(Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – Former Nevada governor and state Republican Committeeman Bob List yesterday called on Sen. Harry Reid to stop running a television ad claiming to have saved a school teacher’s job with federal stimulus funds.
List, in a conference call with media representatives, said the ad is false and attempts to divert attention from Reid’s failure to help bring Nevada out of a major recession.
“He didn’t save her job at all,” List said. “That is a false statement. He should acknowledge it and the ad should come down.”
Reid should focus on Nevada’s record high and nation-leading unemployment rate, which hit 14.2 percent in June, List said.
“The reality is, since the stimulus package was adopted on Feb. 18 of last year, 60,000 additional people in the private sector have lost their jobs in Nevada,” he said. “We now have nearly 200,000 people out of work here and you’d think that he might be addressing that problem instead of making a false claim and a boast of saving this teacher’s job when in fact he didn’t.”
The Reid campaign rejected List’s claims as uninformed and questioned GOP challenger Sharron Angle’s commitment to education.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday published a story about the ad, saying the teacher in question did not have her job saved from the stimulus funding approved by Congress and the President last year because the school at which she worked did not receive any recovery money.
The 30-second ad shows Ronzone Elementary School teacher Bridget Zick of Las Vegas talking about the fear of losing her job and how Reid saved Nevada teaching jobs.
The story prompted a strong response from Reid campaign spokesman Jon Summers, who criticized the Review-Journal story for being, “erroneous and reckless.”
The claim that the school didn’t get any recovery funds, “fundamentally misunderstands the nature of disbursement of the stimulus dollars and the way educators’ jobs were saved,” he said.
“The reality is that stimulus funds were distributed by district, and the Clark County School District received funds that saved an estimated 1,400 jobs,” Summers said.
Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said: “We stand by the fairness of our news reporting.”
List defended the Review-Journal story as accurate and said it is Reid who has historically over time distorted facts and misrepresented reality.
Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, also weighed in on the dispute as a member of the Ways and Means Committee and former president of the Nevada State PTA.
“What is missing from this discussion is this: If we hadn’t received the federal stimulus funds we had three choices left, which was fire 3,500 teachers, raise taxes, or a combination of the two,” he said. “It really is that simple. The funds Nevada received avoided a huge layoff, or an equally huge tax increase. Whether Bridget Zick would have been one of the 3,500 would not have mattered to the parents whose children were no longer being taught by 3,499 other teachers.”
Reid campaign spokesman Kelly Steele said in response to List’s comments: “It’s simply irrefutable that 3,500 education workers weren’t laid off because of stimulus funding that Sen. Reid was instrumental in securing.
“The fact that Mr. List appears to have even less understanding of how stimulus funds are distributed than the shoddy journalism he cites in the Review-Journal is disappointing, but not surprising since he’s advocating for Sharron Angle, who opposes all public education funding and believes we should abolish the Department of Education.”
List said Reid should focus on Nevada’s record-setting unemployment rate.
False claims by Reid aren’t helping, he said.
“This guy would take credit for the fact that Hoover Dam hasn’t washed out if he thought he could get away with it,” List said.
Reid is locked in a battle with Angle in his bid for another term in the Senate. The race is one of the mostly closely watched contests in the nation.
Senator Reid claims in his ads to have saved 22,000 jobs by pulling strings to keep the City Center project going. That figure is also suspect.. How many of those are construction jobs that will end after the project has been completed?
At any rate, the legislation that Reid has helped to pass in the last few years includes regulations and tax increases that makes it hard for businesses to be profitable. If businesses, including those involved with City Center, can’t make a profit then they will not hire people no matter how many phone calls Harry Reid makes.
Maybe Reid used his influence to help at the local level but that is far overshadowed by the damage he has done at the national level.
This is along the same line as the above post. Most Republicans were thrilled when Scott Brown was elected senator in Massachussetts. Since then many have been disappointed with some of the votes he has taken.
But what they fail to realize is that if he ran as a Nevada conservative he might not have been elected and if he votes ninety five percent conservative as a senator he will not be re-elected in 2012. Remember, after all, it is Massachussetts.
I remember supporting Representative Phil Crane (R-IL) for president years ago. He was fond of saying, “I would rather stand on principles and lose than lose your principles and win.” Guess what, he lost.
Electability should be part of the candidate selection equation.
Please remove the above commment. I meant to post it to another article. Sorry.
Harry long ago forgot what truth is so he cannot be held to any kind of standard. He is the mouthpiece for the Administration in Washington just as much as Obama, after all he is the one who forced through all the horrendous bills that have the US on the brink of bankruptcy, chronic unemployment and an every decreasing standard of living.
What does he either know or care about Nevada any more? Over 95% of his campaign funds come from outside of the state of Nevada from the very people he demonizes on an almost daily basis. I don’t even tell anyone I’m from Nevada anymore, it is too embarrasing to hear the rants against the fool from Searchlight!