RFC Radio co-founder and station manager Andrew Riley just got off the phone with Minuteman Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox - who confirmed the veracity of Ben Smith’s story on Politico: he is indeed going to be running against McCain in 2010.
(We at RFC have a personal interest in this because Simcox is a station partner and friend ~ and has a talk show that airs with us.)
Chris says he’ll be on Fox News to talk about this tomorrow. And that his son will be wearing an RFC Radio t-shirt.
I have never been a big fan of McCain and very happily endorse Chris Simcox who is a True Conservative. I know a lot of Arizona citizens and bloggers who will do the same.
Tags: 2010, Arizona, Chris Simcox, immigration reform, John McCain, Minutemen, primary
As I noted in a post the other day, Republicans have historically tended to be more reliable voters than Democrats, i.e. they show up at the booth with a lot less prompting and prodding. This is a factor that cannot be left out of the registration equation. Democrat campaign managers need to figure out how many registered Democratic voters are needed to equal/exceed one Republican vote. Because it is an issue of quality over quantity, it is not going to be a one-to-one correlation.
On this subject, NV Senator Bob Beers has some comments on all the media attention the voter registration issue is getting. He notes that while much Ado has been made about the voter registration gains made by Democrats in the past year (here and here and here), some Republicans see it another way:
The hyper-aggressive Democrat voter registration program, funded by Harry Reid’s millions in advance of his 2010 re-election or election of his son in his place, seems to have been focusing on that peculiar brand of ultra-transient new resident, most of whom have probably moved home in the wake of the flattening of Nevada’s once-thriving job market.
Some contend the Democrat voter registration program has become so aggressive that it has taken to registering people who do not actually exist.
The majority of existing voters who are changing their party affiliation to Democrat had been registered Non-Partisan. Those people probably were already voting Democrat, so changing their registrations won’t have much impact on November end-of-season voting, though it will cause an increase in the raw number of Democrats who vote in primaries.
As case-and-point, Beers points to the primary balloting…particularly in the Porter-Titus congressional district, where more Republicans voted than did Democrats. 26,892 Republicans voted compared to 26,241 Democrats despite all the buzz re: the massive registration lead Democrats had supposedly built in that district.
Below Beers shows the trend in some other districts where there was both a Democrat and Republican primary:
Tags: aggressive, articles about, ballotting, Blogs of Nevada, Bob Beers, Democrat, Democratic, election, gains, GOP, Independent, Media, Non-Partisan, November, party affiliation, primary, Republican, voter registration, voters
Well, I don’t relish raining on conservatives’ celebratory parade after Tuesday’s primary victories here in Nevada, but a commitment to fair analysis requires that I do just that.
Though from one point of view conservatives “won” with the ousting of three tax-raising Republican assembly reps, that result has given Democrats hope that they can gain between one and three seats in the Nevada Assembly in November. If that happens, their 27-15 margin will grow, they’ll have a majority, and they’ll end up with the more than 28 seats needed for a supermajority, i.e. the number needed to override a veto by Republican governor Jim Gibbons.
Which in light of the tax-hiking tendencies of Assembly Democrats would be very bad news for Nevadans.
Republican strategists I’ve spoken to seem to think the GOP can hold onto those seats, and I hope they’re right. The man who defeated Marvel, Don Gustavson (District 32), is pretty well known so there’s a fair degree of confidence he can hold down his corner of the fort. People don’t seem quite as sure that Francis Allen’s nemesis, Richard McCarthur (District 4), and the guy who beat Bob “Lite” Beers, Jon Ozark (District 21), can do the same in a year that is shaping up to be very competitive.
With 10 of 21 state Senate seats and all 42 Assembly seats up for grabs here in the Battle Born State, it’s going to be an interesting election night in more ways than one.
Tags: Allen, analysis, assembly, Beers, Blogs of Nevada, conservatives, Gibbons, GOP, Gustavson, majority, Marvel, McCarthur, Ozark, primaries, primary, Republican, results, seats, Senates, strategists, supermajority, tax, tax hikes, Taxation, taxed, Taxes, taxing
My Inbox is full of joyous emails from Nevada conservatives. Here’s what they’re so darn happy about:
GOOD-BYE TO YOU: Everyone is just delighted that incumbent Republican Assemblywoman Francis Allen - who refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and also embarrassed herself and her supporters by recently stabbing her husband in a drunken rage - lost to Republican challenger Richard McArthur (who not only signed the Pledge but campaigned on it). McArthur stomped Allen by a 2-1 margin.
