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Would-be speaker Conklin goes up on TV
Assembly Majority Leader Marcus Conklin, up against highly touted Republican Wesley Duncan, is going up on television today. You don't see too many TV ads in Assembly races, but Conklin knows he has a difficult race -- that's why veteran Democrtaic operative Sean Sinclair, who used to consult with former Speaker Richard Perkins, was brought in to help, and Jon Summers, the ex-Harry Reid aide, helped produce the TV spot. This one is going to be interesting to watch. Here's the ad, a classic "Look at all the stuff I did" spot:
SOS confirms Democratic voter registration edge above 70,000
Ralston Reports premium subscribers learned it first this weekend. But here's what the secretary of state just put out: ---- DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO OUTPACE REPUBLICANS IN NEVADA VOTER REGISTRATION Secretary of State Ross Miller Reminds Nevadans there is still time to Register for the November Presidential Election (Carson City, NV; October 1, 2012) - Numbers released today by Secretary of State Ross Miller's Elections Division show Democrats registered more than twice as many voters than Republicans in September.
Poll: Brower up by 10 over Leslie
A survey conducted for Greg Brower's state Senate re-election bid indicates he is pulling away from challenger Sheila Leslie as he becomes better known. The numbers: 50 percent for Republican Brower to 40 percent for Democrat Leslie. The poll, conducted last week by a robopoll outfit, had a huge sample -- 1,097 voters -- so the margin of error is quite small (3 percent). All the usual caveats apply with robopolling. But I have seen the entire polling instrument and the internals make sense.
Poll results: You think Obama will win Nevada
In the latest Ralston Reports poll, 73 percent said they believe President Obama will win Nevada. Three hundred thirty-five people voted. A new poll is up on the U.S. Senate race. Vote now!
Roberson's big move: Boost funding for English Language Learners
State Sen. Michael Roberson will propose later today that the Legislature inject about $20 million a year to intervene in the early grades to help Hispanic children speak English. Roberson confirmed the move in an interview and said he has the support of Clark County Superintendent Dwight Jones, whom he praised. The funding would allow the hiring of 400 school personnel, including 200 teachers and 200 instructional aides.
Silver State bucks trend tracked by Silver
Although non-partisan registration has grown in Nevada since 2008, the state's overwhelming Democratic surge has gone counter to a trend in many states. This afternnon, statistics guru Nate Silver of The New York Times put out a series of Tweets about trends in the 15 states that track voter registration every month. Most recent Tweet at top:
PAC alert: A city councilman's, a state senator's, a Latino group's and a drug company's
Three weeks from early voting, and we have a city councilman trying to affect legislative races, a Hispanic organization getting...organized, a state Senate candidate getting his own PAC and a Big Pharma group coming to Nevada: Latino BIZPAC -- After all of these years and with fewer than 40 days left until the election, theLatin Chamber of Commerce has set up a political action committee. Longtime boss Otto Merida and businessman Brian Ayala are listed on the registration form.
Reid uses op-eds to assail Romney, Heller
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid penned a pair of op-eds in Nevada papers today -- one to go directly after Mitt Romney and the other to promote renewable energy while firing a parenthetical barb at Sen. Dean Heller.
Charting Obama vs. Romney in Nevada
UPDATED BELOW THE CHART The Huffington Post has a nice chart for Nevada (and all other states) on the presidential race since the beginning of the year. You will see that President Obama has never been behind in any public poll here. I do have a problem with any poll average because bad data pollutes it. But one argument is that there are so many polls that the bad data is diluted -- unless, of course, it's like 2010 when all of the data here indicated that Sharron Angle would defeat Harry Reid. Here's the poll chart, courtesy of HuffPo:
Republicans in Vegas: GOP rally against the president, Ann Romney and Herman Cain
Republicans are planning a rally Sunday "to help (President Obama) feel less welcome" near Desert Pines High School, where the president is speaking late in the day.