Actually, Silence Is NOT "Softening".

This morning, The Sun has reposted an article from DC's favorite gossip rag about the Republican Party "softening" its opposition to LGBTQ equality. So what's their evidence to prove this? Oh, they're being awfully quiet about it!

Well, actually they're not being as quiet as the article suggested at first.

Since talking about the issue in the heat of the primaries, Romney largely has steered clear of it. He referenced defending traditional marriage in his recent NAACP speech, to the delight of social conservatives with whom he met in Denver last week, but it’s not a frequent talking point.

There is no question that the RNC platform will codify traditional marriage, as a spokeswoman affirmed last week.

“The Republican Party is committed to the timeless, foundational values of family, traditional marriage and life,” RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said. “Gov. Romney and the party’s platform are clear: Marriage is between a man and a woman.” [...]

A spokesman for Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who is spearheading the GOP’s platform committee, would say only that “The Republican Party is committed to the timeless foundational values of family, traditional marriage and life. The party’s platform will reflect those principles.”

Just because Republican candidates from Mitt Romney on down aren't talking about marriage discrimination as often as they used to doesn't mean they're now "softening their (wide) stance" and embracing queer Americans. Rather, it just means they're afraid of simultaneously pissing off the teabaggers they need as their base along with swing voters who aren't really into H8 any more. There's really nothing "bold" or "courageous" about this. Rather, it reeks of cowardice.

After all, it wasn't too long ago when Mitt Romney's campaign stated this?



Does that sound like "softening" to you? It doesn't to me.

And Romney is not alone. Remember when Dean Heller let this slip?

Heller is even trying to have it both ways on marriage equality. He claims he "doesn't want to talk about it", but he still managed to (again) state his support for marriage discrimination against LGBTQ Nevadans. So he "doesn't want to talk about it", except when he wants to reassure the radical religious right that he's still "one of them". Lovely.

And don't forget Joe Heck.

Joe Heck just this week called marriage equality "a distraction". Oh, and Heck also belittled LGBTQ Nevadans by saying their relationships should not be respected as "traditional marriage". He cited Question 2, but that was enacted a decade ago. Nevada voters have evolved on accepting LGBTQ equality alongside Harry Reid and President Obama. Yet instead of listening to his fellow Nevadans on accepting LGBTQ families and treating us all equally, Joe Heck is joining hands with Mitt Romney and the rest of the G-O-TEA in encouraging discrimination.

Does this sound like "softening" to you? It doesn't to me.

Again, there's a difference between genuine change of heart and craven silence. Do you really need me to tell you which one the G-O-TEA is engaging in?

Who's Afraid of Harry Reid? (Mitt Romney Certainly Is!)

While certain media pundits have been "flashing" their disgust for Harry Reid and what he's been saying about Mitt Romney lately, I have to wonder if they're (again) missing the point of all this. Wait, what am I talking about? Let me explain.

While Republicans are playing semantics games with Reid's statements on Romney's (not paying) taxes, they are clumsily avoiding the heart of the issue, which is Mitt Romney gaming the system to his advantage and refusing to admit what he actually did. Think about it. If Reid's accusations were really the scurrilous lies that Romney and his G-O-TEA media attack dogs claim they are, why won't they produce any evidence proving Reid wrong? Is it perhaps because they know there's truth to what Harry Reid is saying?

Yesterday, The Roosevelt Institute's Mark Schmitt brought up the real issue behind all the Beltway hype.

There are two important points about the tax system that Romney’s taxes, even what we already know about them, reveal: The first is that the creation of tax-deferred accounts can take huge amounts of investment income out of the tax system entirely. A major thrust of Republican tax policy has been to expand the number of opportunities to put money – and the income it generates —into accounts that fall outside the scope of taxation. These include various forms of IRAs, health savings accounts, education savings accounts, and others. Many of them benefit the middle class, although they provide little value for low-income workers. But as we see from the Romney example, they can provide huge benefits to the wealthy. Any serious tax reform should aim to reduce the number and scope of these accounts in order to bring as much income as possible under the purview of the tax system and keep rates as low as possible.

And second, Romney’s taxes reveal how misleading just looking at the rate paid by Romney or any other wealthy person really is. When we eventually see the returns, we won’t know what percentage of Romney’s income he pays in taxes because we aren’t seeing all of his income, as some large amount of it is flowing through this IRA. Again, that’s not a Romney problem; it’s an example of how ordinary high-end tax practices make it difficult to even judge whether the system is fair or equitable.

When we eventually see Mitt Romney’s tax returns, I hope that the debate about whether he’s a tax cheat or a mere tax-avoider won’t distract us from the fact that we’ve created a tax system that doesn’t make any sense and absurdly benefits the very well-off. There’s a choice between policies that would take the tax code even further in that direction and policies that would begin to restore sanity and fairness.

