{"id":46305,"date":"2023-06-09T10:50:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T17:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/?p=46305"},"modified":"2023-07-19T11:20:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T18:20:57","slug":"2023-nevada-legislature-winners-losers-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/2023-nevada-legislature-winners-losers-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 Nevada Legislature: Winners & Losers, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

(Chuck Muth)<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 I was going back and forth as to whether to dedicate Part II of this Winners & Losers series to the winners or losers of\u00a0the 2023 session of the Nevada Legislature.\u00a0
\u00a0
But in light of the Las Vegas Golden Knights blowing Game 3 last night, losers it is\u2026
\u00a0
Loser: Democrat Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager<\/strong>
\u00a0
By all accounts, Yeager is a nice enough fellow.\u00a0
\u00a0
But after Gov. Joe Lombardo reached across the aisle and offered a whopping $2 billion in additional funding for public school education in return for a comparative pittance of $25 million for Opportunity Scholarships, Yeager dug in his Birkenstocks and spit in the governor\u2019s face.
\u00a0
Big mistake. You don\u2019t pull on Superman\u2019s cape and you don\u2019t mess around with Joe.
\u00a0
Throughout the session, Yeager failed to control the most nutso members of his caucus and allowed one super-dumbass liberal bill after another to pass.\u00a0 He calculated that Lombardo would, at best, veto a handful of them. He calculated wrong.
\u00a0
One after another, bill after bill, landed on the governor\u2019s desk only to have a stake driven through its heart with Lombardo\u2019s veto pen.\u00a0 As of this morning I think the total is up to 32.\u00a0 And breaking the all-time record of 48 is in sight.
\u00a0
But it\u2019s even worse than that.\u00a0 Yeager\u00a0owns those fanatical bills, as well as owning the death of Opportunity Scholarship (for now).\u00a0 And if he loses even one seat in next year\u2019s elections, he loses his 2\/3 super-majority in the lower house.
\u00a0
Democrats may have held the upper hand in the legislative process, but the governor has advantages like no other elected official in campaigns.\u00a0 If you think Joe Lombardo is gonna forgive and forget, you don\u2019t know Joe Lombardo.
\u00a0
You called down the thunder, well now you\u2019ve got it.
\u00a0
Unlike RINO former Gov. Brian Sandoval, Lombardo isn\u2019t going to just issue some bland endorsement statement and a photo-op to GOP candidates next year.\u00a0
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His political team is already actively recruiting strong challengers to Yeager\u2019s most vulnerable incumbents in swing districts and will be going \u201call-in\u201d with funding, training, management, and active campaigning.\u00a0
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Indeed, Yeager\u2019s own head could very well be on the chopping block.
\u00a0
As I\u2019ve written previously, all Yeager did with how he blew off the governor\u2019s modest policy requests this session was awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.\u00a0 A reckoning is coming.\u00a0 Payback\u2019s a bitch.
\u00a0
Speaking of which\u2026
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Loser: Democrat Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro<\/strong>
\u00a0
Everything written about Yeager\u2019s miscalculations and mismanagement of the 2023 session applies to Cannibizzaro.\u00a0 Only, she doesn\u2019t possess Yeager\u2019s charm and affability.\u00a0
\u00a0
By all accounts, this is one nasty, repugnant, vile, and spiteful partisan. Think Dina Titus without the grating southern drawl.
\u00a0
The Wicked Witch of the South is up for re-election herself next year.\u00a0 And the odds were, going into this session, that she was going to pick up the one net seat she needs for a super-majority in the upper house next year.
\u00a0
She still might get there thanks to how Democrats redrew the district lines after the 2020 Census. But it\u2019s no longer a lock.\u00a0
\u00a0
While her own seat might still be relatively safe, the seat of social justice warrior Dallas Harris is definitely in play.\u00a0 And word on the street is that a serious challenger has already been recruited and is just waiting in the wings, preparing for launch.
\u00a0
Sometimes you win a battle only to lose the war.\u00a0 The Queen of Mean may well have done just that.
\u00a0
Loser: Democrat Assemblywoman Danielle Monroe-Moreno<\/strong>
\u00a0
This radical, card-carrying race-baiter did two monumentally stupid things this session\u2026
\u00a0
One, she ran for and was elected to chair the Nevada Democrat Party.\u00a0 So everything she says and does will reflect on every Democrat in the state.\u00a0
\u00a0
Two, she got caught on mic saying the quiet part out loud.\u00a0 During a hearing a few weeks back, Moreno actually said, \u201cI wish I could legislate what parents do, but I cannot.\u201d
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If you don\u2019t think that brain-dead statement is going to be used against every Democrat candidate on the ballot next year, you don\u2019t know politics. And it\u2019s the kind of issue that will resonate with independent voters who will decide who wins and who loses in tough, competitive races.

