An Open Letter to Sen. Mike McGinness

(NN&V Staff) – The following letter was emailed to Nevada Republican State Sen. Mike McGinness this afternoon, urging him to challenge Republican Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio in a leadership election tomorrow:

Hon. Mike McGinness
770 Wildes Road
Fallon, NV 89406-7843

VIA EMAIL

Dear Sen. McGinness,

The people have now spoken on who they want to represent them for the next two years. Tomorrow you and your colleagues in the Nevada State Senate will vote on who will lead your caucus going into the next legislative session.

Considering the fact that Nevada’s economy continues to suffer – leading the nation in unemployment and foreclosures – the policies enacted in the 2011 session, under our new governor, will be extraordinarily critical to our recovery.

Unfortunately, there are those who remain convinced that government must continue to grow, and that we can tax-and-spend our way back to prosperity.

Led by the tea party movement, this notion was soundly and resoundingly rejected by voters on Tuesday. With that in mind, we the undersigned tea party/conservative Nevada leaders are writing to urge you to run for the Minority Leader position at your caucus meeting tomorrow.

Although we respect and appreciate Sen. Raggio’s many years of public service in the Legislature – and accept the fact he endorsed Harry Reid over a former GOP primary rival for personal reasons – our real concern is over the critical issues of taxes and spending.

On the spending side, we have a fundamental difference with Sen. Raggio as to exactly what constitutes “essential” government services. Sen. Raggio’s definition and scope of “essential” is far more liberal than our own.

As for taxes, we cannot overlook the fact that Sen. Raggio, in his 2008 primary, “guaranteed” the voters of his district that he would not support higher taxes – only to then help engineer and pass, over Gov. Gibbons’ veto, more than $800 million in tax hikes.

To be fair, Sen. Raggio did insist that those tax hikes “sunset” next year; however, in recent weeks the senator has said those tax hikes probably must be extended or made permanent.

Now is not the time for Republicans and conservatives to “go wobbly” on tax and spending issues.

Now is the time to stand firmly behind Gov. Sandoval’s plan to pass a budget with no tax increases.

Now is the time for Nevada’s government to make the same hard and painful decisions the private sector has already been making for the last three years.

Now is the time, we believe, for new leadership in the Senate caucus.

As a senior member of the Senate who is highly respected, we urge you to seek the Minority Leader position at your caucus meeting tomorrow, and further urge your colleagues to support you. As Newt Gingrich likes to say, real change requires real change.

Respectfully yours,

Debbie Landis
Action is Brewing

Shirley Shelton
National Precinct Alliance

Jack Hisey
Patriot Guard

Travis Christensen
NVRA

Jeff Waufle
Nevada 912’ers

Anthony Warren
Reject Reid

Cynthia Kennedy
Storey County

Chuck Muth
Citizen Outreach

(NOTE: If you agree and would like to similarly encourage Sen. McGinness to run for Senate Minority Leader, you can email him at: mmcginness@sen.state.nv.us)