(Chuck Muth) – So as not to bury the lead, the Hollywood Handout was killed in a late-night vote in the Nevada State Senate last night!
I was at a dinner with some 50 conservative leaders in Palm Springs when I got a text that the vote was coming up. So I stepped outside to watch proceedings in the parking lot.
It was touch and go . . . right up to the final vote.
But in the end, enough legislators from BOTH parties stood up to pressure, arm-twisting and “let’s make a deal” shenanigans and the bill lost by . . . ONE VOTE.
Hurray!
Now let’s do a post-mortem recap of the heroes and villains.
HALL OF FAME
1.) You.
You spoke up loud and clear with your emails and phone calls to various GOP legislators. I heard from some of them who said hearing from you made the difference in how they voted.
So take a bow. This is as much YOUR victory as anybody’s.
2.) George Harris.
George has ben a Republican Party leader for over 35 years. And he’s running for the State Senate next year against one of the most ardent supporters of the Hollywood Handout, Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop.
Had the Hollywood Handout passed, the project would have been built in this district and George inked multiple articles published on Nevada News & Views laying out his opposition.
But he also snail-mailed over 2,000 letters to voters who live in the neighborhood where the studio would be located, firing up opposition from the voters who would be directly affected by the project.
If you want to change the “culture of corruption” in Cason City, help George flip this seat from blue to red next year.
3.) Victor Joecks and Sam Mirejovsky
I love professional consultants and politicians who dismiss online activists as “keyboard warriors.” They do that because they know “keyboard warriors” actually are extremely effective.
While the “mainstream media” hides important information from the public that the “establishment” doesn’t want publicized, “keyboard warriors” fill in the gaps.
Indeed, in this not-so-special-session the public wouldn’t have known about all the arm-twisting and “bribing” that was going on without folks learning about it on social media, especially on X.
Two stalwart conservative “keyboard warriors” who were all over this session with information you wouldn’t have found anywhere else were Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks and podcaster Sam Mirejovsky.
And let me add a shout-out to a couple other “keyboard warriors” who were all over this thing like white on rice: Michael Brown, Christiane Mersch and the Washoe County GOP.
When Elon Musk declared a year ago that “YOU are media now,” he was talking about “keyboard warriors” like Victor and Sam. Take a bow, gents.
4.) Sen. Jeff Stone
Stone, a veteran Republican legislator and California refugee carefully considered both sides of the argument over the Hollywood Handout and was considered an “undecided” vote when the bill landed in the Senate.
But despite ENORMOUS pressure applied to him by advocates for the project, he was ultimately the deciding GOP vote that killed the bill. He listened to you and his constituents, not the political knee-cappers.
Bravo, Senator!
Oh, and get this…
While Democrat Sen. Edgar Flores was allowed to testify and vote on the bill remotely last night, Sen. Stone was barred from doing the same. One set of rules for Democrats, another set for Republicans.
5.) Nevada Policy and Keystone
The Nevada Policy Research Institute, under the steady, principled leadership of John Tsarpalas, was an early and vocal opponent of this bill and rallied conservatives to contact legislators to voice their disapproval.
And Keystone Corporation – the state’s preeminent business advocacy organization – issued a strong letter of opposition to the Hollywood Handout during the session that really woke a LOT of people up. When Keystone talks, people listen.
6.) Annie Black
The former assemblywoman and conservative firebrand led a petition campaign to include some kind of school choice measure in the special session discussion.
She wasn’t voicing support for the Hollywood Handout. What she was talking about was sell-out Republicans, who were going to vote for the bill anyway, using their leverage to get something important for Nevada families and kids in return.
In the end, none of them did – even though just ONE of them could have made it happen. They sold out for . . . nothing.
One of those sell-outs was Assemblyman Jason Patchett – who was anointed by Assembly Minority Leader Greg Hafen to Assembly District 19 shortly before the not-so-special-session began – to fill the vacancy of Assemblyman Toby Yurek, who resigned a few weeks ago.
AD19 is Annie’s former district . . . and she’s eligible to run for her old seat again next year if she so chooses. Republicans in the Assembly DESPERATELY could use her principled leadership.
Here’s hoping she’s willing to make the sacrifice.
HALL OF SHAME
There are so many. Ugh.
1.) Assemblywoman Danielle Gallant
Gallant “pulled a Chris Edwards” by voting for the Hollywood Handout before she voted against it.
She could have put an end to this fiasco in the early days of the session by voting AGAINST Democrat Steve Yeager’s decision to allow legislators to vote remotely.
Her one vote would have prevented two GOP assembly members who were “yes” votes on the Hollywood Handout from voting – which would have killed the bill without all the pain and suffering that followed, especially in the Senate.
