* Yesterday was a banner day for conservatives in Nevada.
* First, Gov. Joe Lombardo – who was criticized by some conservatives during his campaign last year for supposedly being “weak on guns” – vetoed three Democrat gun-control bills.
* Secondly, his office announced he was willing to veto the state budget unless his bills on school choice, school safety, reducing crime, and election reform receive a fair hearing and votes.
* Thirdly, it was announced that Gov. Lombardo was deploying the National Guard to Texas to help with border enforcement.
* Ah, the difference a Republican governor makes!
* Nevertheless, I keep hearing sniping and whining about Lombardo from some conservative GOP activists. They keep comparing what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Bruce Abbott are doing in their states and wondering why Lombardo isn’t being more like them.
* Here’s why…
* Florida has a Republican-majority Legislature. Texas has a Republican-majority Legislature. Nevada has a Democrat-majority Legislature – including a super-majority in the State Assembly.
* Gov. Lombardo isn’t the problem. The Democrats running the Legislature are. Keep your political fire trained on them. And get involved in getting rid of some of them next year at the polls.
* And, by the way, where are legislative Republicans? They can’t expect the governor to do all their dirty work. It’s time for them to play hardball, too. As Clint Eastwood said in The Outlaw Josey Wales…
“Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean.”
* Indeed, even though they’re in the minority in both houses, there are procedural challenges they can deploy to strengthen their hand, especially in the court of public opinion.
* They either don’t know what to do, or they don’t know how to do it, or are just afraid to do it.
* Time to get in the game, gang.
* Reports on Wednesday confirm that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is lining up behind Sam Brown for Nevada’s U.S. Senate race next year.
* Brown has not yet made an official announcement that he’s in the race, though it was reported that he’s in the “process of deliberating with consultants, members of the state-level GOP apparatus, prior donors and supporters.”
* I guess the effort to beat him to the punch and scare him out of the race by already-announced/thrice-failed GOP candidate Jim Marchant didn’t work after all.
* Brown, if he gets in, will easily win the GOP primary against Marchant and any of the other announced candidates…acknowledging that it’s still early enough for others to throw their hat in the ring.
* Brown could win the statewide race in the general election. Marchant can’t. He already proved that in his Secretary of State’s race last year.
* According to a flyer passed out at a lunch I attended this week, Mark Robertson will be running for Nevada’s 1st congressional district, currently being misrepresented by Democrat Rep. Dina “I’m Not Happy” Titus, again next year.
* But first he’ll have to get by Fleming Larsen - who ran a surprisingly close race for the State Assembly in a big Democrat district last year and has been out actively campaigning for the seat for several months now - - in the GOP primary.
* Knocking off Titus and flipping the seat “red” is always gonna be tough due to the Democrat majority in the district. It’ll be even tougher – if not impossible – if two credible, viable Republicans slug it out in the primary and drain their bank accounts dry in the process.
* This is one of the many ways Republicans find to lose races they otherwise have a shot at winning.
* Heard Clark County GOP chief Jesse Law speak at the same lunch. Like his patron, Nevada GOP chief Michael McDonald, he focused much of his remarks on developing “unity” among Republican activists.
* Enough already. There was no “unity” in the party 25 years ago when I was chair, and no one is going to change that now. Nature of the beast. Instead of focusing on the “unity” unicorn, the party leaders would be better served if they focused on VICTORY.
* That means getting those 175,000 registered Republicans who didn’t vote last year to show up next year. That means focusing on targeting and developing the right message for independent voters.
* And that means providing leadership to the average GOP voter by initiating a fair and open pre-primary endorsement process that’s decided by the Central Committee members, not some small, behind-closed-doors, star chamber “screening” committee.
* Alas, neither Chairman Law, nor his announced opponent, Jill Douglas, have voiced support for this critical and much-needed change in the party’s operation. So for now, I’m just staying out of this intra-party fight and doing my own thing.
* Which includes celebrating that Joe Lombardo and not Steve Sisolak is now in the governor’s office!
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“While Democrats maintain a majority in both houses of the (Nevada) legislature, they remain one vote shy of a veto-proof supermajority.” – Paul Boger, Nevada Public Radio
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views and blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.