Vice President Kamala Harris touted administration accomplishments including the passage of a bill to combat inflation and another to make computer chips in the United States during a daylong visit to Las Vegas on Wednesday.

In the morning, Harris addressed the 2022 Constitutional Convention of the United Steelworkers at the MGM Grand Convention Center. Her visit came amid a year of rising union support and membership nationwide, with union drives in Amazon warehouses and Starbucks locations garnering national attention.

“The strength of America is because of the workers of America, the protection of the workers of America, and the recognition of the dignity of the work that those workers do,” Harris said.

She praised the passage of new legislation in Congress: the CHIPS Act, which will expand U.S. computer chip manufacturing, and the Inflation Reduction Act, an omnibus bill with massive ramifications for the fight against climate change and lowering health care costs. That legislation includes raising taxes on the richest Americans and closing tax loopholes for large businesses.

“Our nation’s largest corporations will now start to pay their fair share,” she said to a standing ovation.

Economic gains

At a roundtable with local lawmakers later in the day, Harris also praised her administration’s work in turning around the nation’s economy post-pandemic. There was no additional inflation in July, gas prices are falling nationally and unemployment is at a 50-year low, she said.

"We are delivering for the American people,” Harris said.

Inflation remains high, although it fell from 9.1 percent to 8.5 percent last month.

The roundtable featured eight Nevada lawmakers, including Attorney General Aaron Ford and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro. The group’s discussion focused on reproductive rights in the state following the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to effectively overturn abortion rights on the federal level and allow states to pass laws regarding the procedure.

“The United States Supreme Court, with the Dobbs decision, took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America. From the women of America,” she said. “What we have seen around the country are extremist, so-called leaders passing laws to punish women, to criminalize healthcare providers.”

Abortion remains legal and accessible in Nevada following the Supreme Court decision, thanks to a voter-affirmed provision embedded in state law. Elsewhere, states have passed laws banning the procedure in all cases, including if a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Last month, a 10-year-old girl from Ohio was forced to cross state lines to Indiana to receive an abortion after she was raped in a case which garnered nation attention.

Harris called state laws like those in Ohio, “abhorrent.”

More rights at stake

“Our nation was founded on certain fundamental principles including the principles of freedom and liberty,” she said. “To stand for the proposition that the government should not interfere in the most intimate, private decision a person can make about their body and their future… does not require one to abandon their faith or their beliefs.”

The vice president ended her statement with a warning about other rights that she believes may be under attack soon. In his Dobbs concurring opinion, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned that other court cases regarding civil rights should also be reconsidered.

“This, in many ways, sadly just may be the beginning,” she said. “Clarence Thomas… said the quiet part out loud. Talking about other fundamental rights that we thought were long-settled may be up for debate or even attack. Including the right to have access to contraception and same-sex marriage. So everyone is impacted by this decision.”

After finishing the roundtable discussion, Harris privately met with Culinary Union leadership, a spokesperson said. Following the meeting, she toured the MGM Grand pastry kitchen with Rep. Steven Horsford, met staff and sampled their work.

Republicans skeptical of visit

Republicans — who voted en masse against the Senate bill, contending it would do little to ease inflation — greeted Harris’ visit with disdain.

“Vice President Harris’ visit to the Steelworkers Union convention today is a slap in the face to hardworking Nevadans who her party just voted to raise taxes on during a recession and yet another attempt to distract voters from the issues affecting them every day,” said Republican National Committee spokesperson Hallie Balch in a statement. “The VP can drop in and make guest appearances all she wants, but the Biden administration and Nevada Democrats’ failed records speak much louder than any speech she could give.”

And Republican U.S. Senate nominee Adam Laxalt criticized his Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, saying the visit would not improve her chances in November. Cortez Masto did not appear with the vice president Wednesday and Harris did not mention the race explicitly in her comments.

