* Here’s the opening sentence from a front-page article in today’s Las Vegas Sun: “The chair of the Nevada Republican Party has been indicted.” They are referring to Chairman Michael McDonald.
* It’s old news related to the BS “fake elector” issue, but it’s true and it’s a public relations nightmare for the GOP going into the 2024 general election. Democrats and the media will constantly bring it up.
* Also indicted on the same issue is Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law. And he’s on the front page of the Nevada section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal today. The headline reads: “County GOP’s leader arrested.”
* Ugh.
* Law was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence last weekend. The district attorney, for whatever reason, declined to prosecute. But that’s not the point. The headline will be repeated by Democrats in critical races as long as Law is chairman.
* The fact is Nevada’s GOP leadership – including Law and McDonald - has lost at the ballot box for four consecutive election cycles due to mismanagement and incompetence while constantly giving the party a black eye in public.
* Unsubstantiated claims of massive voting fraud, epic failures at getting out the vote (it lost the 2022 U.S. Senate race by 8,000 votes while 175,000 Republicans stayed home!), the presidential primary/caucus fustercluck, and, of course, Sigal Chattah.
* This isn’t the gang that can’t shoot straight. This is the gang that shoots straight every time - straight into their own foot. They never seem to miss.
* Law never should have been re-elected by the Central Committee last year. But Donald Trump swooped in at the last minute and endorsed him, resulting in a narrow victory.
* Remaining at the helm for the rest of this campaign season will hurt GOP chances to elect Republicans up-and-down the ballot in Clark County, especially in critical legislative races that will determine if Gov. Joe Lombardo’s vetoes will be protected.
* If Law was truly a “party guy,” he’d resign immediately and turn the reigns over to someone new. He won’t. And the Central Committee won’t oust him.
* Which is why so many grassroots activists and candidates are working OUTSIDE the party again this cycle instead of with it.
* Meanwhile, the D’s have their own problems to worry about.
* Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones is perhaps the most corrupt elected official in the state. That’s not hyperbole. A court yesterday confirmed it once again.
* According to a Review-Journal story today, Judge Joanna Kishner ruled yesterday that jurors in a land-snatch case filed by a residential property developer will be advised that Jones “willfully deleted text messages regarding the development.”
* If you missed it, I did a detailed, four-part series on this scandal back in 2022. You can access it by clicking here
* Also, a Dem-on-Dem political bloodbath is taking shape in the Senate District 1 in Clark County between Assemblywoman Clara Thomas and Regent Shelly Cruz-Crawford.
* The Democrat Senate caucus has endorsed Cruz-Crawford over the sitting legislator because Thomas wasn’t a knee-jerk caucus vote on a pair of bills last session.
* The Nevada Current is reporting that “Cruz-Crawford said if (Democrats) get a veto-proof majority they can ensure school vouchers, a priority for Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, never get funded.”
* For her part, Thomas supports “restorative justice” reforms that make it harder for public schools to suspend or expel disruptive students who keep other kids from learning in the classroom.
* And if Democrats win a veto-proof majority in the Senate in November, she threatened to “bring back all of those housing [rent control] bills the governor vetoed.”
* Make no mistake, but candidates are horrible lefties. Everyone loses no matter which one wins the primary.
* Republicans have a good candidate in Patricia Brinkley for the general election. But the district is overwhelmingly Democrat. Tough row to hoe.
* But with this intra-party Democrat primary fight front and center, it’s worth pursuing. You never know what developments and opportunities might pop up in an election.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“(Jesse) Law was endorsed by (Donald) Trump amid his entanglement in legal battles as a member of the board of directors of Vinco Ventures, a company accused in civil suits of defrauding shareholders and prioritizing the interests of its former CEO, Theodore Farnsworth. … Law is also one of the six people indicted by the Nevada Attorney General on felony charges for his role as an alternate elector in a Republican slate submitted after the 2020 election.” – Brittany Sheehan, Nevada News & Views, 4/9/24
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com. You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.