There's a reason why Mitt Romney's tax plan is structured the way it is. His economic policies are pretty much "Bush on Steroids" in that they favor the super-rich while crushing the middle class and working poor. This has really been Mitt Romney's MO for some time, so why are we really surprised that he doesn't want to pay his fair share in taxes now?

This is what Harry Reid knows. And this is why he refuses to be bullied by Romney & his media attack dogs into silence.

The latest salvo in the intensifying spat comes from Reid’s chief of staff David Krone, who upped the taunts by calling Republicans “a bunch of cowards” and “henchmen for Romney” in an interview with Politico late Sunday night.

“To turn it around, all their childish rants this weekend about calling Reid a ‘liar’ and all that, it just shows you how scared they are that Harry Reid was telling the truth,” Krone told the paper.

Top Republicans on Sunday flatly accused the Senate majority leader of lying when he claimed Romney didn’t pay taxes for a decade, something he says he learned of from an as-yet-unnamed investor to Bain Capital. Reflecting the frustrations of his party, an incensed Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Reid a “dirty liar,” and has since repeated the epithet.

Reid wasn’t fazed. His spokesman Adam Jentleson responded in the afternoon by vouching for the credibility of the source and inviting Romney to disprove the claim by releasing a series of tax returns. Calling him the “most secretive candidate since Richard Nixon,” Jentleson told TPM: “It’s clear Mitt Romney is hiding something, and the only way for him to clear this up is to be straight with the American people and release his tax returns.” [...]

For Romney, it’s a lose-lose proposition because doing so comes with its own risk. The Republican nominee has amassed a fortune, mostly via investment income that allows him to pay a lower tax rate than many working Americans, and Democrats are eager to turn that into a liability with middle class voters.

And there we have it. Mitt Romney fears being outed by Harry Reid & others as a plutocrat who enjoys playing by his own rules while hosing the middle class and working poor. This is why Romney refuses to release more documents from Bain Capital, and this is why Romney refuses to clear the air on his own taxes.

Oh, and here's one more serving of food for thought. Some in the media are now making ridiculous allegations about Harry Reid, even comparing him to Joe McCarthy (??!!) What's really nonsensical about that is that Reid is simply saying something that Romney can't seem to refute. He isn't actively lying about Romney or calling him "un-American" for his political views. However, Mitt Romney has so far refused to condemn Michele Bachmann's insane and incredulous allegations about the staff of the State Department. While Mitt Romney is throwing a juvenile temper tantrum over someone calling out his own record on taxes and tax fairness, real people are being hurt simply because Romney's G-O-TEA allies in Congress want to score political points with their teabagger base.

Maybe that's the other reason why Mitt Romney has been so afraid of Harry Reid lately?

Obama's Ace in the Hole

In case you haven't yet heard, Nevada Democrats made big gains again in voter registration last month. Democrats now have a 41.13% to 36.70% advantage over Republicans statewide. And not only have Democrats gained statewide, but in key swing areas as well. Republicans' registration advantage in NV-03 has almost entirely vanished, and Democrats' registration advantage in the new NV-04 district is back over 10%.

So how are Nevada Democrats doing this? Take a look below.





OFA Nevada and the Nevada State Democratic Party have been doing voter registration since the spring. Last Friday, I wanted to see what was happening for myself, so I went to the epicenter of all the local voter registration action: the Henderson DMV.

As people were streaming in and out, 5 Democrats (2 OFA, 3 NVDems) were outside, holding clipboards, and registering anyone who wanted to. Meanwhile, there were 3 Republicans (From the real Nevada G-O-TEA? Or "The Shadow Party?) conducting a "survey"... And using that to determine who to register to vote. Basically, people who sounded anti-Obama were chased into the parking lot while people who sounded pro-Obama were tossed aside.

While the Democrats kept asking everyone and stood ready & available for anyone who needed to register or change address, DMV customers were complaining to DMV staff about the Republicans' behavior. Pretty soon, security guards were asking the Republicans to stop the annoying "survey" and stop chasing people into the parking lot. And in case there wasn't enough drama there, the Republicans' supervisor soon arrived in a full suit and proceeded to tell his staff NOT to pay attention to what the security guards are saying!

And while all that drama was unfolding, the folks from the Nevada State Democratic Party continued with voter registration. Now, everyone is just hoping that the G-O-TEA's bad behavior won't force everyone out of the DMV for good.

But wait, there's more! On a lighter note, OFA also celebrated President Obama's birthday on Saturday. In addition to doing that round of voter registration on Friday, local volunteer leader Linda hosted a birthday party for Mr. President the following evening! Here's a glimpse of what happened.







While everyone was having fun there, some important work was also being done. Volunteers were being recruited for future voter registration shifts and phone banks. Local OFA organizer Alison was explaining to the group why they will soon need volunteers to canvass the neighborhood. And Linda reminded them why they were all there.