“Struggling with their record-low approval ratings, the Biden-Harris Administration is doing everything they can to ensure that Democrats have another two years to keep our borders open, dismantle American energy, plunge our economy further into recession, and push radical leftist indoctrination in our schools,” Laxalt said in a statement. “Kamala Harris hopes her glamorous visit with Masto will distract Nevadan voters from the real issues: inflation is at 40-year high, weekly earnings for middle class families have been down for 16 consecutive months, gas and diesel prices remain unaffordable, and consumer confidence is near its record low.”

Cortez Masto’s campaign was unfazed by Laxalt’s remarks, launching their own attacks back at the former state attorney general.

“While Senator Cortez Masto works to lower costs for Nevada families, Adam Laxalt is getting rich working for a longtime (Washington) D.C. lobbyist at a firm representing the big oil companies squeezing Nevadans at the pump,” said spokesperson Sigalle Reshef in a statement. “Laxalt’s out for himself, not Nevada.”

The gaming industry is playing both sides in the Nevada governor’s race, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to both incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak and his Republican challenger, Joe Lombardo, state campaign finance reports show.

Between his campaign and his largest political action committee, Sisolak is taking the most from casinos and their executives, about $943,000 since 2021. But the industry is also hedging its bets by supporting Lombardo, with the Clark County sheriff’s campaign and PAC taking in about $730,000 since last year.

“Most times, the gaming industry tends to be pro-incumbent, especially if the experience has been generally good in the prior term,” longtime Nevada political consultant Billy Vassiliadis said.

Casinos tend to agree on a candidate in legislative races, he said, but the industry can have differing opinions on governor, U.S Senate and other statewide races. Most gaming firms are donating to both Sisolak and Lombardo, a common practice for the industry in the largest races, according to Vassiliadis.

One example is Phil Ruffin, owner of Treasure Island and Circus Circus as well as a notable ally of former President Donald Trump. He personally donated $10,000 each to Sisolak and Lombardo. Including donations from properties he owns, Ruffin has given more to Sisolak — $30,000 since last year — than to Lombardo, to whom he has donated $10,000.

Individual and organization donations to candidates are limited to $5,000 per election by Nevada law. The most a person or corporation could donate is $10,000 — $5,000 each for the primary and general election campaigns. They can then donate to PACs, where there is no limit on giving. Only donations of more than $1,000 are reported in state filings.

Big donors

Sisolak’s largest casino backer is The Venetian, operated by the massive asset management firm Apollo Global Management. The Venetian donated $40,000 to Sisolak’s campaign and an additional $210,000 to his affiliated PAC, Home Means Nevada. That number dwarfs Sisolak’s next largest donor, Caesars Entertainment, which has given $90,000 since 2021 between its many subsidiary companies and casinos.

For Lombardo, the most money is coming from Golden Entertainment, which operates the Strat as well as a number of rural casinos and the PT’s Pub chain. Golden donated $20,000 to Lombardo’s campaign and $70,000 to his PAC, Stronger Nevada. The next largest Lombardo donor is Boyd Gaming, which gave $30,000 to his campaign, but also gave $40,000 to Sisolak.

Donations from the gaming industry are mostly reliant on personal relationships, Vassiliadis said, and Lombardo’s prior experience as Clark County sheriff is a large advantage over any other challenger Sisolak could have faced.

“If Lombardo hadn’t been the sheriff, I don’t know if any other opponent would have done as well with getting money from the casino industry,” Vassiliadis said.

Preferred candidates

Although most casino organizations are giving to both candidates, most also prefer one over the other. Las Vegas’ largest casino companies — MGM, Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and Station Casinos — have all donated more to Sisolak than Lombardo.

Station Casinos, through its majority owners the Fertitta family, donated $80,000 to Sisolak but nothing to Lombardo.

Wynn Las Vegas donated a total of $15,000 to Sisolak in 2020 and 2021, but gave nothing to Lombardo. But the company’s former chairman, Steve Wynn, went the other way; he and his wife, Andrea Wynn, donated $20,000 to Lombardo, but did not give to Sisolak. (Steve Wynn is no longer affiliated with Wynn Resorts.)