Loser: “Republican” Assembly Leader P.K. O\u2019Neill<\/strong>
\u00a0
When Assembly Republicans chose P.K. as their leader last November, I wrote that they\u2019d picked the worst possible person imaginable. And he lived up to the prediction.
\u00a0
The consensus on his virtue as head of the GOP caucus is that \u201che\u2019ll do whatever he\u2019s told.\u201d\u00a0 Not exactly what you\u2019re looking for in a LEADER.
\u00a0
Worse, remember P.K. was the deciding vote in the Assembly in 2015 that gave us the largest tax hike in Nevada history.\u00a0 He then tried to rehabilitate his blunder by meekly saying he made a mistake because he thought the money would go to education and it didn\u2019t \u2013 as if that made it better.
\u00a0
But he didn\u2019t really regret that vote.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t learn any lesson from it. Get this\u2026
\u00a0
On the final budget bill, the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) – which included a major tax hike as well as giving the GOP-hating Culinary Union $25 million that\u2019ll end up being used for its ballot-harvesting operation \u2013 the Democrats had the super-majority to pass it without a single Republican vote.
\u00a0
P.K. voted for it anyway!
\u00a0
A tiger doesn\u2019t change its spots.\u00a0 Once a tax-hiker, always a tax hiker.\u00a0 And he led from behind the entire session.\u00a0

To the extent that anyone wants to claim he fought for the governor\u2019s agenda this session, he fought with a My Pillow, not Thor\u2019s hammer.
\u00a0
He is decidedly\u00a0NOT<\/u>\u00a0a wartime consigliere.
\u00a0
When the special sessions finally wrap up, Assembly Republicans need to do what they\u2019ve done before with proven weak reeds \u2013 kick him to the curb.\u00a0 He needs to be replaced by someone with the cojones to take the fight to the other side in next year\u2019s elections, not stand in the middle of the crowd whimpering, \u201cNothing to see here.\u201d
\u00a0
P.K. represents a solid Republican district in the Carson City area.\u00a0 He\u2019s sold out Republicans at least twice now by voting for major tax hikes. Conservatives in his district need to find a strong, credible, and viable candidate to take him out in the GOP primary next year.
\u00a0
Loser: Republican Assemblyman Rich DeLong<\/strong>
\u00a0
DeLong of Reno represents one of the reddest Assembly districts in the state.\u00a0 He won his GOP primary last year running as a conservative\u2019s conservative.\u00a0 And he signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge promising his voters that he would \u201coppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.\u201d
\u00a0
But the rap I\u2019ve heard on DeLong\u2019s performance during the session was that he just wanted to be everybody\u2019s friend and didn\u2019t want to make waves.\u00a0 He got sucked into the go-along-to-get-along vortex inside the Legislature and never came out.\u00a0 He liked sitting at the big kids\u2019 table.
\u00a0
Remember that major CIP tax hike I mentioned above that P.K. voted for even though Democrats didn\u2019t need a single GOP vote to pass it?
\u00a0
Yep, DeLong also voted for it!
\u00a0
Conservatives, start your engines.\u00a0 If you believe in the old maxim that you should elect the most conservative candidate who can win, DeLong ain\u2019t it. Time for an upgrade.
\u00a0
Paging Dr. Beadles.\u00a0 Dr. Robert Beadles.\u00a0 Please report to the OR.
\u00a0
OK, that\u2019s it for now.\u00a0 The Western Conservative Conference here in Denver is underway and I\u2019m heading over to the convention center.\u00a0 Stay tuned.\u00a0 More dumb to come.
\u00a0
FAMOUS LAST WORDS<\/strong>
\u00a0
\u201cMany politicians promise voters they won\u2019t raise taxes on the campaign trail, but after they\u2019re elected, go back on their word.\u00a0 The Taxpayer Protection Pledge is a way for candidates to put their campaign rhetoric in writing. A written pledge carries more weight than words alone.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Conservative columnist Victor Joecks<\/em><\/strong>
\u00a0
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com.\u00a0 You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com.\u00a0 His views are his own.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Chuck Muth)\u00a0\u2013 I was going back and forth as to whether to dedicate Part II of this Winners & Losers series to the winners or losers of\u00a0the 2023 session of the Nevada Legislature.\u00a0\u00a0But in light of the Las Vegas Golden Knights blowing Game 3 last night, losers it is\u2026\u00a0Loser: Democrat Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager\u00a0By all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[748],"tags":[3466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46307,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46305\/revisions\/46307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}