Hey, Could You Use Some Cheerful News Today?
Assemblywoman Danielle Galant - the GOP’s Assistant Minority Leader for southern Nevada who is riding herd on GOP Assembly races in Clark County this cycle – held a fundraising reception in Henderson Thursday night.
It was a good turnout and featured a half-dozen Republican candidates running for competitive seats in an election where the GOP needs to flip just one seat to get out of their super-minority status and be able to protect Gov. Joe Lombardo’s vetoes.
I was particularly impressed by April Arndt, who I met for the first time.
April ran for the first time in 2022 for the State Senate can came in second in the GOP primary. This time, she’s running for Assembly District 21 (Henderson), currently being misrepresented by Democrat incumbent Assemblywoman Elaine Marzola in a slightly Democrat-majority district.
April is a retired Henderson police detective. She’s married to a Henderson fire captain and has three children. She’s also a survivor of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting.
She’s running on a simple campaign platform that will appeal to the non-partisan voters who will swing this seat one way or the other: Safer streets, more jobs, better schools.
April is uniquely positioned to flip this seat from blue to red. If/when you meet her, you’re gonna be impressed.
However, she’ll first have to win the GOP primary next June. Jon Petrick, the Republican candidate who ran for this seat in 2022 and lost to Marzola by 5 points, has announced he’s running again.
But Gov. Lombardo has already thrown his support behind April, believing she has the best chance to win the general election. It’s likely the Assembly Caucus will do the same at some point down the road.
Many of you write to ask who you should donate money to – promising candidates in winnable districts, especially for legislative seats. Well, you can’t go wrong throwing a few shekels April’s way.
In other news…
* The Clark County teachers’ union posted this tweet this week: “Students at Liberty HS staged a walkout today, chanted, “Pay out teachers!”
* Yes, they misspelled “our.” And some wonder why students at union-run public schools can’t read?
* Gov. Lombardo has officially endorsed North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee in Nevada’s 4th Congressional District race. This primary is over.
* Lee has the best chance to flip this seat than any GOP candidate since 2014. The other candidates ought to drop out and find another race to run for.
* Republican congressional candidate Drew Johnson is continuing his ridiculous campaign allegations against his primary opponent, Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama, falsely accusing her of being a Hamas sympathizer.
* At issue are a series of donations made by the national realtor’s PAC that Kasama had NOTHING to do with. She serves on the PAC’s finance committee, which simply keeps the organization’s books, not the endorsement committee, which decides which candidates get donations.
* And just in case anybody believes Johnson’s outrageous claim, here’s what Kasama posted on Twitter yesterday…
“What has happened in Israel these last few weeks is nothing short of evil and horrific. Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations whose main goal is to destroy Israel and the West. The United States must continue to support our ally Israel against these atrocious attacks. We as a country cannot sit by and watch Jewish people be persecuted and killed for their faith.”
* You need to find a new fishing hole, Drew. This one is dry.
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.