(Chuck Muth) – The Republican primary contest for Nevada Attorney General pits two candidates who couldn’t possibly, in a million years, be more different. The conservative Republican, Sigal Chattah (disclaimer: a client), is being challenged by a self-described “moderate” Republican, Tisha Black, who was put into the race at the last minute by the GOP’s political Establishment. I’ve already written extensively about these two candidates, so I won’t rehash it here. If you missed them, click here for a pretty good summary. But with the first quarter’s campaign finance reports now filed, let’s take a look at how the two are stacking up in the money chase. Here’s the bottom line… According to the reports, Black has $363,000 cash-on-hand for the primary while Chattah reports having $325,000 cash-on-hand. So pretty closely matched. However, Black also reports eleven $10,000 donations. Why is this relevant? Because that means about $55,000 of her haul cannot be used in the primary, since there’s a $5,000 contribution limit. *If* she wins the primary, then she can use that $55K for the general election. So if you back out the general election dollars, Black actually has $17K less than Chattah. Still, they’re pretty evenly matched. But let’s look a little more closely at Black’s financial support, especially from Black family members…
- James Black: $6,000
- Gary Black: $10,000
- Charmaine Black: $5,000
- Leo Black: $5,800
- Wendy Black: $10,000
- Michael Black: $5,000
- Lori Black: $5,000
- Robert Black Jr.: $20,000 (from same address as Ammon Development Group & Bringing Home the Bacon Trust)
Other maxed-out $5,000+ donors include…
- Phil Peckman, who’s given almost $20K to Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak, $5,000 to former Democrat Secretary of State Ross Miller, $5,000 to Democrat Las Vegas City Councilman Brian Knudsen and over $50,000 to the “Committee to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol” committee (Tisha’s the immediate past president of the Marijuana Dispensary Association).
- Gary Ackerman, who, in addition to maxing out to Sisolak, also donated $5,000 to “Nevadans for Background Checks,” a liberal gun-control group.
- Diana Chesnoff, who, in addition to contributing $20,000 to Sisolak in 2018-19, also maxed out Democrat Attorney General Aaron Ford in his last election.
- Mosaic Development. Two $5,000 checks under different names at the same address. Tish is the only Republican they’ve given money to. All others, including Sisolak, are Democrats.
- Red Diamond Investors, for whom Black’s law firm also happens to be the company’s resident agent.
- Christopher Beavor, who gave Sisolak $37,500 last year from various corporate entities
- Farhan Naqvi, who’s given $6,250 to Aaron Ford and $20,000 to Sisolak.
- John Breslow, who has only made two reported donations: $5,000 to Black and $10,000 to Sisolak.
- Storage One, which has donated $19,400 to Sisolak.
- Retail Association of Nevada (RAN) – which is the chief lobbyist trying to tax your online Internet purchases.
There’s also former Nevada Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison. He personally donated $5,000 to Black, his law firm donated $10,000, his law partner donated $5,000 personally, and his Stronger Nevada PAC donated an additional $10,000. Then there’s also a $1,000 donation from Mike Slanker, a Hutchison political associate who was also Chattah’s campaign manager before the two had a falling out several months ago. So what we have here bankrolling Black’s campaign are her consultants, her family – which is deeply invested in the marijuana industry and could sure use a sympathetic ear in the AG’s office – and a group of Sisolak/Democrat financial supporters. What could go wrong? The Laxalt Laxative The DC-based Club for Growth has come into the Nevada U.S. Senate race big time, swamping Nevada GOP voters with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of mailers touting Donald Trump’s endorsement of Adam Laxalt, followed up immediately by a “poll” supposedly showing Laxalt leading his primary opponent, Capt. Sam Brown. Hey, remember the last time CFG came into Nevada big time to swing a GOP primary election? That would have been 2010, when it trashed former Republican State Sen. Sue Lowden and boosted the campaign of former State Assemblywoman Shaaron Angle in the primary for the right to go up against late Democrat Sen. Harry Reid in the general. And how’d that work out for us again? Quick Hits * Stop blaming cops for all the criminals who have been let out of jail or given light sentences & slaps on the wrist, only to re-offend, and instead put the blame where it belongs; soft-on-crime Democrat district attorneys, judges and attorney generals. Cops are doing their jobs getting them off the streets, while social justice warriors keep letting them back out. * Democrats in California are pushing a bill to reduce the work-week at private businesses from 40 hours to 32 hours with no reduction in pay. For the life of me, I still can’t seem to find where government gets the power to interfere with the private employment terms for private employers and private employees. But expect this sort of madness to make its way into Nevada if Democrats win in November. Election ’22 Update The Cook Political Report has moved both Nevada’s 3rd and 4th Congressional District races from “Lean Democrat” to “Toss-Up.” Red wave building. The Smell of Fear “Listen, this is not the news we wanted to hear: POLITICO just reported that Nevada has one of the most vulnerable governor’s races in the country! … Look, this is a clear sign that Republicans can actually win this race.” – Team Sisolak, 4/20/22 New Tax Pledge Signers ‘22
- Danny Tarkanian – Congress
For the complete, running list of taxpayer champions who have pledged to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes,” click here If you’ve already signed and your name is not on the list, please forward a copy of your Pledge to chuck@chuckmuth.com. If you need a copy of the Pledge to sign, shoot me an email noting what seat you’re running for and I’ll send it to you. FAMOUS LAST WORDS “For more than a hundred years, we conservatives have had our political guns trained on the wrong target. We’ve been focused primarily on defeating the liberal, big government Democrats, when the first, and most important, roadblock to our goal of governing America according to conservative principles is big government Republicans.” – Richard Viguerie “Establishment Republicans are not conservative. … They pursue policies that are ‘Democrat-lite,’ and they govern as ‘dime store Democrats,’ simply growing government at a slightly slower pace. … Merely having an ‘R’ next to your name on the ballot does not mean you will hold fast to limited-government constitutional conservative principles.” – Richard Viguerie “Of course, it’s almost always better that a Republican be elected than a Democrat. The Congressional voting record of the worst Republican is certainly better than the voting record of the best Democrat. However, America is not going to be saved by the type of go-along, get-along, don’t make waves type of typical Republican politicians. Conservatives, seek out boat rockers, not Establishment types.” – Richard Viguerie
