Dr. Annette Teijeiro has been a perennial candidate in Las Vegas for the last few election cycles, opting to run for seats she can’t win rather than run for seats she would have a serious shot at.
She’s a nice enough lady and seems solidly conservative in her philosophy, but her political skills and judgment leave a lot to be desired.
And to paraphrase Hubert Humphrey, the right to run for office does not extend to a right to have your campaign taken seriously.
Which brings me to Dr. Teijeiro’s latest Mission Impossible: Running for Congressional District 3, the seat being vacated by Rep. Joe Heck, who is leaving to make a run for Harry Reid’s U.S. Senate seat.
Teijeiro has no better chance of winning this seat than she did winning the First Congressional District seat against liberal Democrat Rep. Dina Titus in 2014. As such, I don’t take her campaign seriously and have not paid her campaign much attention.
But a fundraising email Teijeiro sent out on August 26, 2015 demands a response.
In it, Teijeiro provided a critical analysis of Nevada’s new Education Savings Account (ESA) program and warned of some challenges inherent in this brand new school choice plan originally proposed, promoted and advocated for by the Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI).
Make no mistake…
Aside from the evil requirement that private schoolers and home schoolers force their kids into a public school for 100 painful days before qualifying for an ESA, this is a historic, first-in-the-nation, game-changing school choice bill that should be joyously celebrated by conservatives from here to Katmandu.
Yet here’s what Teijeiro wrote at the conclusion of her analysis…
“NPRI has promoted this flawed legislation and encouraged countless parents to file an application without pointing out the precarious nature of ESAs. We need to examine NPRI’s credibility and motives. NPRI has slowly morphed in the past ten years.”
What the fudge?
She continued…
“The current ESA falls short on decreasing government bureaucracy, it actually creates a whole new set of requirements (about a 3% cost of management), and doesn’t alleviate tax burdens, something NPRI used to promote rather than government micromanagement. What happened to NPRI in the last decade?”
First, Teijeiro is full of bean dip.
Secondly, this unwarranted attack on NPRI borders on slander.
While Sen. Scott Hammond may have sponsored and carried the bill itself in the Legislature, NPRI is solely responsible from bringing this dynamic school choice issue to the forefront of discussion and provided the intellectual ammunition needed to make it a reality.
So, it was beyond comprehension as to why someone holding herself out to be a conservative would so disgustingly impugn the reputation and motives of NPRI which, in human form, would be eligible for sainthood for its tireless efforts to rescue Nevada’s children from the existing government-owned/union-managed/bureaucrat-run “failure factories.”
And then it hit me.
It was so obvious, I felt stupid.
One of the candidates Teijeiro is running against in the GOP primary is Andy Matthews, the immediate past president of NPRI, who was in charge of the organization during the just-concluded legislative session when the ESA’s were approved.
Doh!
So this was nothing more than a cheap political hit piece.
In her effort to discredit a distinguished and reputable opponent, Teijeiro trashed his former employer and used it as a fundraising pitch for her campaign.
Teijeiro should be ashamed.
If she wants to attack her opponent, fine.
But to falsely besmirch the good name of a fine organization like NPRI in the process is a low blow.
She should immediately issue a public apology to every employee and supporter of NPRI who she smeared.
Few take Teijeiro’s candidacy in this race seriously.
Now it’s a joke.
And a bad one at that.
READERS WRITE
Responses to last week’s column about how the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce once again sold out its members, resulting in a flood of businesses dropping their memberships over the last two months, were quite animated.
A sampling…
“Hello Chuck. Certainly it is good news to hear that many LV Chamber Members are now former members. As you noted the driving factor was the outrageous 1.4 Billion tax increase, led by Gov. BS.” – Mike Joyner
“WOW for sure!! . . . This rebellion against the LV Chamber is another and new chapter in this ground swell. (Chamber president) Kristen McMillan may be forced to resign as they were forced to give up their digs at Town Square. Keep up the pressure!” – Jeff in Las Vegas
“We have not been members of the Chamber for many years because of their ‘big business’ affairs and ‘small business’ dislikes. All those that are executives with the Chamber must go and give the funds back to their members that they took from the lobbyists, and all – and I mean ALL – legislators that voted for this tax must also be removed from office in 2016.” – Bonnie McDaniel
“Who at the Chamber got the payoff to support that bill? Let’s ‘follow the money’ and expose the crooks who no longer care about Las Vegas and surrounding towns, as well as NV!” – Bill Shuster
“The Chamber of Commerce is the true enemy of liberty. They no longer argue for low taxes & less regulations. Now they want a seat at the trough – a power position.” – Martina Webster
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which I quit, is no better. They supported Establishment Republicans during the 2014 Primaries. They also support Crony Capitalism and higher taxes to fund infrastructure pork-barrel spending. The U.S. Chamber is composed of Inside-the-Beltway Fat Cats. I have seen it close up. They are part of the big government problem not part of the solution.” – Joe Morabito
“Great article, and it reflects my own angst with the Chamber of Commerce. Nationally they have been one of the biggest supporters of Common Core, and all the ‘big data’ data mining that accompanies it. Instead of recognizing the family essentially as a small business, they have decided that bureaucrats at high levels know more about our children than we do, and we need to be told how to run our children’s education. Nor did they back the Obamacare repeal bill a few months ago. Instead of repealing it, they want to ‘fix’ it. Instead of fighting for us, the Chamber of Commerce works to find ways to accommodate bad legislation.” – Frank Schnorbus
P.S. HAPPY NON-UNION LABOR DAY!!
