Reid-B-Gone

As if it matters, Dawn Gibbons, ex-wife of Governor Jim Gibbons, held a press conference to announce that she supports Democrat Harry Reid. She has been a member of ‘Republicans for Reid’ since the group was announced in June of 2009. Now she says Sharron Angle is “extreme and dangerous”. Yawn.

It’s all about Dawn Gibbons. She and Angle are both former Nevada Assemblywomen. Two years ago, they ran a three way race for Congress, which Dean Heller won. Today, Sharron Angle is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and Dawn Gibbons is the Governor’s ex-wife.

From Nevada News and Views:

(Chuck Muth) – Some folks have written asking why we filed this new lawsuit to strike Tea Party of Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Scott Ashjian from the ballot since one lawsuit to the effect has already been filed and is currently pending appeal in the Nevada Supreme Court.

The short answer is that this lawsuit is based on totally separate grounds.

The lawsuit filed last April contends that Ashjian should be kicked off the ballot because he lied on his statement of candidacy – which he did. In essence, he got married to the Tea Party in the morning before getting divorced from the Republican Party in the afternoon. The law says you can’t do that, but a district court judge said, “What the heck?”

Let’s hope the Supremes disagree and uphold the fact that the law means what the law says.
In any event, this new lawsuit is about something completely different.

NRS (Nevada Revised Statutes) says that for a minor party to qualify for ballot status, it needs to gather enough valid signatures equal to 1 percent of the voter turnout in the prior general election before a June deadline. In 2010, that would mean about 9,000 signatures.

The Tea Party of Nevada didn’t submit ANY signatures whatsoever. [Read the rest of this entry...]

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Conservatives affiliated with the national and Nevada tea party movement filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the U.S. Senate bid of Tea Party of Nevada candidate Scott Ashjian.

The suit filed in state court in argues that state law required Ashjian to submit signatures totaling 1 percent of votes casts in Nevada’s last U.S. House elections to qualify for the November election.

Ashjian is a member of the Tea Party of Nevada, which was formed in January. He collected names of 250 registered voters under another provision in the law to get on the ballot.

“For the past decade, this has been the manner in which the Legislature has allowed minor party candidates to gain ballot access,” said Matt Griffin, elections deputy for the secretary of state’s office.

But Dan Burdish, a plaintiff, said that while collecting 250 names allowed him to file as a candidate, the suit argues that Ashjian was still obligated to comply with the larger signature requirement to get on the ballot as an official minor party candidate.

Local tea party activists and the national Tea Party Express have denounced Ashjian as an opportunist trying to exploit the popular conservative movement.

The lawsuit was filed by members of Citizen Outreach, a group headed by conservative activist Chuck Muth; Independent American Party director Janine Hansen; and Debbie Landis, president of Anger is Brewing, an organization affiliated with the national tea party movement.

It is the second lawsuit seeking to boot Ashjian from the ballot. A judge in April dismissed arguments he should be disqualified because he was a registered Republican when he filed his Tea Party candidacy. Ashjian changed his party affiliation hours later.

An appeal in that case, being funded by Muth, is pending in the Nevada Supreme Court.

From Legal Insurrection:

Nevada journalist and talk show host John Ralston is trolling for Harry Reid. Ralston published an article in The Las Vegas Sun on Sunday titled Angle in 2005: I would have voted “no” on Katrina relief funds.

The article is based on a tape given to Ralston by “a Democrat,” but the tape does not say what Ralston says. Here is the audio provided by Ralson with his article.

Ralston says readers should “listen to what she said – I have posted the audio at right – and make your own call.”

Ralston gives no transcript with good reason. All Angle was saying was that she agreed with Mike Pence at the time (there is no date on the audio) that before appropriating tens of billions of dollars, there should be a plan on how to spend it.

Here is my transcription of the tape Ralston provides (emphasis mine):

I think that government needs to live within its means. I would like to go and join my voice with Mike Pence and others who when the 62 billion came out to be spent on Katria relief, he said wait a minute, I’m voting no and the reason is because I want to know where it’s going, what it’s going to be spent on and who is going to be spending it, so I’d like to join my voice there.

That’s it. Angle never says she would have denied relief to Katrina victims.

Pence eventually voted for the package without the accountability due to political pressures. Who knows, Angle may have done the same had she been in that position, but to try to put some plan in place before writing a check was the right thing to do.

Contrary to Ralston’s claim that the issue was emergency relief to hurricane victims, in fact this legislation was not about pulling people off rooftops or rescuing flood victims; the issue was how to help rebuild devastated areas over a longer term.

And in hindsight Angle was correct to insist on a plan before the taxpayers wrote a blank check for tens of billions of dollars. Five years later the history of Katrina relief is one of multi-billions in waste, including footballs fields full of unused trailers and vast fraud.

Read more at Legal Insurrection.