BOB “LITE” BEERS IS OFF THE SHELF: Mr. Beers reluctantly signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge after he was elected in 2006 – and then immediately broke it during the 2007 legislative session. Beers lost by a 2-1 margin to Republican Jonathan Ozark (who signed the Pledge).
JUST MARVELLOUS: Another victory worth noting is that of former Republican Assemblyman Don Gustavson who defeated incumbent Republican Assemblyman John Marvel. Marvel also broke HIS Tax Pledge by flip-flopping and voting for the gigantic tax hike in 2003.
Everyone’s glad that three Pretend Republicans have been replaced (subject to general election wins) by fiscally conservative Republicans.
SQUEAKER: In the State Senate, Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio pulled out a close one over Republican challenger and former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle. Despite 30 years of service to his district, his strong leadership position, and outspending his opponent by more than 10-1, Raggio only won by around 500 votes. (”whew!”)
CHAOS AVERTED: In a closely-watched county commission race, GOP leaders dodged a proverbial bullet when former Clark County Chairman Brian Scroggins beat longtime Commissioner Bruce Woodbury…whose name was still on the ballot despite being ruled ineligible by the state’s new term limits law. Had Woodbury won, debates would have raged over who would replace Woodbury on the general election ballot. Now the party can just unite behind Scroggins.
KIDS AND PARENTS - VICTORY #1: Many of you may know that the Nevada State Board of Education voted last December to slap a moratorium on the approval of any new charter schools, despite Very long waiting lists. Under pressure, the Board lifted its moratorium at their meeting last weekend.
#2: Four of the nine Board members who voted against charter schools opted not to even seek re-election – including Harry Reid’s daughter-in-law, Cindy Reid. And then yesterday Board member Barbara Myers lost to challenger Dave Cook in a three-way primary fight. The two will meet again in November with Myers the likely loser. Which means the Board could end up with six new members who, hopefully, won’t be as anti-school choice and anti-education as the last one.
Does all this bode well for Conservatives in November? Perhaps. For today, we’ll enjoy the Victory – and continue to Hope.
Literary ref from header: “And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy. …”
Tags: analysis, Bill Raggio, Blogs of Nevada, Board of Education, Bob Beers, Brian Scroggins, Bruce Woodbury, charter schools, Cindy Reid, Clark County, comments, conservatives, election, Francis Allen, Jon Ozark, joyous day, loss, primary, results, Richard McArthur, Sharron Angle, stats, victory
A reader emailed and asked why I didn’t say anything about today being Primary Day in Nevada. The short answer is I didn’t think readers outside NV would care and residents here already knew about it. Anyhoo, I just got home a little while ago and am checking the preliminary results online.
Here are a few Fun Clark County Facts while you wait for me to do that. Clark County is NV’s largest county by population (because it contains Las Vegas). County was created in 1908. Total county population was 1.9 million in 2006. We have approximately 327,000 registered Dems, 235,000 registered GOPers, and 136,000 “miscellaneous” (Independents etc.) for a total of about 697,000 registered voters.
OK, enough of that. With 82% of the precincts and all the mail-outs in, we had about 102,000 people vote. See all the results here. No big surprises in the Congressional races. I’m too tired to go through the rest of them one by one, but I will say this:
Glad to see Chad Christensen won in his Assembly race. Glad to see Francis “the Knife” Allen did poorly in hers. Didn’t much care whether Assemblyman Bob Beers won or lost, but know people who are glad.
And am appalled and disgusted that Family Court Judge Del Vecchio got 20,000+ votes. I’ve been sitting on some details I’m privy to re: Del Vecchio thinking it was all best revealed in October, but if That many people are not yet aware of the many, MANY reasons this guy should not only Not be on the bench but should be in prison…I’ll re-think the delay.
Tags: Allen, assembly, august 12, Beers, Blogs of Nevada, Christensen, congressional, Del Vecchio, lost, primaries, primary, results, won