Resorts World gave Lombardo $10,000 and $30,000 to Sisolak in 2022.

But it’s not just major firms throwing around campaign donations for the governor race. Independent casinos, like the El Cortez downtown, are also playing both sides. The El Cortez donated $10,000 to each candidate, as did the Ellis Island casino.The Longhorn Casino gave $5,000 to each candidate.

Lombardo has also seen the support of some of the city’s most influential gaming families. The Marnell family, the original owners and namesake of The M casino, gave the sheriff $50,000 and Sisolak $10,000. Similarly, the Herbst family, which owns the Terrible’s gas station chain and the now-closed Jean casino, gave Lombardo $50,000 and Sisolak $10,000.

Additionally, the Ensign family, including former U.S. Sen. John Ensign, which owns casinos in West Wendover and has a history managing Las Vegas casinos, gave Lombardo another $20,000. Dr. Miriam Adelson, of Las Vegas Sands Corp., gave $10,000 to Lombardo.

Hotel magnate likes Lombardo

The sheriff’s biggest backer isn’t a gaming magnate, however, but a hotel owner. Robert Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites hotel chain, has given Lombardo and his PACs nearly $5.7 million, by far the most of any single donor to a Nevada candidate this cycle. Bigelow notably donated $10 million to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign earlier this summer. He hasn’t given Sisolak any money.

Gaming executives are also giving both ways, with some going against the preference of their employers. One Caesars Entertainment board member gave $10,000 to Lombardo’s campaign while the corporation itself gave nothing to Lombardo and $90,000 to Sisolak. A Treasure Island executive even gave more to Lombardo than Phil Ruffin himself, with $20,000 in donations. Sisolak received the largest bumps from MGM and Station Casinos executives, $20,000 from each.

Executives generally fall in line behind their corporate employers, Vassiliadis said, but the industry is rapidly changing.

“The casino industry is not immune from the rest of the world,” he said. “It’s getting a little more partisan as everything is.”

Overall, Sisolak retains a large fundraising advantage over Lombardo. The governor raised $1.7 million in the second quarter of 2022, to Lombardo’s $782,000.

Sisolak has $10.8 million on hand, according to second-quarter reports, while Lombardo has $1.2 million. One reason for that large difference is that Sisolak, as the incumbent, has had significantly more time to raise money than his opponent, who had to fight through a crowded primary field.

Shots rang out at Palm Eastern Cemetery as decorated World War II veteran William Dean Whitaker was laid to rest on Friday afternoon.

The Nellis Air Force Base Honor Guard presided over Whitaker’s ceremony after a service at his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on South Maryland Parkway and East Serene Avenue.

He was remembered by dozens of friends, family and community members as a “jack of all trades.” He found success in the military, in business as an architect, contractor, circuit board manufacturer, artist, author and even as a drag racing engineer.

“He squeezed so much into his lifetime, it’s hard to believe he was only 97,” friend Jason Frederico said.

Whitaker joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, which later became the U.S. Air Force, at age 19 in 1943. He flew 20 missions over Germany in a B-17 bomber before he and his crew got shot down. Only two members of the crew, including Whitaker, survived. He was a prisoner of war until he was liberated by American forces seven months later.

For his service, he was awarded a Purple Heart and later a Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest award. Sébastien Thévenin, the honorary consul of France in Las Vegas, gave the award to Whitaker in 2019.

“Your service helped change the tide of human history and defend the bonds between our nations,” Thévenin said. “Freedom is a gift that does not come without a price. It requires determination and sacrifice. The French people will never forget that you helped restore their freedom. Your courage and dedication are an example to us all.”

Whitaker valued his faith and was celebrated as an important member of his church ward.

“For our ward, he was our hero,” Bishop Richard Burnham said. “He was a fixture. I always look over to the spot he always sat in with his wife, before she passed away. When you have someone like that, who sets the example and follows after Jesus Christ, you can’t teach it. That’s what we’ll remember.”

