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A dark money outfit forced to settle with the secretary of state, a vehicle for an independent expenditure war to come and an echo chamber so we can hear them roar: Those are the new PACs registered last week in Nevada. They are: ►Alliance for America's Future, which had to register, because of that settlement with the SOS. ►Women's Empowerment PAC, which is designed to help female Democratic candidates and run by state Sens. Debbie Smith and Joyce Woodhouse. I read this as a way to get more...
State Sen. Mark Hutchison: Beloved by the most popular elected official in Nevada, fighter against Obamacare, "committed conservative." So says the lieutenant governor hopeful's first ad, now running on cable stations. This was to be expected. Hutchison is unknown, so the simple strategy is: Boost his name ID, define him (really, he is a conservative!), maybe bait Sue Lowden into spending money, then go after her. By the way, I had a forensic lip reader look at the spot, and he tells me this is...
News item: Las Vegas’ unemployment rate is 8.6 percent. The national rate is 6.7 percent. If irrational exuberance has a smell, the Four Seasons Ballroom reeked of it Wednesday morning. Exultation wafted through the air, tingling the receptive olfactories of hundreds of attendees at the annual unveiling of the Las Vegas Perspective. The slick, thick publication usually teems with dry, albeit invaluable facts about Southern Nevada life, from basic demographics to education metrics to healthcare...
In lengthy interviews with the Douglas County Republican Party, lieutenant governor candidates Sue Lowden and Mark Hutchison answered some amazing questions, including what they would do if the president signed an executive order to "require that all guns should be turned in." I kid you not. Ah, rural Nevada. You can read both of the interviews here. They are something else. Most astonishing was Lowden heartily embracing repealing the 17th Amendment and returning to state legislatures the...
The campaign for the most important item on the Nevada ballot has begun with a mailer to voters from the folks trying to kill what they call the “Margin Tax Initiative.” The piece, which is below, is quite something in what it says and what it doesn’t say. For instance: ►There is no such thing as the “Margin Tax Initiative.” It’s called “The Education Initiative.” I wonder why the foes don’t call it that. ►While we are talking about names, this group lists some of its members on the side of the...
UPDATE, 7PM: Now there is $5,000 more from 2012. Total now $31,000.   And now Reid is playing the aggrieved grandfather. Chutzpah: “My granddaughter has been the target of harassing phone calls, strangers tracking her down and knocking on her door and negative, unwanted attention on the internet. This has gone too far and it needs to stop now. I deeply regret any role I had in creating this situation but now, as a grandparent, I say enough is enough. “As I have already said, I am reimbursing...
This is the Sun op-ed I refer to below.      
An overwhelming number of teachers union members support the margin tax, although the membership is only marginally aware of it, a new survey of members shows. The survey, conducted by the union last week of 424 members and posted here, showed large numbers had not heard anything about the tax, whether it was called The Education Initiative (34 percent) or the margin tax (53 percent). Junkies sometimes forget it's not yet April, so maybe that's not too surprising. But more than 80 percent of...
Here's the letter sent today:    

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