And in case that wasn't enough, Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange and NV-03 Democratic nominee John Oceguera stopped by to remind everyone that there's even more at stake this fall. President Obama will surely need more allies in Congress next year, so electing Oceguera & Shelley Berkley (who's running for US Senate) will be just as critical as Obama's own final score in Nevada. Really, the entire balance of power in Washington may ultimately be determined by my neighborhood 8 miles southeast of the Las Vegas Strip.

This is why Nevada Democrats have been working the field so hard. They're now starting to reap the rewards. And if they keep at this pace, Nevada may end up Bluer than ever before... And Mitt Romney will really be screwed here, and Dean Heller & Joe Heck will be dragged down with Romney.

And ultimately, all of this may be determined by how many more Democrats are registered to vote at the Henderson DMV, as well as how many doors are knocked & how many phone calls are made in the next month. Yep, Nevada Democrats' field operation may prove to be President Obama's "Ace in the Hole" here.

Why Do Joe Heck & AFP Want the Wind (Energy Jackpot) to Pass Us By?

Back in June, we were reminded of Joe Heck's odd opposition to efforts to bring more green jobs to Nevada. Today, we were reminded again. Despite other Republicans supporting the wind energy tax credit, Joe Heck is following Mitt Romney's lead in opposing it.

And of course, Mitt Romney is following Americans for Prosperity's lead in opposing clean, green energy. So of course, Sierra Club and ProgressNow Nevada decided to go to the source of all this. They went to AFP Nevada headquarters.







Sierra Club has already been mounting a big grassroots and media campaign to save the wind energy tax credit along with thousands of well paying green collar jobs. And this morning, the campaign arrived in full force in Downtown Las Vegas. AFP Nevada may like to "astroturf" its way onto the evening news with overhyped "bus tours" and "rallies", but they clearly weren't ready for some real grassroots action that literally landed at their doorstep!

Again, Joe Heck clearly takes his lead from AFP. How else can one explain why he'd oppose a tax break to encourage job creation here in Nevada?

If it's because "clean energy is nonsense", then he's the one spouting nonsense. After all, Nevada now has the largest wind farm in the country. And we still have more potential to harness even more of our wind for clean, green energy. Oh, and global wind generation is set to grow another 40% by 2017, so why shouldn't Nevada be a part of that action? Really, why are Joe Heck, Mitt Romney, and their ideological bosses at AFP opposing common sense efforts to create more good Nevada jobs?

That's what the grassroots Sierra Club & ProgressNow activists were asking at AFP headquarters today.

An Apple a Day...

In June, we had questions about Apple's planned data storage center for Washoe County. Now, it's starting to look like we're not the only ones.

Hill, the director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, approved the abatements worth $89 million over 10 years on Wednesday. That was after a separate meeting in which the board unanimously recommended approval of the deal.

But their role was purely advisory — a break from the way Nevada has historically given out tax breaks. [...]

There is still no contract between the state and Apple, Hill said, only a short list of terms laying out the property and sales tax abatements and conditions to which Apple has agreed.

That drew sharp questions from Secretary of State Ross Miller, a member of the board.

“It appears the board is largely ceremonial,” Miller said after the meeting. “This is a significant departure from the past.”

He took issue with the property tax provisions that could last up to 30 years.

“My daughter, who’s in kindergarten, will be my age and still subject to the deal approved today,” Miller noted.

Remember, Apple is being given $89 million worth of tax breaks. The state discounted 85% of property taxes for up to 30 years. The state also discounted all but 2% of the state sales tax for at least 4 years and up to 12 years. And Washoe County reduced Apple's effective county sales tax to a mere 0.5%. Apple got quite the sweet deal... And there's still no official contract?

Perhaps Brian Sandoval and Steve Hill think that if CCSD can try breaking a contract with teachers, they might as well try doing no contract at all with Apple?

I don't know what else to say. I'm just reminded of what I said back in June.

Let's be real here. If this were an everyday working class Nevada person getting a sweetheart deal like this, many if these same politicians would be aghast in horror as they'd be taking their queues from teabaggers screaming, "WELFARE!!!! WELFARE!!!!!" Well, where are the teabaggers to call out the corporate welfare that the State of Nevada, Washoe County, and City of Reno are about to bestow upon Apple? So "WELFARE!!!!!" is evil if it's a working poor family trying to survive in this rough economy, but it's A-O-K for a multinational corporation like Apple? Sorry, but this is the most blatant and disgusting double standard I've ever seen!

Let's be honest here. Apple struck while the iron was hot and took advantage of Brian Sandoval's willingness to cut any kind of deal to save face and show Nevada that "he means business". Apple wins in opening a new data storage facility and paying hardly any taxes on it, while California continues to lose in not being able to collect the corporate income tax it's otherwise owed. Nevada, meanwhile, continues to be satisfied with mere economic crumbs.