Whitaker picked up a hobby of painting in his older age, Burnham said. He would give Burnham a stack of paintings to pass out to churchgoers as gifts. And even as his memory began to fade, Whitaker loved drives down Las Vegas Boulevard and to Lake Mead, with a plethora of friends and family happy to drive him.

A lifelong Los Angeles Dodgers fan, he was honored by the team in 2020.

“When people pass on, we always say that they’re at peace now, which is true. But in Dean’s case he was always at peace,” friend Bruno Chouieri said. “He always knew what God expected of him, and he always did it. Never out of a sense of obligation, but something inside him throughout his life guided him to do the right thing. In many cases when it wasn’t easy, he showed the courage to do it. For that, I admire Dean.”

He often shared his experience as a veteran and prisoner of war with schoolchildren and at other speaking events. That passion represented the best about Whitaker, Burnham said.

“Faith, family and country. That’s what he was all about, even through his retirement years,” Burnham said. “He would take any invitation or opportunity to speak it at a school; he loved it. He was just a beloved member of our community. Anybody that got to know him is better for it.”

Whitaker is survived by his two sons, Jeff and Mike, and seven grandchildren.

Flemming Larsen always dreamed about running for office, but the restaurateur quickly changed his mind when a Republican state senator asked his wife, April, to run instead.

The plan was, Flemming would become April’s campaign manager and her chief of staff in Carson City, negotiating bills with senators and using their combined business acumen to best represent her Henderson and East Las Vegas constituents.

But that plan didn’t last.

After some encouragement, Flemming decided to follow his dream and run for office himself.

So now, both April, 47, and Flemming, 53, are running together, side-by-side for the overlapping state Senate District 21 and state Assembly District 12. They want to join state Sen. Ira and Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen, both R-Sparks, as the second legislative power couple in Carson City.

The Larsen platform is simple: improve public safety by supporting police, better education with school choice and combating the ongoing water crisis. After both won their Republican primaries last month — April running unopposed for the Senate nomination and Flemming coming out on top in a five-candidate field for Assembly — each is now making their pitch to their potential future constituents.

“I (look up) to Ronald Reagan. He was able to work with Democrats and negotiate,” Flemming said. “He didn’t always get what he wanted, but he was able to cross the party lines and go play golf afterward. Being in business, you have to walk to the line. Can’t be too tough, can’t be too lenient. The big inspiration behind it all is trying to achieve that common goal of working together.”

Butcher shop beginnings

Despite their political aspirations, neither of the Larsens ever wanted to be career politicians. They run a chain of restaurants and steakhouses in Las Vegas and Southern California — appropriately named Larsen’s Restaurant Group — with Flemming as the day-to-day lead and April running the numbers as CFO. They met nearly 30 years ago at one of Flemming’s California restaurants.

The food service industry chose Flemming at a young age. He started working in his Danish immigrant family’s butcher shop at 15 but couldn’t stand it by the time he turned 21.

“It was cold, I worked at five o’clock in the morning. Zero social life. I worked six days a week,” he said. “So I decided to open a restaurant.”

Using a Sears credit card and business acumen from managing a grocery store and the butcher shop, Flemming’s first restaurant was born.

Seven years later, that restaurant grew into a chain which he sold and re-invested into his first steakhouse, the same one where he and his future wife eventually met in 1999. At the time she was a single mother of two boys, struggling to pay bills as she went to night school to become a dental hygenist.

“Her attitude was was so positive all the time. You would never know that she was a struggling mother and couldn’t make ends meet. Her kids were her world, and it was really inspiring to meet somebody like that,” Flemming said.

But now, 22 years together and one more son later, that difficult background is helping April connect with her potential constituents, and she hopes it will let her better represent them in Carson City.

“Sometimes I look back and think, ‘Wow, I made it through that,’” April said. “It didn’t come from just sitting around. It wasn’t handed to me. It’s hard work and perseverance. That’s really all I can do is encourage people. I’ve lived it. I understand. We’re gonna get through it.”

