(Mike Zahara) – My Sunday morning analysis series continues today
State Senate District 5: Without question, Michael Roberson is one of the best GOP recruits in Clark County in years and will be a formidable challenger to Teachers Union apologist Joyce Woodhouse, in November and should easily beat her. Challenger Nate Schlumpf is a nice guy, but doesn’t have any idea how government works in Carson City, nor could he tell me anything at all about the neighborhood he wishes to represent. Nate, get yourself elected to your party’s county leadership and learn the ropes first. Roberson married the former Liberty Leavitt–isn’t that the best polical name of all time?–and they are an up and coming power couple in SoNev.
If I were a GOPer, I would cast my vote for Michael Roberson in SD05.
State Senate District 7: I know both Dem and both GOP candidates, so they’re they getting a piece all to themselves soon!
State Senate District 8: My own, currently represented by the ineffective Barbara Cegavske who doesn’t do much for us, but people just keep voting for her in our overwhelming GOP area. I just met her and I’m in my 8th year living in the district!
NVDEMS recruited a phony in former prosecutor and current Jones Vargas partner, Tammy Peterson, who has entrusted her campaign to the 22 year olds running the Senate Caucus and who designed for her some of the most inane political rhetoric I have ever read! Who’s not ‘for’ little old ladies and kids?
Ms Peterson conveys no warmth or genuineness and is the Hitchcock, icy-blonde married to GOP donor royalty—Ms Peterson has never done a damn thing for the Demcoratic Party either—and is one of its worst recruits in recent memory. She is campaigning like she’s presenting closing arguments in a death sentence case; scaring the very voters she’s trying to woo!
She was recruited only to be the stand-in for fellow Jones Vargas Republican, Bill Raggio—who is expected to drop dead at any minute–and for all intent and purposes, Ms Peterson is a Republican too! Her husband is GOP donor royalty and Tammy Peterson is a textbook D.I.N.O!
Her opponent is the affable and collegial, Mark Brandon—everyone’s favorite State Farm insurance agent in the neighborhood!—and who is a big, giant guy who used to play football and speaks too much in sports euphemisms, but who is a real person; not a candidate-out-of-a-box, phony like Tammy Peterson.
I will touch the screen for Mark Brandon and recommend my neighbors and friends out here do too! That said the chances of either Peterson or Brandon beating Cegavske in a GOP year are close to zero.
State Senate District 9: Elizabeth Halseth gives me no indication that she even reads a newspaper, and you get a vibe around her that if you needed a good banana bread recipe, she’d be the first person you’d call! She’s an beautiful young woman who can’t hope to coast on her good looks in Carson City; though they’ll certainly not be a hindrance. Republicans want a change here and pretty much hate Dennis Nolan who is 100% ineffective and completely ignores his constituents, so I would have to cast a vote for newbie Halseth who couldn’t be any worse than the incumbent.
Three Dems are vying for this seat that none of them can win, but they’ll get good practice. My Dem choice here would be newcomer Benjamin Yerushalmi whose name does sound like a new sandwich offering at Quizznos, but who is a Jeweler by trade and a bright, personable guy.
State Senate District 10 GOP: Of course I’m a Ruben Kihuen man on the Dem side, but he’s drawn three GOPers in their primary and I would have to go for Dallas Augustine again, though she doesn’t seem to be campaigning—at least I haven’t seen her this year.
State Senate District 12 GOP: Steve Sanson Jr is the nicest young man I have met this entire cycle. Flawless good manners, of good cheer, shy and quiet and his entire campaign—verbatim—are his father, Steve Sanson’s of Veteran’s in Politics who is running himself this year too, words and ideas.
Sanson Jr is currently serving our country and wishes to become a doctor! Please young Steve, pursue that and come back when you’re done and then do politics if you’re still interested. I’m an oldest son too and know that we always seek paternal approval our entire lives; however your candidacy is all but guaranteeing a win for Joe Hardy, instead of who should win this race and whom I would vote for if I were a Republican; Patrick McNaught.
McNaught should face Dem Aaron Ford who is very bright, a PhD, has been involved in black community efforts and who doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in this District—dubbed the ‘Mormon’ seat to me by I don’t know how many people—I thought every seat in every body in the state was the ‘Mormon’ seat!
I found McNaught to be bright and energetic; even as a Dem, I would probably vote for him in November too! He has my support for the GOP nomination. Mailboxes win primaries Patrick; put every dime you can into them!
I hope to see Ford try again for a county wide office he has a much better chance at winning; he is being cynically used by Sen Steven Horsford who made promises to Ford that he can’t keep and who doesn’t want another far more talented and black man competing with him which is why he personally set him up for failure in this race. Horsford called him ‘A’ron at the recent ClarkDems convention too apparently not knowing how to pronouce a biblical first name!
Sorry Aaron, they all lied to you; welcome to politics!
State Assembly District 2 GOP: This is my own district that a Dem has never won—and won’t ever win—covering the far west valley. Current freshman GOP incumbent John Hambrick is an ineffective horse’s patootie who won’t even talk to me because I’m a Dem, even though he purports to represent the entire district. My former assembly-dude, Garn Mabrey, still pops in here John; you’re supposed to be representing all of us!
He spent his entire session plotting against former GOP Minority Leader, Heidi Gansert, for not being ‘right’ enough, and in turn, John Hambrick delivered absolutely nothing for us in AD02.
However, GOPers got a gift in newcomer, Annie Black, who I would enthusiastically vote for if I were a Republican, and who I will absolutely vote for if she makes it to November! She’s bright, beautiful, a little saucy, pixyish, and the perfect representation of a young and up and coming GOP woman!
She went to school with Barbara Cegavske’s kids, is raising her own kids as a single mom, and is learning the political ropes pretty quickly for a newbie.
You knuckleheaded Republicans should be seeing that this woman is going places in your party and she needs tending and nurturing to fully develop as a GOP standard-bearer in the future.
She’s been one of the young pleasures to meet this cycle too—a cycle loaded with young people in both parties!
You have to bring the next generation up if you wish your parties to be successful this decade—and probably more than the other newbies in either party this year, I want to see where Annie Black is in five years!
AD05 pits GOP workhorse, Tibi Ellis against very last minute GOP carpetbagger, Tim Williams, the former perennial candidate from AD18 who only moved into the district in a cynical, sexist and racist move against Ellis. He doesn’t have a prayer, but she does against Dem Marilyn Loop. I dropped the ‘Dondero’ because her collegues say she never used her maiden name before entering politcs in 2008 and after never having down anything fopr the Dem Party either.
Tibi Ellis belongs to my parish, knows everything about her AD having lived there for many years, and she will be an asset to the GOP.
(Mr. Zahara is a longtime Democrat activist and publisher of the WatchdogWag.com blog)