NV-03: How Heck Lost His Cool (& Oceguera Got His Groove Back)

Fresh off last night's debate, John Oceguera stopped by Nevada Democrats' NV-03 field office to thank volunteers. Overall, the mood in the office was quite cheerful... Well, at least until last night's massive storm hit.









And considering what happened last night, we can see why Oceguera was so cheerful.

The most heated exchange came when Oceguera was asked about a recent television ad in which he accuses Heck of being callous toward the needs of rape victims.

[Vegas PBS' Mitch] Fox pointedly asked Oceguera if he still stood by the ad, which many political observers said crossed the line of fair play.

“Yes. I will stand by that ad, and here’s why,” said Oceguera, who indicated that his mother was a victim of domestic violence. “Congressman Heck’s record on women’s health and safety is clear. He voted to weaken the Violence Against Women Act, he voted twice to defund Planned Parenthood … It goes back to his history in the legislature where he voted to not fund domestic violence programs, rape crisis programs and vaccine to help women to be protected from cervical cancer.”

Heck shot back that Oceguera was purposefully distorting his record. [...]

The 1994 Violence Against Women Act is up for renewal this year, and competing House and Senate versions have yet to be reconciled. The House version excludes provisions that would protect immigrant victims from abusers who would use their immigration status against them, and that explicitly authorize services for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual victims.

Joe Heck never likes being confronted with his own record. So when asked about women's rights, all he could do was make excuses. Oh, he couldn't vote for a rape crisis program because the bill that it was a part of was loaded with "pork" (like funding for trails and historical records... And it passed on a bipartisan 17-3 vote). And he couldn't vote to expand access to the HPV/cervical cancer vaccine because it would have been like coddling "smokers who contract lung cancer". Oh, and he still can't let the bipartisan backed reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because of "teh gayz" and "these people". Joe Heck just doesn't want to take any responsibility for his own actions.

That was pretty much the recurring theme throughout last night's NV-03 debate. Heck refused to take responsibility for his own vote to defund Head Start. Heck refused to take responsibility for his own repeated efforts to cut investment in public education. Basically, Joe Heck refused to take responsibility for anything. He was just looking for someone else to blame.

This is why he lost his cool last night... And this is why he's in more political danger than he wants to acknowledge.

NV-Sen: More Baloney from Dean Heller

Yesterday, some Democrats actually got this in the mail.





Yep, Dean Heller actually sent this. He's obviously hoping that his "moderate" baloney will be enough to win over enough crossover support to keep him in office. The problem for Heller is that his message sounds just as cheap and flimsy as the production value of this mail piece.

Dean Heller claims he wants "bipartisan" budget solutions, yet he's been backing an extreme push for unbalanced nonsense that would plunge our economy into deeper recession and unemployment if passed. Oh, and it would require cuts on everything from Medicare to children's health care to Pell Grants to infrastructure investment. It's so extreme that not even Paul Ryan's Medicare busting budget could pass muster!

Oh, but of course, Dean Heller has also backed Paul Ryan's plan. And he even voted to throw America into default and threatened a new global crisis last year just because what was being discussed at the bipartisan debt ceiling negotiations was "not good enough" for him. Yet all of a sudden, we're supposed to forget all of this and embrace Dean Heller and his new "moderate" persona?

That's what he was hoping for at last night's debate. But interestingly enough, it all unraveled when he let a little something slip.

On immigration, Heller said he was willing to work with Democrats on reform. He said he supported a pathway to citizenship for those who came here illegally and served in the military or are getting an education.

He said he also supports efforts to push English-only legislation and making it easier to immigrate to the country legally.

“So the principles that I’m trying to support is trying to make these people succeed,” he said. “I want them to succeed here in this country.”

Democrats Thursday night pounced on his reference to “these people,” setting up a conference call with Latino leaders for Friday morning.

“I am deeply insulted by Sen. Heller's disrespectful remarks,” state Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, said in a statement moments after the debate.

Just as we discussed last night, this is becoming a big problem for Heller. Already, he's been bleeding support among Latin@ voters because his actions haven't matched his rhetoric. But now that Heller is letting slip his real feelings toward las comunidades Latinas en Nevada, this will only further complicate whatever "Hispanic outreach efforts" he has left.

So Dean Heller has been trying one more time to pull some wool over Nevadans' eyes and make his "moderate" balonet look and smell like real beef. Unfortunately for him, it's become more obvious that something just doesn't smell right.