Couple commitment

It may sound like a lot to both live and work alongside your partner, but it’s not unprecedented for Nevada, or the Larsens.

Since 2018, Ira and Alexis Hansen have represented Sparks and rural Reno in the state Senate and Assembly as a couple. Ira started in the assembly in 2010, and moved to the Senate in 2018 when Alexis took over his Assembly seat.

“It’s been a good experience as a couple, but painful as the minority party,” Alexis Hansen said. “We said we wanted to do this all together, but we don’t see each other much. The Legislature is just so fast paced.”

Despite sharing their lives together, the Hansens don’t always vote together. Each of them being independent is key to their success, she said.

It’s a model the Larsens want to emulate, they said. They already work together managing their restaurant business, so working together in Carson City is just one small step further.

“What we do every day is steaks and payroll, now it will be policy and politics,” Flemming said.

Even if only one of the pair wins election — April has a challenging race, facing longtime legislator and Democratic incumbent state Sen. James Ohrenschall — the pair would be just as close as if they were both elected.

“If she wins and I lose, I’ll be the happiest man in the world because I’ll be supporting my senator and wife,” Flemming said. “Same if it was vice versa, she would come to Carson City and be my backbone.”

Flemming is running for an open seat after Assemblywoman Susie Martinez declined to run for re-election after being elected executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO.

California ex-pats

The Larsens didn’t even want to move to Nevada, at least at first. They decided to leave Los Angeles nine years ago, citing a deteriorating political climate and wanting a safer place to raise their three sons.

“The climate in California was very hostile,” Flemming said. “We felt like L.A. was being run into ground. Safety wasn’t a top priority anymore.”

They landed on three options: Texas, Arizona and Nevada (originally, in that order).

Like many non-Nevadans, they thought Las Vegas wasn’t much more than the Strip. The “Sin City” reputation loomed in their minds. But then they took a drive through the suburbs and found a place they loved: Henderson.

“We needed a place where we could raise our kids and financially grow our business. That was our ultimate goal,” April said. “The beautiful thing was that Nevada provided all of that.”

Said Flemming: “We said we were going to give it a year and decide if we wanted to stay or not. Two years later I asked (April) if she wanted to move back to California and she said, ‘No! I’ll visit family, but I’m not going to go back at all.’”

Ramping up campaigns

Now with Election Day about three months away, the Larsens are beefing up their campaigns and rolling out their community programs. Their districts are nearly identical — spanning the northern edges of Henderson and Lake Las Vegas up through Sunrise Manor in East Las Vegas — and extremely diverse.

Both districts are plurality-Hispanic, about 40 percent each, they said, and reaching out to those constituents has been a top priority as they begin to knock on doors and talk to voters.

“I think Reagan said it best, Hispanics are really Republicans, they just don’t know it,” Flemming said. “I think that they’re always told what to do. They’re always told who to vote for and how to vote. But when it comes down to it, family, God and jobs is what Hispanics are all about. And I think everybody in our district pretty much agrees on the same things.”

For April, that means sharing her life experiences, going from being a single mother and struggling to make ends meet to working at the executive level of a successful business.

“In what we lack in knowledge, we always compensate with hard work, because that’s the key,” April said. “If we just put forth the work, we can accomplish anything.”

She brought out one of Flemming’s commonly-used phrases.

“Experience isn’t expensive. It’s priceless.”

More than a dozen Nevada Republicans are crossing the aisle to support Democratic incumbent Attorney General Aaron Ford by forming a “Republicans for Ford” organizing committee, the group announced Monday.

The group, headlined by former state Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson and former state GOP chairwoman Amy Tarkanian, is throwing its support behind Ford in his re-election fight against attorney Sigal Chattah.