You’d almost think the NRA wants to have it both ways. This disheartening bit of news is from OpenSecrets blog:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) may not have an official endorsement from the National Rifle Association this year, but he does have its money. Reid has already received $4,950 from the group’s political action committee for his 2010 campaign. Though the group says they will not officially endorse Reid this year due to his votes in support of the Supreme Court confirmations of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, Reid remains part of the minority of Democrats receiving money from the NRA. So far this election cycle, the NRA has given $177,500 to Democratic congressional candidates, compared to $406,850 to Republican candidates. Reid also collected $4,500 from the NRA six years ago (when the group likewise declined to endorse him).

Isn’t it outrageous that the NRA declines to endorse Sharron Angle?

Sharron Angle is Second Amendment perfection. Has the NRA changed its mission?

The cityfied and sissyfied weenies running the NRA victory fund do not understand Nevada or Nevadans — to their detriment. I will not support the NRA until they support Sharron Angle.

Chairman of the NRA Chris Cox has announced that his organization will not endorse Harry Reid. He says the decision is based on Reid’s votes to confirm Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Kagen. Below is the press release:

Statement From NRA-PVF Chairman Chris W. Cox On The 2010 Nevada U.S. Senate Race

Friday, August 27, 2010
In the coming days and weeks, the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) will be announcing endorsements and candidate ratings in hundreds of federal races, as well as thousands of state legislative races. Unless these announcements are required by the timing of primary or special elections, the NRA-PVF generally does not issue endorsements while important legislative business is pending. The NRA-PVF also operates under a long-standing policy that gives preference to incumbent candidates who have voted with the NRA on key issues, which is explained in more detail here.

The U.S. Senate recently considered a number of issues important to NRA members, including the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Out of respect for the confirmation process, the NRA did not announce its position on Ms. Kagan’s confirmation until the conclusion of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee. Her evasive testimony exacerbated grave concerns we had about her long-standing hostility towards the Second Amendment. As a result, the NRA strongly opposed her confirmation and made it clear at the time that we would be scoring this important vote.

The vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Court, along with the previous year’s confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment. After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.

NRA members and other interested parties are encouraged to visit www.NRAPVF.org for more information as Election Day draws near.

From Politics Daily:

Danny Tarkanian, the conservative candidate who recently lost his primary bid for U.S. Senate in Nevada to Sharron Angle, has launched a new 527 group with the sole intent of attacking Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The organization, called Harry Reid Votes, Inc., launched its website on Tuesday afternoon.

I’m told the group will have no staff and that all the money donated will go directly to taking on Reid. The group plans to go on radio this week through November, and will air TV ads in September and October.

Tarkanian, the son of famed UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, began the race to oust Reid in a strong position, but in the end, he lost much of his momentum as the conservative alternative to the surging Sharron Angle.

In recent weeks, Tarkanian has drawn controversy, first, when his mom endorsed Harry Reid, and then when he told the New York Times that, “Reid had no chance to win before [Sharron Angle won the nomination]. He has a shot to win now. He could still lose, but I have to say he is favored.”

Angle can use all the help she can get, so I have to assume this is a welcome development for the Republican nominee. I’m told ‘The Real Harry Reid’ will be doing some interesting Tweeting these next few months, as well.

From Elizabeth Crum at Battle 10:

Sharron Angle has been spending roughly a quarter of her time doing media appearances and the other three quarters fundraising.

So said Angle communications director Jarrod Agen in an interview with BATTLE ‘10 today, although he noted her conservative-friendly media appearances can kill two birds with one stone because they often result in signficant cash flow.

Some fun was made of Angle’s frank admission that she seeks out friendly media so she can mention her website and ask for donations, but is her much-questioned media method really an ingenious maneuver?

That’s what Agen says. “Listeners tuning in to yesterday’s appearance on the Hugh Hewitt show pushed her close to the $3 million mark in online fundraising,” he said. “We have every reason to expect we will raise millions more between now and October.”

Campaign cash translates into new ads, and a brand new one is in the works this week, said Agen.

In addition to her media appearances, Angle will be appearing along with keynote speaker Karl Rove at the Steamboat Institute‘s annual conference this Thursday in Colorado. She will speak at Sean Hannity’s sold-out Freedom Concert the next evening at the Orleans in Las Vegas.

From the Nevada News Bureau:

CARSON CITY – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle said in an interview last week that her opponent is trying to make her Christian religion an issue to divert voters from the real problems facing the U.S. and Nevada, including the economy and jobs.

Angle, appearing on the Nevada NewsMakers television program on Wednesday, said U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is distorting her Southern Baptist religious views and trying to make a campaign issue out of her faith.

“This has never been an issue in any other campaign until now,” she said.

Her comments came in response to a question from NewsMakers host Sam Shad, who read an email from a Republican voter and self-described atheist who said he is inclined to vote for Angle if she can clarify that she respects secular opinion and the secular nature of the Republic.

Angle said she would welcome such support.

“I’m very Reaganist in all of this,” she said. “If we agree 80 percent of the time we are friends. My message has always been the same: our economy, our jobs and our homes.”

The Reid campaign is attempting to paint Angle as having extreme views on a number of issues, including refusing to accept the separation of church and state. [Read the rest of this entry...]