So we're willing to shower all this corporate welfare on Apple, but we're not willing to invest in our own people? We're willing to give Apple all the tax evasion bailouts welfare "special deals" it wants, but we're not willing to look out for our own long term economic health? Nevada, we have a problem. And it's more serious than you think.

Turn of the Tide at Lake Tahoe?

Earlier this week, Senator Dean Heller's office announced the 16th Annual Lake Tahoe Summit happening August 13 in Stateline. There will certainly be plenty to talk about this year. Climate change certainly poses a greater risk to the region than ever seen before. And in case that isn't enough to tackle at this year's summit, there's another issue that may just rise back to the surface.

Last year, we saw the passage of SB 271, which is also known as "The Trash Tahoe Bill". Why? Oh, it just endangers the entire ecosystem of the region just to enrich "juiced up" corporate developers and pay back political favors.

The bill was originally authored by John Lee. Oh yes, you heard me right. John Lee made SB 271 happen.

But now, all of a sudden, John Lee is no longer in the picture. And to complicate matters further, California has refused to agree to the terms of SB 271. And without agreement from California, there can be no agreement on a badly needed and much delayed new Tahoe Compact to guide future development.

So all of this just barely lies beneath the surface now, but may just end up at the forefront once the Tahoe Summit begins. Climate change has already become a serious problem for Lake Tahoe, and the continuation of SB 271 further imperils the lake. Perhaps Dean Heller had something else in mind when he announced this year's summit, but it looks like we'll have a real opportunity this month to discuss the serious issues affecting the future of Lake Tahoe... And the recent turn of events has made this more possible than ever before.

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.

Another Reason for Nevada to Take ACA Medicaid Expansion: It Saves Lives!

You can't say I didn't warn you. Surely enough, the New England Journal of Medicine now has new evidence from a study conducted by Harvard's School of Public Health showing we'd be incredibly stupid to turn down the Medicaid expansion program of the Affordable Care Act.

The study compared Arizona, which expanded Medicaid coverage to adults without dependent children in 2001 and to parents of children earning up to 200 percent of federal poverty in 2002, to Nevada and New Mexico, which did not opt for expansion.

“State Medicaid expansions to cover low-income adults were significantly associated with reduced mortality as well as improved coverage, access to care and self-reported health,” according to the paper. [...]

The study estimated that 2,840 deaths per year were prevented for every 500,000 people who received additional Medicaid coverage. According to those statistics, Nevada could potentially prevent 700 deaths a year if it opts to expand Medicaid coverage to 140,000 currently uninsured Nevadans under the Affordable Care Act. [...]

“Our study suggests that expanding Medicaid enables people to access the care they need and their health improves, even to the point of potentially saving lives,” said [Benjamin Sommers, the lead author of the paper]. “While states have many factors to weigh in deciding whether to expand Medicaid, it should be clear from our study and others ... that this is a program that succeeds in its goal of helping improve health care and health for poor Americans.”

It is now painfully obvious that Nevada gains absolutely nothing from turning down ACA Medicaid expansion. Rather, we just get more deaths and a more inefficient & costly health care system. Yes, you heard me right. Ultimately, we pay more by NOT expanding health care coverage for more working poor Nevadans!

So why are we still debating this? It's just plain shortsighted not to go through with ACA Medicaid expansion. We save money and save lives by simply fully participating in the new health care law.

Perhaps it's time for Nevada to finally cut the penny wise/pound foolish nonsense and join civilization for a change. Again, remember that the feds fully pay for the first three years of the program, then pay for 90% of it from 2016 onward. Despite what some on the radical right want us to believe, it's really not that costly. Rather, we waste more money by forcing uninsured Nevadans to access "primary care" in the hospital emergency room. And of course, there's the social cost of letting people die for no reason.

Why again are Brian Sandoval and state legislators still debating this?

NV-Sen: The Truth Behind Berkley's New Ads (& Heller's Complaints About Them)

So the pundits are not liking this.



Why? It completely obliterates their previously prepared narrative of, "ZOMG!!! Democrats are running away from Shelley Berkley and her SCANDALS!!!!" They're having such a hard time realizing that somehow her campaign has been able to scoot past Dean Heller's manufactured "controversy" and turn the "scandalous" spotlight back onto Dean Heller and his actual record.

In particular, a handful of pundits are screaming out Berkley calling out Heller for his support of Paul Ryan's Medicare busting plan. While they're arguing over semantics, they're ignoring the fact that "Ryan-care" would indeed end the traditional Medicare system and dramatically raise health care costs for seniors if enacted.