“It is unacceptable that Sigal Chattah — an unprepared, dangerous candidate who lacks the experience, foresight and temperament to be able to do right by Nevadans — is the Republican nominee for Attorney General,” Tarkanian said. “I’m proud to be voting for (Attorney) General Ford this November, and I implore fellow Republicans who value commonsense public servants to do the same.”

Chattah stirred waves in the Republican primary last month after defeating her more moderate opponent, Tisha Black, by 11 percentage points. Her victory was one of a group of right-wing candidates who defeated more moderate voices in the party primary.

Chattah said the endorsements did not concern her.

“At the end of the day, the (Republican Party) base certainly supported me,” said Chattah. “I don’t really know these people. I couldn’t pick Michael Roberson out of a lineup.”

Chattah said two things she does know about Roberson are that he has worked with the Clark County Education Association and was central to the passage of the commerce tax in Nevada in 2015. “None of what he represents is representative of the Republican Party,” she said.

Asked if the endorsements suggested a movement away from her campaign, Chattah said she’s promised to investigate political corruption in Nevada, a promise that has upset some. “I’d be shocked if they wouldn’t support who’s protecting them,” she said.

After Tarkanian endorsed Democratic state Treasurer Zach Conine last week, the Nevada Republican Party called her a “failed chair” with ties to Democrats who were seeking publicity.

Suing the state

Chattah first came to statewide prominence in 2020 when she filed multiple lawsuits against the state against pandemic restrictions. She said Gov. Steve Sisolak overstepped his bounds when he used pandemic restrictions to temporarily close places of worship.

“As a defense attorney, I know how to ensure public safety while not violating constitutional rights,” Chattah told the Review-Journal in May.

Last year, a former political ally leaked a text conversation with Chattah in which she attacked Ford with possibly racist language.

“This guy should be hanging from a (expletive) crane,” she wrote of Ford, who is Black. “He’s like the leader of Hamas — making tons of money while the People in Gaza are starving.”

Chattah claims the text wasn’t racially motivated but is an insult informed by her Israeli heritage.

The bipartisan support bolsters Ford’s campaign for a second term as the state’s “top cop.”

“I think most folks in Nevada recognize that we need to work together to get problems solved in our state and by having support from not only Democrats, but from Republicans as well as independents, demonstrates that I’m capable of putting in work to get bipartisan solutions to the very important issues that we face,” Ford said.

His priorities for a second term begin at public safety, he said, but also include consumer protection. Ford has facilitated multiple settlements with drug manufacturers regarding opioids and other addictive drugs, resulting in over $300 million in settlements for the state.

Former foes now allies

Ford’s supporters even include a former political rival. Ford and Roberson frequently battled each other in Carson City as each headed their respective party caucuses. Both led their caucuses from 2014-2018.

One 2017 showdown saw Ford outmaneuver Roberson over funding education with marijuana tax revenue. Roberson and the Republican caucus wanted a school choice voucher program included in the budget, but Ford and Democrats made a backroom deal with Gov. Brian Sandoval and routed tax funds through the state’s ‘rainy day fund’ in order to avoid a two-thirds vote so the voucher program wouldn’t need to be passed.

In 2015, Roberson outmaneuvered Ford, saving a school district reorganization bill to the very end of the session, and then passing it over strenuous Democratic objections in the final moments before adjournment.

Despite facing off for four years in the Legislature, it was clear both have respect for each other’s work.

“Aaron and I served together for several years in the Legislature and we engaged in many spirited political battles. Through that shared experience, he earned my friendship and respect,” Roberson said in a statement. “I take no joy in saying that my own political party has nominated an unhinged election denier and charlatan to run against Mr. Ford. Now, more than ever, it is time to put duty to the state and country above partisan politics.”

Ford responded in-kind.

“I’m smiling as I say this because Mike and I have had some very spirited debates on some very important issues,” Ford said. “But through it all, I believe he recognizes that I’ve always had the best interest of Nevadans at heart at heart and the fact that he is supporting me in my reelection campaign is demonstrative of the fact that I’m the better person for the job.”