I’m sure she thought she was being a mega-political strategist with her gamesmanship. But in reality she was way in over her head and only prolonged the agony. As Dirty Harry famously said, “A man’s (or woman’s) got to know his limitations.”
2.) Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama and Assemblyman Brian Hibbetts
After Day One of the not-so-special-session, Kasama and Hibbetts fled Carson City instead of sticking around and doing the jobs they were elected to do. Kasama reportedly headed out for a vacation in Cabo while Hibbetts jetted off to Europe.
It’s bad enough they were both “yes” votes on the Hollywood Handout, but they vamoosed and ducked out on key votes on a multitude of other issues that came up – opting to not even vote remotely on them.
It’s not a stretch to say Kasama may have killed her chances at winning the GOP nomination for a seat on the Clark County commission in next June’s primary, and any credible Republican will have a good chance to oust Hibbetts in the primary just on this one issue alone.
3.) Assembly Members Lisa Cole, Rich DeLong, P.K. O’Neill and Jason Patchett
In addition to Kasama and Hibbetts, these four Republicans also voted for the Hollywood Handout, which only passed by a razor-thin 22-20 margin.
Had just ONE of them voted against the bill (a tie would have killed it), the session would have come to an immediate halt rather than moving over to the Senate.
And what’s worse is that none of the Sell-Out Six conditioned their “yes” votes on adding renewed funding for Opportunity Scholarships even though the bill already included additional funding for pre-K day care.
If only these Republicans had been willing to fight for educational freedom as hard as they fought for the Hollywood Handout.
4.) Sen. Lisa Krasner and Sen. John Steinbeck
I’ll give the pair credit for this: consistency. They wrongly and foolishly sided with the pro-studio crowd from Day One and stuck with their wrong and foolish position all the way through to the end.
But they, too, never conditioned their support on getting some measure of school choice in return. The Democrats didn’t have to buy these cows since they were willing to give the milk for free.
5.) Sen. Ira Hansen and Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen
Yes, both voted “no” on the Hollywood Handout. Good on them. However…
The Democrats succeeded in calling themselves into a separate special session – the first time in history any such thing has occurred – in order to pass a rent control bill.
In order to do so, they had to get a 2/3 super-majority to sign a petition. But Democrats were one vote short of such a super-majority in both the Senate and the Assembly.
The husband-and-wife Hansen team gave them the votes they needed. Ugh.
Fortunately, Alexis flip-flopped when the bill came up in the Assembly and the bill died one vote short of the super-majority it needed.
6.) The Nevada Republican Party
Even though all 17 GOP county party organizations opposed the Hollywood Handout, the state GOP issued a press release during the special session declaring it was “not a handout” and “no public dollars will be used.”
Um, yes, it was a handout and, yes, public dollars would have been used.
7.) Sen. Dina Neal
The Nevada Current reported this morning that the Democrat senator has a LONG history of opposing corporate give-aways. She even declared during the session: “We can’t keep using public money to subsidize billionaires.”
But she voted for it anyway. Why?
Well, according to the Current, it was “because of Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Clark), who Neal said saved her life when she had a medical episode earlier this year.”
“Dear Hollywood,” Neal is quoted as saying, “I want to be absolutely clear, although this vote may benefit you, it is not for you.”
Unbelievable.
ANOTHER HERO
I’ll end with a completely unrelated matter…
During the last regular session of the Legislature, they passed a bill to allow Clark County to extend a voter-approved “temporary” tax hike on gas WITHOUT another vote of the people.
Oh, and naturally, several Republicans shamefully voted with the Democrats to keep your gas prices high without giving you a say in it.
And while the not-so-special-session was going on, the Clark County Commission voted to approve the tax hike without sending it to a vote of the people. And the only Republican on the commission, April Becker, voted “no.”
In return, LIUNA Local 872 immediately rescinded its endorsement.
THANK YOU, Commissioner!
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Thanks to our extensive network and our collaboration county-wide and state-wide, we were able to defeat the Film Tax Credit Bill. . . . (Six Republican state senators) worked pretty hard to fend off some pretty nasty overtures from special interests and they did not take the bait.” – Pauline Lee
“Nevada is fortunate to have Gov. Lombardo in office. Imagine if Sisolak had won re-election? Of if bozo Aaron Ford were to win next year? If Ford wins, Nevada might as well just pack it up and merge with California.” – Sam Mirejovsky
“Proud to be a Director on both the Keystone Corporation and Nevada Policy. Gov. Joe Lombardo has shown tremendous resolve as a leader by vetoing 162 bills in his first term alone. I am 100% behind him continuing to serve Nevada as our Governor.” – Paul Enos
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com. His views are his own.