Even a REPUBLICAN member of Congress recently admitted the truth behind Paul Ryan's spin. He even sent a flier to his constituents late last month highlighting his opposition to "Ryan-care"!

House Republicans approved a budget in April that would drive up Medicare costs for seniors, and Mitt Romney has embraced the plan crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). But not all in the party are in agreement. Ten Republicans voted against Ryan’s budget in April, and now, Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) is campaigning on his opposition to it. [...]

The GOP plan that McKinley opposes would give seniors the option of enrolling in traditional Medicare or taking a stipend to buy their own health care policy on the private market. Republicans have argued it would slow the federal government’s rising costs for Medicare, but the Congressional Budget Office says the plan would increase seniors’ out-of-pocket costs by privatizing Medicare.

In the flier, McKinley says Congress “must balance the budget,” but not on the backs of seniors. McKinley spokesman Jim Forbes told the Los Angeles Times that the congressman “is standing for what he believes in,” but in an election cycle dominated by health care and budget issues, McKinley’s stance is out of step with the rest of his party.

And this is exactly what Shelley Berkley has been saying. Unlike the manufactured "Kidney-gate SCANDAL!!!" about nothing, Heller actually voted for "Ryan-care". And if it's really not as frightening as Berkley's ad suggests, why won't Heller run on it? Why won't he just come out and defend his BFF Paul Ryan? What could he possibly be afraid of?

So keep this in mind as you hear media pundits console Dean Heller's campaign as they whine and complain about Shelley Berkley's new ads.

When Will We Ever Learn?

Here we go again. CCSD has forced local high school principals to make more cuts. Now, even more extracurricular activities are being eliminated, including the entire choir program at Arbor View High School. And work training programs are going bye bye at several schools. Oh, and Chaparral High School is even losing its school librarian!

It's bad. It's really bad. And what makes this even worse is that CCSD Administration are going out of their way to make this worse. Even though CCSD Administrators cry poor to the media, they actually have the money to pay their teachers and keep our schools functioning. But instead of doing what's both right and obvious, they'd rather make petty ideological "statements" that just happen to hurt our kids.

And in case that isn't bad enough, there's something even worse. Come on, you must know what's coming.

Honestly, it's pathetic seeing this epic CCSD food fight over mere crumbs. And it's disgusting to know that this kind of nonsense is bound to continue if Brian Sandoval gets his way and squashes all talk of progressive tax reform.

This is something that we discussed back in March.

But as long as our schools suck and as long as the rest of our public infrastructure continues to lag, Southern Nevada will continue to suffer our addiction to the extreme highs and extreme lows of "the bubble based economy". I'm sure I sound like a broken record sometimes, but I nonetheless feel the need to continue talking about this until we finally see some real action and real solutions. We really do have the potential to bring more high tech jobs into this state, especially in sectors like gaming and renewable energy where we have natural strength, but we'll never realize that potential if we don't invest in our "human capital".

And it still rings true today. How much more of this nonsense can we endure? And how much more suffering must our kids endure before we take action to correct this?

Between the continuing CCSD War on Teachers and the ongoing Nevada school funding crisis, there's plenty of unnecessary hardship that is being forced on Southern Nevada. Students shouldn't be denied a chance to fulfill their dreams, and they especially shouldn't have to see their dreams denied because of failed "tea party" ideology. It's time for Nevada to grow up and properly invest & nurture our future.

All About Reno

Every so often, Nevada Democrats may be lucky enough to get celebrities to come to Las Vegas to help with voter registration, but look at where the candidates are most often dueling it out. And look at where the consultants and media keep focusing their eyes.

President Barack Obama left town, Mitt Romney was due the next day, and just up the road from a billboard advising Nevadans to abandon their underwater homes, the conservative group Americans for Prosperity inflated a giant Uncle Sam. [...]

It is only midsummer, but in the swing county in a swing state, the presidential campaign is fully under way. The election here is a closely watched test of Obama's ability to repeat his victories four years ago in areas of the country still reeling from the recession.

Like elsewhere, the economy is the focus of the campaigns. On a wall in the Obama office hangs a chart suggesting the jobs outlook was even worse before Obama was elected, and Apple Inc. announced last month it will build a $1 billion data center here. [...]

In his convincing victory in Nevada in 2008, Obama became the first Democratic candidate for president to carry Washoe County since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

This year the county of about 425,000 people on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada is once again in play.

Make no mistake, Northern Nevada is back in the spotlight. Even though Clark County has over 70% of the state's population, Washoe County and the rurals have outsized turnout and can still make a big splash in statewide elections. And on top of that, Washoe just happens to have perhaps the hottest and most high-stakes Legislature race in the entire state. So really, there are several reasons why Reno is taking such a prominent role on the campaign trail this year.