The 13-member “Republicans for Ford” committee also includes former Las Vegas Congressman Jon Porter, former Nevada Republican Caucus Director Jodi Stephens, restaurateur Irma Aguirre and lobbyists Mike Hillerby, Peter Krueger and Susan Fischer.

“Even though people can disagree on certain policy positions, because there are Republicans in this group with whom I disagree, I think it’s important to note that we can still work together again for the improvement of the state,” Ford said. “Good policy can transcend and overcome partisan politics, and that’s exemplified through this endorsement.”

The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority has been cited by the state attorney general’s office for violating state open meeting law.

The authority announced at its board meeting Thursday the attorney general office’s findings after a yearlong investigation into whether the authority refused to release public documents.

The authority has refused to admit any wrongdoing and does not believe it violated the law, general counsel Theodore Parker said.

A resident filed two complaints with the attorney general in May 2021 and February 2022, alleging that the housing authority refused to share supporting documents of a subcommittee’s public meetings with him.

As a public body, the authority is obliged to follow state open meeting law, which states that all documents, minutes, agendas and other resources of meetings be made available to anyone upon request.

In response to the complaints, the attorney general’s office attempted to contact the authority three times — in May 2021, in September 2021 and a last time in March 2022 — but received no response each time. Parker said the authority never received the notices and was not aware of the complaints.

“The Office of Attorney General is not in possession of any evidence that the committees have complied with the Open Meetings Law,” the investigation report states.

The office did not seek a penalty in the investigation but did force the authority to acknowledge the investigation’s findings at its Thursday meeting.

This is not the first time the housing authority has been questioned about open meeting law.

In 2016, Parker asked then-Deputy Attorney General George Taylor in a letter if the board’s ad hoc and standing committees, which make recommendations to the board, were subject to the law. Taylor said he believed that they were subject to the law, however his opinion is not legally binding.

The attorney general office’s 2022 report claims that the subcommittees in question in the two recent complaints are subject to the open meeting law as well because the committees provide recommendations to the board.

The housing authority has submitted a letter to the attorney general in response to the investigation, Parker said, and is awaiting a final resolution.

Democrats are sharply out-raising their Republican opponents in Nevada’s biggest races, according to state and federal campaign finance reports filed last week.

Between Southern Nevada’s three congressional races and the races for governor and U.S. Senate, Democrats brought in about $7 million in since the primary compared to Republican candidates’ $2.3 million.

That follows the trend seen since the beginning of the 2022 campaign cycle.

Democrats, all of whom are incumbents, have raised $40.8 million for those five races in total compared to Republicans’ $11.2 million.

Senate race gets more expensive

Fundraising was headlined by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who raised about $3.8 million for her re-election campaign against former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who himself raised $1.2 million.

That race is heating up following Laxalt’s primary win last month over Sam Brown. Laxalt has focused campaign efforts on attacking Cortez Masto for inflation, as well as her record on immigration and law enforcement.

At an event in Las Vegas with former President Donald Trump earlier this month, Laxalt said Cortez Masto — both of whom were former Nevada attorneys general — refused to support police during nationwide protests in 2020.

“(Cortez Masto) said she supported BLM in 2020, which we all know now and I knew at the time was a radical movement,” Laxalt said at the event. “This was dangerous rhetoric at a time where she needed her to actually break with her radical party.”

The Cortez Masto campaign has emphasized abortion rights as part of its messaging. That comes in the wake of the June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing access to abortion at a federal level. Laxalt has previously stated that he supports changing Nevada law to limit abortion access in the state.

“There is no question in my mind that my opponent, Adam Laxalt, would support a federal abortion ban that eliminates access to reproductive care nationwide,” Cortez Masto said at a campaign event earlier this month. “He is out of line with a majority of Nevadans in this state.”

Her campaign has also tied Laxalt to Trump campaign attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Laxalt worked for the Trump campaign in Nevada and was supportive of ultimately unsuccessful efforts to legally challenge the state’s results.

