NV-01: Yes, Chris Edwards Deserves a Debate... With Himself.

Ah, so Chris Edwards is back. It seems whenever we're in the midst of important developments in the hot races that people are actually paying attention to, Chris Edwards jumps out in a desperate move to grab attention. This is exactly what he's doing today... With help from our (never to be) "trusted" local "newspaper".

Oh, yes. They went there. Again!

While I certainly appreciate the value of debates in informing voters, Chris Edwards should think twice before cheering on his favorite "newspaper" and demanding more debates. Oh, and he should actually decide what he stands for!

He keeps claiming that somehow "Dina Titus hates Hispanics!" Yet so far, he has no proof of that. And whenever asked about his own ideas for Latin@ community empowerment, he is never able to separate himself from his own party's nonstop insults directed at Latin@ voters. Perhaps this is because Chris Edwards really does agree with his own G-O-TEA base on this?

And really, what else can Chris Edwards talk about? He contradicts himself on the Recovery Act. He can't say anything on health care. He can't completely decide how he wants to balance the federal budget. And again, he has no real substance when it comes to Latin@ outreach. So really, who is this dude and why is he running?

Before Chris Edwards demands more debates with Dina Titus, he needs to finish the debate he continues to have with himself.

No Se Puede, Republicanos

Look who's talking now. Desperate to look "moderate", Dean Heller is smearing Vaseline on the camera in hopes of deceiving Nevada Latinos. And guess who he's following down this path?

The Dean Heller and Mitt Romney campaigns seem to be taking their Hispanic voter outreach strategies from the same playbook.

Mitt Romney’s Hispanic supporter coalition is called “Juntos con Romney” (Together with Romney), and Heller’s is “Juntos con Heller.”

In July the Romney campaign released an ad featuring Craig Romney, the GOP presidential candidate’s son who spent time in Chile, addressing voters in Spanish about his father’s character.

On Friday, the Heller campaign came out with its own Spanish-language ad with a family member’s testimonial on the candidate’s core values. Heller’s wife, Lynne, in a similar style to the Craig Romney ad, speaks in Spanish directly to the camera.

So why are Dean Heller and Mitt Romney doing this? Look at their record.

In the past, Heller has sponsored legislation to limit election ballots to English-only, to mandate that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid only be filled out in English and to make English the official national language. He also previously supported a bill to end birthright citizenship.

Despite what his campaign spins, the fact of the matter is that Dean Heller has never really cared about Nevada's Latin@ communities. It's bad enough that he wants to take away many Americans' Constitutional right of birthright citizenship. It's even worse that he's often played to "tea party" xenophobia by pushing "ENGLISH ONLY!!!" nonsense. He's even gone out of his way to oppose the DREAM Act!





But again, it's not just Heller. And it's not just about immigration. Really, Mitt Romney has led the way for the entire G-O-TEA in setting an agenda that's downright hostile to Latin@ families. And unfortunately for him, the Obama campaign isn't letting him get away with it.



And what's even worse for Romney and Heller is that their own party continues to remind all of us of their true agenda. Joe Heck has continually worked against the best interest of all Nevada working families by voting to undermine Medicare, Medicaid, college student aid, and more. And in case that wasn't enough, he's declined to endorse the DREAM Act while speaking in support of Arizona's discriminatory SB 1070.

Oh, and that's not even the end of it for the Nevada G-O-TEA. Danny Tarkanian has actually tried to distance himself from his own record, but he only embarrassed himself further because he had earned the endorsement of the virulently anti-immigrant Minutemen in his last campaign for Congress (when he ran for US Senate in 2010). And just weeks ago, NV-01 G-O-TEA sacrificial lamb nominee Chris Edwards blew his own anti-immigrant cover after inartfully trying to smear Dina Titus as such.

All in all, there's really nothing about Mitt Romney, the leading Nevada Republicans, or their party's platform that's attractive to Latin@ voters. That's why they must deceive and distract. Yet despite all that Vaseline they want to smear onto the cameras, they can't fool an entire community to vote against their own best interest by voting for a party keen on xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria.

NV-01: Chris Edwards Exposed

Remember Chris Edwards? He's the NV-01 G-O-TEA nominee. And he actually thinks he can deceive Nevada Latinos that he's more of a friend than Dina Titus is!

Believe it or not, the Chris Edwards saga just got a hell of a lot weirder. Unfortunately for him, he accidentally let his true colors appear.

MT @ChrisEdwardsNV: Dina's best help to Hispancis was courtroom translaters to tell them they are going 2 jail

Seriously? Seriously? Did Chris Edwards just say that? Oh yes, he did.

But wait, there's more! He then tweeted this.

RT @ChrisEdwardsNV: @laurakmm courtroom translators. If you provide help sooner then there is no courtroom

Oh yes, he actually said that. Apparently, Chris Edwards thinks Latinos are all criminals.

I figured his charade couldn't last forever. He opposes the DREAM Act, comprehensive immigration reform, universal health care, support for public education, and pretty much everything else Nevada Latinos care about. Yet all this year, he's been pretending to care about the Latino families of NV-01. I guess he's been getting advice on minority voter outreach from Danny Tarkanian.

Well, that's being put to an end. The charade is over. Chris Edwards has just been exposed as just another anti-immigrant G-O-TEA sycophant.

NV-01: Shades of Fiore

Remember Michelle Fiore? Before she set off on her current mission to jeopardize a GOP held Assembly seat in Northwest Las Vegas, she was on an incredibly (and hilariously!) quixotic quest to unseat Shelley Berkley in NV-01 in 2010. Since she couldn't even win the G-O-TEA primary, she went nowhere fast.

Even though Michelle Fiore has moved on to give Nevada Republicans many headaches in another race, her spirit lives on in NV-01. This time, the Nevada G-O-TEA finally succeeded in securing their "chosen one", some dude by the name of Chris Edwards, on the November ballot. And not only is Chris Edwards some dude, but he's a crazy teabagger who's trying to drive wedges against Dina Titus on immgration and the Recovery Act... Despite the fact that he's some teabagger dude who opposes the Recovery Act and hasn't made any complaint about his own party's extreme anti-Latin@ xenophobia.

He may now beating his chest and strutting his stuff and challenging Dina Titus to at least three debates, but Chris Edwards can't seem to get his natural allies in Nevada's G-O-TEA "illuminati" excited about his campaign at all. In fact, Chuck Muth begged local teabaggers to stop wasting time on Edwards' pointless campaign! Yep, it's really that bad.

So why are they still poised to ignore "Papa Chuckie Muth" and revel in Chris Edwards' extremely loud and incredibly toast(ed) campaign? Here's my theory. For some reason, they just can't give up NV-01. Yet while it's good for state parties to maintain presence throughout the state, it's not worthwhile to throw tons of resources away on an unwinnable race. But since Nevada teabaggers' frothing hatred of Dina Titus is incredibly overpowering for them, they're willing to drop everything else just for another chance to annoy her in the new NV-01.

Oh, and perhaps Nevada Republican Party "leaders" are willing to tolerate this insani-TEA because they think a Chris Edwards "TEA" fueled NV-01 food fight will distract us all from Danny Tarkanian's embarrassing delusions of grandeur and Joe Heck's scandalous hypocrisy. That may be what they think, but in reality Chris Edwards' ongoing NV-01 temper tantrum is just giving Nevada Republicans even more reasons to be ashamed of their own party.