The Las Vegas Sun is home to the most liberal editorial page in Nevada, so it’ll come as no surprise that it endorsed Democrat candidates in all but two races for State Assembly today.
And the Republican exceptions to the rule are instructive, though not surprising: Assemblyman Lynn Stewart in District 22 and Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury in District 23.
Neither has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Both voted for the 2009 “temporary” tax hikes.
Both voted to re-impose those “temporary” tax hikes in 2011.
Both are likely to vote to extend those “temporary” tax hikes again in 2013.
Both chalked up Citizen Outreach conservative ratings in 2011 that were under 50 percent.
Stewart was actually the worst-scoring Republican in the ratings with a sickening 30 percent score.
Woodbury is a government school teacher.
Stewart is a retired government school teacher.
So the Sun endorsing these two Republicans is not exactly a stretch.
The really sad thing for conservatives is that both represent strong Republican-majority districts, so no one can make the argument that they “have” to be moderate to win.
If the tea party and Ron Paul folks want to truly have an impact in Nevada and make a difference, they should abandon hopeless causes – such as that of pro-tax/pro-amnesty congressional candidate Chris Edwards – and focus on recruiting and supporting conservative Republicans to challenge Stewart and Woodbury in 2014 GOP primaries should their voting records in the next legislative session continue to be as bad as they’ve been in the past.
Which is highly likely.
