For years now, ask almost any typical Nevada politician about Yucca Mountain and they’ve told us the nuclear waste repository project is dead, dead, DEAD!
And as such, they insist on rejecting even the slightest notion that maybe, just maybe, it’d be in our state’s best interest to consider participating in discussions about safety controls and potential benefits for our citizens. Because, they tell us, the project is dead, dead, DEAD!
But this is pure bluster. Political posturing. Self-serving naiveté. Because politics is all about numbers. And the numbers simply aren’t on Nevada’s side. There are 50 states (or 57 by Obama’s count). And Nevada is just one small one. And if you don’t think the others will eventually gang up on Nevada, consider the following…
Dan Brouillette was nominated by President Trump to be the #2 official in the Department of Energy. Both Nevada Sens. Dean Heller and Catherine Cortez Masto-Reid adamantly, vehemently, opposed his confirmation because of suspicions that he supports the Yucca project.
Brouillette was confirmed yesterday by an overwhelming, bi-partisan vote of 79-19.
That’s called “writing on the wall.”
What’s eating Dan Schwartz?
The moderate Nevada State Treasurer is threatening to challenge conservative Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt in the GOP gubernatorial primary next year. But in reading the transcript of an interview Schwartz did with Ray Hagar on Nevada Newsmakers last month, it appears he’s really running against gaming mogul Sheldon Adelson.
In the interview Schwartz suggests that “Sheldon has bought Adam” and Laxalt is “in the pocket of the state’s richest citizen.” He also referred to Andy Abboud, the Sands’ Vice President of Government Affairs, of being his “accomplice.”
This is curious. Because a few years ago Schwartz was tapped to serve as the Nevada Republican Party’s finance chair. And from all accounts he got the slot because of his then-relationship with…the Las Vegas Sands.
In fact, party officials I’ve talked to have told me Adelson is the ONLY major donor Schwartz was able to raise significant money from on his own.
And yet now he’s trashing his former benefactor in public interviews? I wonder what that’s all about? Sure sounds personal.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson spoke at the Republican Men’s Club luncheon this week answered questions about his political aspirations in 2018, as well as his reflections on the 2017 Nevada Legislature which was once again under Democrat control.
Click here to read all about it
* * * * *
Former Republican Nevada State Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman has finished her “office shopping” and unofficially announced a run for Congress in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, according to an interview she did with liberal blogger Jon Ralston’s online publication.
Seaman rightly criticized the GOP establishment’s anointed candidate in the race already, State Sen. Scott Hammond, for voting for the largest tax hike in Nevada history during the 2015 legislative session. But Seaman herself voted for nine other tax hikes that session, despite signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Will be interesting to see if she signs the Tax Pledge this time around.
With conservative Nevada State Sen. Don Gustavson’s announcement that he won’t be running for re-election, GOP Assemblyman Ira Hansen announced this week that he intends to seek the seat. Which I hear hasn’t exactly made members of the Senate Republican Caucus happy campers.
Or some conservatives.
While Ira talks a great conservative game in public and in the media, some conservatives are pointing to his actual voting record and charging him with being all hat and no cattle. One Reno conservative sent me this indictment list…
- 2013 American Conservative Union (ACU) Rating: 67%
- 2015 American Conservative Union (ACU) Rating: 76%
- Voted twice for the temporary sunset taxes, and was willing to again in 2015 until they decided to make them permanent
- Voted for Tesla. Ranted for 2 years about how bad it was; now touting how great it is
- And, finally, we cannot forget that if he hadn’t quit as Speaker-designee in 2015, we’d have had conservative Assemblywoman Michele Fiore as Chair of the Taxation Committee and the Commerce Tax bill would never have seen the light of day!
Yikes! Hold the coronation. Sounds like somebody might end up with a primary after all.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“U.S. Hiring Maintains Strong Pace; Jobless Rate Ties 16-Year Low at 4.3%.” – Wall Street Journal headline, 8/4/17, #MAGA
Click below to get your own FREE subscription of Nevada News & Views