So what's the state of play like? Honestly, it looks like both sides are very heavily engaged on the ground. When I visited Reno in March, Washoe Democrats were definitely revving up their engines and preparing to race. And since then, I've been hearing from the ground that they're staying awfully busy.

But then again, so are Washoe Republicans. In fact, that's the biggest reason why they've filed for divorce from the Nevada GOP. Long story short: They're functional, the state party is not, and they no longer want the state party's "Dysfunction Junction" (arriving directly from the Clark County Official Ron Paul Fan Club GOP) weighing them down.

And with so much happening on the ground, the campaigns are even more compelled to stay on top of it all. That's why Nevada Democrats don't mind seeing Barack Obama & Shelley Berkley get to know voters in Washoe County. And that's why Nevada Republicans are begging Mitt Romney to do the same.

Romney will return Friday for a major fundraiser put on by Reno entrepreneur/business owner Patty Wade. Donations to attend one of a handful of fundraising opportunities arranged by Wade range from $2,500 to $25,000.

In her email to prospective donors, Wade warns that this could be Romney’s last visit to Northern Nevada before the election.

“The national campaign has told us that this will likely be Gov. Romney’s only campaign appearance in Northern Nevada prior to the election in November,” Wade wrote.

Really, this is Romney’s last visit to Washoe County? It’s closed to the public, an exclusive gathering dominated by rich folk.

Sounds like a good way to lose Nevada, considering Washoe County is the battleground county in a battleground state.

However, there may be a strong reason why Mitt Romney may not return to Reno after this weekend. It's actually the reason Nevada Republicans fear the most. Frankly, Northern Nevada may not be all that fruitful for Mitt Romney any more.

Nonetheless, Nevada isn’t quite on the knife’s edge. Among the polling averages of the 11 states considered toss-ups under the most generous definition in 2012–Nevada, Iowa, Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and Missouri–Nevada has the second largest gap, at +5.2 percentage points for Obama. That’s reflected in campaign resource allocation as well. Despite consistent spending in the Silver State, the President’s campaign has directed more to states like Iowa, North Carolina and Virginia. American Crossroads, the Republican third-party group spending on Romney’s behalf while he awaits his party’s nomination, has spent more in almost every swing state than in Nevada.

None of which is to say Nevada’s six electoral college votes don’t matter, the state won’t be very closely contested or that Obama and Romney won’t be back in Washoe county before November. They probably will. Just don’t expect them to dawdle too long.

Actually, this is what no one in Washoe County likes to hear. Even if Washoe Republicans have their act together and Mitt Romney is at least holding his own in Reno, that may not even matter in the end as long as Nevada Democrats power up their field machine in Clark County. And as long as that's happening, gold medals may remain out of reach for Mitt Romney and Dean Heller... And perhaps Michael Roberson as well.

But at least for the time being, Reno is the epicenter of the electoral earthquake hitting Nevada now. We just have to wait and see who ultimately gets hurt by it.

The Curious Case of Nevada's Voter Registration

Well, now we know why Republicans are panicking. Take a look at the new voter registration statistics.

New numbers released this week show Democrats have increased their advantage over Republicans to 47,500 voters.

Since April, Democratic voter registration has increased by 20,500. Republican registration in that time has increased by 9,700.

While the statewide numbers haven't officially been released yet, we can look at the new Clark County numbers to see what's happening in all the hot Southern Nevada races. Here's what's making my eyes pop this morning:

- The Republican registration advantage in NV-03 is almost all gone, as their formerly 0.41% edge shrunk even further. Now, it's all the way down to a mere 0.24%, or 682 raw votes. At the pace this is going, Democrats may regain an advantage here as soon as next month!

- The Democratic advantage in the Clark County portion of the new NV-04 seat grew from an already robust 13.86% to an even wider 14.09%, or 31,928 raw votes. Again, we won't know the full NV-04 numbers until the Secretary of State's office releases new statewide statistics late this week. But so far, Steven Horsford and Nevada Democrats must be happy at this sight.

- And in the key Clark County State Senate races that will determine the balance of power in the Legislature next year, Democrats gained across the board. In SD 5 in the Green Valley neighborhoods of Henderson, Democrats' advantage rose from 3.19% to 3.36%. In SD 6 in the Summerlin neighborhoods of Las Vegas, Democrats' advantage rose from 3.81% to 3.93%. In SD 9 in the Southwest Las Vegas Valley, the Democratic edge grew from 4.78% to 5.06% (!!!). And finally in SD 18 in the Northwest Las Vegas Valley, the Republican edge shrank from 2.80% to 2.60%. All in all, Democrats did quite well in registering new voters in these key swing districts. In particular, SD 9 really seems to be slipping away from Republicans entirely while SD 18 is looking increasingly vulnerable for them.

