Candidates thinking of running for state Senate seats have been told to prepare for an audition before Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio and the members of the Senate GOP caucus on September 22nd.
They’ve been told that Sir Raggio and the caucus will decide whether of not to anoint them as their favored candidate sometime after that interview. If blessed with the caucus endorsement, the Chosen One will receive official backing during both the primary and general elections.
And frankly, I don’t really have a problem with that.
As long as the rules and criteria are made equally known to all candidates and all candidates are given a fair opportunity to compete for the caucus’ endorsement, that’s a smart way to do things. In fact, the party organizations should adopt a similar process.
However….
The rules are not being equally applied here. Indeed, Sen. Raggio and some of his colleagues have already made their decisions on which candidates they’re going to back before the big 9/22 pow-wow.
For example, Assemblyman Joe Hardy is running for the Senate District 12 seat being vacated by Sen. Warren Hardy. Warren Hardy has already endorsed Joe Hardy. And according to an email invitation sent our by Joe Hardy last Thursday, so are Sens. Raggio, Mike McGinness, Randolph Townsend and Dean Rhoads.
Along with just about every special interest lobbyist in the state.
Without even bothering to wait until September 22nd to interview conservative Republican businessman Patrick McNaught who is also running for that seat.
Making matters worse, Joe Hardy is a RINO’s RINO.
He’s the last remaining Republican in the Assembly who voted for the largest tax hike in state history back in ’03. And he voted for that $292 million room tax hike earlier this year (yeah, that’s done wonders for our tourism market, hasn’t it?). He also voted for some $800 million in additional spending this year over and above that which Gov. Gibbons proposed – a decision likely to result in yet another unnecessary and expensive special session of the Legislature in another month or so.
And I’m only scratching the surface here.
Big-government, tax-and-spend liberal Republicans such as Joe Hardy are the reason so many fiscal conservatives have abandoned the GOP, and why Republicans are the minority party in both the Congress and the Nevada Legislature these days. And yet the party’s imperial pooh-bahs continue to force such candidates down our throats.
Some people never learn.
Isn’t this promotion of Joe Hardy the very definition of insanity?