corner stall.”

Now once the court challenge is over, “if the court determines that the petition is sufficient, it shall order the officer with whom the petition is filed to issue a call for a special election.”

That officer, in Hambrick’s case, will be the Clark County Elections Department.

And according to Article 2, Section 9 of the Constitution, the Election Department will then be required to hold the election “within 30 days after the issuance of the call…to determine whether the people will recall said officer.”

I love that part: “The people”!

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Organizing an official “Recall Hambrick” committee will be easy.

In fact, if you live in Mr. Hambrick’s district, voted in last month’s election, and would like to be considered as one of the three people needed to form the official Recall Committee, just email me your full name and address as it appears on your voter registration card and we’ll get that part taken care of before Santa arrives tonight!

Email your information to chuck@chuckmuth.com

The hard part will be this…

If we file the recall petition on February 12 and take the full 90 days allowed to gather the signatures, that will take us to May 12.  And by the time the legal challenges are finished, that would push us into June.  Then the special recall election wouldn’t take place until sometime in July.

After the tax-hiking session is already over.

So the only way to be sure the recall election takes place in time to remove Hambrick from office before the really important votes are cast in the final days of the session is to submit the signatures REALLY FAST.

I mean, we need to gather and submit the signatures in a matter of weeks, not months.

Like…two, three or four max if at all humanly possible.

And that’s going to require a very high level of organization and advance planning.  Which is why I noted earlier that plans for any recall of any state legislator needs to begin NOW, not in February.

Ideally, we’ll have the number of people willing to sign such a recall petition identified before the session begins, and then once we are able to legally and officially gather signatures, we just go out and get them from people who have already said they’ll sign.

Make no mistake…this ain’t gonna be a walk in the park.

But with proper preparation and coordination, it’s absolutely doable.

HAMBRICK’S NOT THE ONLY PROBLEM

While some discount the possibility of five or more Republicans voting with the Democrats to make moderate, tax-hiking Assemblyman Paul Anderson the Speaker on February 2^nd – regardless of who the Republican Assembly Caucus ultimately chooses for that position – it’s still a possibility.

But even if the collaborators don’t screw up enough nerve to go forward with the “nuclear option,” we still have a huge problem on our hands when it comes to the Mother of All Tax Hikes II that Gov. Brian Sandoval (R&R-Advertising) is about to drop on us.

Remember, Sandoval hid his plans for the coming billion dollar tax hike during his re-election campaign.

He also never said whether or not he intended to again pursue extending the $600 million-plus package of “temporary” tax hikes that were supposed to expire/”sunset” in 2011 and 2013.

As such, candidates running for the Legislature were never asked if they supported or opposed such tax hikes during their elections.  Indeed, if they had been forced to declare one way or the other whether or not they would vote for such tax hikes, their elections may have turned out very differently.

Of course, that’s exactly why Sandoval kept his tax-hike plans secret!

But now that we know – and Sandoval will make it official next month – that a huge tax hike is coming, we need to figure out how to stop it.

Forget the state Senate.

You have 10 Democrats there who will support any and all proposals to increase taxes.  And to get the 2/3 necessary to approve a tax hike, Sandoval will need only 4 of the 11 Republicans to go along with it.

There are only 2 conservative Republicans in the Senate who are likely to vote against the tax hike – Sens. Don Gustavson and James Settelmeyer.  So Sandoval’s Mother of All Tax Hikes II will be approved in the Senate by a vote of 19-2.

That means the last line of defense for taxpayers will be in the Assembly – just as it was in 2003 against then-Gov. Kenny Guinn’s Mother of All Tax Hikes I.

THE TAXPAYERS’ FIREWALL

There are 17 Democrats in the Assembly.  Thanks to the 2/3-majority Gibbons Tax Restraint Law, it will take 28 members of the Assembly to pass the Sandoval tax hike.  That means Sandoval and the Democrats will need 11 Republicans to sell us out.

There are 25 elected Republicans in the Assembly.  Right now, 9 have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and can be depended upon to oppose Sandoval’s tax hike.

Well, 8 actually.  Hambrick’s one of the 9 and he’s already said he’s only going to honor his pledge “by and large” and is prepared to break his word to the voters of his district and the people of Nevada.

I love that part: “The people.”

Anyway, we need 15 stand-up, fearless, principled, fiscally-conservative GOP members of the Assembly to block the Sandoval tax hike.

We have 8 Pledge signers.  And even though they haven’t signed the Pledge, I believe that Assemblymen John Ellison and Ira Hansen, based on statements they’ve already made, will not go along with the tax hike.

So we need 5 more.

And at this point, I don’t think we have them.

Indeed, in order to get them we probably need to recall some RINOs in addition to recalling Hambrick before the end of the session in late May/early June when the tax hike votes will take place.

So if you live in any of the following districts, you might want to start planning a recall effort of your own…

Chris Edwards, Assembly District 19
Signatures needed for recall: 3,266

Derek Armstrong, Assembly District 21
Signatures needed for recall: 3,004

Stephen Silberkraus, Assembly District 29
Signatures needed for recall: 3,412

Randy Kirner, Assembly District 26
Signatures needed for recall: 5,163

Pat Hickey, Assembly District 25
Signatures needed for recall: 5,631

Paul Anderson, Assembly District 13
Signatures needed for recall: 3,805

James Oscarson, Assembly District 36
Signatures needed for recall: 3,412

Lynn Stewart, Assembly District 22
Signatures needed for recall: 3,971

Melissa Woodbury, Assembly District 23
Signatures needed for recall: 4,410

Erv Nelson, Assembly District 5:
Signatures needed for recall: 3,703

P.K. O’Neill, Assembly District 40
Signatures needed for recall: 4,803

What?  You’re not sure which district you live in?

Well, they don’t call me Mr. Thoughtful for nothing!

Just click here

Then enter your full address – street, city and state – in the “Enter an Address” box in the upper right corner of the webpage.

Then click on the blue dot that you’ll see indicating the location of your residence on the map.  That will pull up the district number and name of your elected representatives, including the State Assembly.

STEEP HILL’S WORTH CLIMBING

Now let’s be honest here…

The odds of successful recalls of these folks are long.  But there are two very good reasons to do it anyway…

1.)  The very fact that a recall effort was launched will be a powerful issue to use against them in a 2016 GOP primary race, and…

2.)  The organizing effort itself will help identify supporters of a conservative GOP opponent and give our team some “practice” leading up to the 2016 GOP primary race.

Think of these recall projects as “pre-season.”

Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines.

AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Chuck Muth
Nevada’s #1 Irritator of Liberals and RINOs (but I repeat myself)

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“Dear John, I have already booked two days of vacation from work on day 10 and 11 of the legislative session to walk the second assembly district in Summerlin to collect the required signatures for your recall.  I have 100% confidence that you will be recalled. This means you will not be around for the end of the session when the final votes happen, so you will not accomplish your goal.” – James Grindstaff, Las Vegas, NV

“Dear John,  You have shown that you are not a leader and have never been a leader,  Leaders do not cave in, period. You caved!  Please resign from both the speaker ship and your assembly district.  We the people will find a much better person to take your place. Resign, shut up, go away.” – Rodney Bloom, Reno, NV

“Mr. Hambrick, Please step down as Speaker of the Nevada State Assembly. Your tortured and twisted treatment of Assemblywomen Fiore and Seaman are beyond the pale, and show you no longer should be trusted with intellectual nor moral leadership. Nevada taxpayers deserve and have voted for better.” – Ralph R. Sacrison, Elko, NV