And overall, Nevada Democrats have plenty of reasons to smile. In addition to the great #NVLeg news, NV-03 is almost completely even in registration. Joe Heck and his Republican consultants now have plenty of reasons to be extra nervous. And again, as long as NV-04 gains more Clark County Democrats, Steven Horsford's position continues to solidify. He may not completely be out of the woods yet, but at least there's plenty of light at the end of that path.

So what does this all mean? I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Field matters. Because Nevada Democrats are busy registering new voters and persuading more current voters, they're in better shape than most pundits actually realize. And because Nevada Republicans can't match their boastful swagger with any real action, they're in more trouble than they really want to admit.

Here's what The Sun's David McGrath Schwartz had to admit yesterday.

Put shortly, Democrats are well organized and have been building an infrastructure for eight years with the help of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Republicans, meanwhile, have gone through a series of titular heads, and top elected Republicans have spent their political capital elsewhere. [...]

But elections are about numbers. Voters who register with a party are a tangible indication of just that.

The disparity on voter registration is likely more a reflection of the strength of the organizations.

Politics is often one big numbers game. And right now, Nevada Republicans are falling behind. Nevada Democrats just have to keep on chugging (and registering and persuading) to finish on top in November.

What a Fool Believes: Nevada GOP to Do Voter Registration?

I guess the latest voter registration statistics are really starting to sink in. The "Real" Nevada GOP will be receiving $166,000 to contract out voter registration. Wow.



"Real" Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald says this is a sign of recovery from "The May-lee" that pretty much sealed the deal in ripping the party apart. Yet just as McDonald proudly announces this and enhanced "cooperation" with the Washoe County GOP, the Washoe GOP is continuing its legal divorce from the state party. And while McDonald claims he has a great relationship with the RNC, that hasn't stopped the RNC from funneling more money to the "Team Nevada" "Shadow GOP".

So what's the real story here? That's what I'm trying to figure out. And remember, we're talking about Michael McDonald here. This is the guy backed by the "tea party" loons who supposedly hate bailouts, yet he continues to milk the City of Las Vegas for more bailouts. And this is the same guy who let Ron Paul's campaign hijack the state GOP convention, yet he's now to be trusted with RNC money meant to help Mitt Romney?

Perhaps there's some kind of reasoning behind this. After all, that "Shadow GOP" isn't looking all that great now. Just look at what's happened to AFP since it started that bus tour. Maybe the "Real" Nevada Republican Party isn't looking all that bad by comparison?

Whatever the case, the Nevada GOP is back in the news. And whenever that happens, Republican consultants start crying into their coffee. Oh, what a fool believes.

Mitt-pocrisy

Whoops. Apparently, Mitt Romney's attempt to show he's the guy who can "restore the Anglo-Saxon relationship" is totally backfiring on him. He's the one throwing ridiculous accusations at President Obama, yet he's the one insulting Britain and suggesting London can't handle The Olympics!

Yet while that affair "across the pond" is fun to watch , there's another one back here in "The States" that may be even more troubling for Mitt Romney.

Earlier this month, more evidence was unearthed on how Mitt Romney and Bain Capital were involved in outsourcing American jobs overseas. Now, Mother Jones' David Corn is back... And he's exposing another inconvenient truth about Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital.

When Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts he kept his distance from gambling. He turned down donations from the gaming industry for his privately underwritten inaugural gala. And though he initially supported allowing the establishment of slot parlors in order to close a $3 billion state deficit, he later announced he would not consider an expansion of gambling and decried the "social costs associated with gaming." On the presidential campaign trail this year, Romney similarly declared that he opposed online poker because "of the social costs and people's addictive gambling habits." He explained,"I don't want to increase access to gaming. I feel that we have plenty of access to gaming right now through the various casinos and establishments that exist."

As a onetime bishop of the Mormon church—which opposes gambling,including state-sponsored lotteries—Romney's lack of enthusiasm about legalized gambling is hardly surprising. Yet such reservations did not hinder him when he was a mega-financier. While Romney ran Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded, he owned a Bain-affiliated investment fund that bet heavy on betting.

In March 1999, shortly after Romney departed Bain to run the 2002 Winter Olympics, Brookside Capital Investors Inc., a Bain-related entity wholly owned by Romney, filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing the investments held the past quarter in its $559 million portfolio. On this roster were 1.2 million shares of GTECH Holdings Corp., then valued at $29 million. The company billed itself in its 1999 annual report as "a leading global supplier of systems and services to the lottery and gaming/entertaining industries." This description put it mildly; GTECH was the world's largest supplier of computer equipment for lotteries. It operated about 30 of 37 state lotteries in the United States, along with lotteries in England, Israel, Turkey, Australia, and other countries. It also was teaming up with big gaming firms to buy or revamp casinos and race tracks, adding and upgrading gambling equipment at these venues.

In 1998, GTECH had pulled in nearly $1 billion in revenue from its various gaming ventures. At the time Romney was investing in the firm, it was seeking to become a pioneer in Internet gambling.

The SEC filing reporting the GTECH investment doesn't state when Romney's Brookside Capital fund first purchased shares in the firm, but in the mid- and late-1990s the gaming company had a controversial reputation. In 1998, Guy Snowden resigned as head of the company a day after losing a bitter libel battle against billionaire Richard Branson, who had accused Snowden of trying to bribe him into withdrawing from a competition to run England's national lottery. Reporting on Snowden's departure, Fortune noted that "Snowden's often sleazy, win-at-all-costs tactics…have helped make GTECH the dominant force in the computerized lottery business." Snowden's exit followed a run of GTECH scandals. In 1996, a top executive of the Providence, Rhode Island-based firm was convicted in New Jersey of fraud, bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy. (The exec had hired lobbyists to push for expanding the New Jersey lottery and had received kickbacks.) In Texas, where GTECH paid a well-connected lobbyist $3.2 million, there were also allegations of kickbacks and shady wheeling-and-dealing.

Yet again, Mitt Romney says one thing while doing the exact opposite. He claims he despises the practice of outsourcing American jobs overseas, yet his company is a "pioneer of outsourcing". And while Romney claims to piously observe the teachings of his church and court the religious right by decrying the gaming industry, his company was investing in not just any gaming company, but a very controversial one at that!

But then again, we really shouldn't be surprised. This is really Mitt Romney's MO. After all, he's fully embraced Sheldon Adelson and all his Macau mafia (supplied) mega millions that he's pumping into pro-Romney Super PACs. Even though Romney won't publicly embrace Adelson and his "Chinese enterprise", he certainly won't turn down any campaign cash from Las Vegas Sands' head gondoliere.

Really, does Mittens have any core at all? Is there anything he will stand for (other than not releasing his tax returns)? I wonder what he will do next. Will Romney admit his like for the gaming industry in an attempt to warm up to us here in Nevada? Or will he keep denying his gaming industry ties in order to prevent further alienation of the radical religious right (who hate gambling)?

#CongressFAIL

If you haven't done so yet, watch this video. (Sorry, I can't catch the embed code now.) And when you're done with that (or if you can't watch video right now), read this.

The metaphor we tend to use for congressional dysfunction is “gridlock.” When you have gridlock, nothing moves. But that’s not quite what we’ve seen. When Congress grinds to a halt, other governmental actors step into the breach. This isn’t a particularly good alternative: For one thing, these other actors don’t have the powers of Congress, and so they need to use roundabout, inefficient ways of achieving their goals. For another, these actors are less accountable than Congress.

But it’s important to realize that this wouldn’t happen if Congress didn’t want it to: Just as Congress could act to write a climate bill, it could also act to stop the EPA from regulating carbon. But when gridlock is driven by minority obstruction, you often have a majority that would like to see some effort made to address these problems, and if they can’t do it themselves, they’re willing to stand back and let other parts of the government do it. This is just one more reason why the increasing level of congressional dysfunction should worry those on both the left and the right: It’s leading government to work in ways the Founders never intended, and that frankly doesn’t make very much sense.

This is what Dina Titus was trying to explain to The R-J yesterday. While it is disturbing that the executive branch has had to claim more authority and take more unilateral action, what are they supposed to do when Congress won't do anything? As Ezra Klein has explained, this Congress has actually threatened economic recovery with its epic obstruction and gridlock!

And yes, there's a clear source for this trouble. Even Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein, two of the nation's preeminent experts on Congress and federal policy making, broke their silence earlier this year and flatly stated why Congress is increasingly looking like a failed institution.

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.

It is clear that the center of gravity in the Republican Party has shifted sharply to the right. Its once-legendary moderate and center-right legislators in the House and the Senate —think Bob Michel, Mickey Edwards, John Danforth, Chuck Hagel —are virtually extinct.

This is the problem. Because the GOP has devolved into the G-O-TEA, it's become incredibly difficult for anything to be accomplished. Remember, this is why we came perilously close to defaulting on our debt! And this is why Congress keeps wasting time on stupid shit like repealing the Affordable Care Act. And this is why Congress can not even agree on common sense measures like renewing the Violence Against Women Act!

This is NOT how our government is supposed to work. Even when we've seen divided government in the not too distant past, it was never this dysfunctional. Because the likes of Nevada's own Joe Heck and Mark Amodei would rather cave into "tea party" extremists than work with Harry Reid and others to do such basic things as pass a budget on time and take care of the debt ceiling, our federal government is approaching a dangerous level of gridlock... And it's prompted President Obama to exert more executive authority just to keep the federal government functioning.

This is not how it's supposed to work... And it increasingly looks like there's a "TEA" fueled faction on Capitol Hill that likes it this way.