Laxalt’s $1.2 million fundraising haul was the third highest of all Nevada candidates, which encompassed donations between May 26 and June 30, the the beginning of the newest FEC filings period. Reports were released Friday.

Cortez Masto’s state-leading fundraising pull also bolstered her campaign’s cash advantage over Laxalt. According to federal filings, her campaign has $9.85 million on hand, compared to Laxalt’s $2.15 million. However, as an incumbent, Cortez Masto has been building that cash pool since her first election in 2016. Laxalt unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018.

Lombardo spends as Sisolak saves

Gov. Steve Sisolak was the second-largest fundraiser of the quarter, taking in $1.7 million for his re-election. That dwarfed his opponent, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who raised $782,000. State fundraising filings are for the entire second quarter — April 1 to June 30.

Despite the difference in fundraising, Lombardo spent significantly more than Sisolak, likely due to Lombardo’s primary race against Reno lawyer Joey Gilbert.

Gilbert, who lost the race by about 26,000 votes to Lombardo, has refused to concede and is now suing the state while alleging fraud in the election.

In the second quarter, the Lombardo campaign spent $2.53 million while Sisolak’s camp spent $461,000.

That spending difference has only helped Sisolak in building his cash advantage. The Sisolak campaign has about $10.8 million on hand, the most of any candidate in Nevada, compared to the Lombardo campaign’s $1.2 reserve. But just like with Cortez Masto, Sisolak’s incumbent status has given his camp a head start on fundraising, while Lombardo had to fight his way out of a crowded GOP primary.

In an echo of the state’s U.S. Senate race, the Lombardo campaign has attacked Sisolak on inflation, tying the governor to President Joe Biden, while the Sisolak team has fought back by attacking Lombardo’s stance on abortion rights.

Lombardo has refused to take a clear stance on abortion rights but previously stated that he would consider abortion restrictions if they came to his desk as governor and has described himself as pro-life.

Democrats extend fundraising lead in House races

In each of Southern Nevada’s three U.S. House races — Districts 1, 3 and 4 — the Democratic incumbents far out-raised their Republican opponents from May 26 through June 30.

Rep. Susie Lee raised the most since the primary, bringing in $554,000. Rep. Steven Horsford was close behind at $551,000 raised, while Rep. Dina Titus raised $424,000, according to federal filings since May 26.

The three incumbents’ opponents raised an average of about $100,000 each. April Becker, who is facing off against Lee, performed the best of the three Republicans, taking in $134,000.

Fundraising advantages have also turned into cash advantages for the three Democrats. Lee and Horsford each have about $2.5 million on hand, while Titus holds about $1.7 million, according to filings.

Titus’ opponent, Mark Robertson, has about $200,000 on hand while Becker and Horsford’s opponent, Sam Peters, have about $360,000 and $160,000, respectively.

Nevada governments are planning to expand opioid treatment and addiction prevention services as they begin to receive the first allocations of money from settlements the state made with drug manufacturers.

In January, Attorney General Aaron Ford announced that the state agreed to receive $285.2 million from opioid manufacturers and distributors for their role in exacerbating the addiction crisis in the state. That money is slowly being distributed to cities and counties beginning now, with a requirement that those funds be spent on addiction treatment and support services.

“This is huge,” said Kevin Schiller, Clark County deputy county manager for social services. “This will have a very significant impact across the county and state, since so many people come to Clark County for help.”

Opioid overdose deaths have been a constant in Nevada. In 2005, the state had the third worst rate of opioid deaths in the country at 18.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2020, the state’s rate of 26 deaths per capita ranked 27th in the nation. Although Nevada’s per capita deaths from opioid deaths continues to rise, the state’s national ranking actually fell because even more people are dying in other harder-hit states, especially in the Midwest.

Compared to neighboring states, Nevada has the second worst rate of opioid deaths, behind only Arizona in 2020, the most recent year CDC data is available.

Funding from settlements with pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson and three of the nation’s largest opioid distributors as well as some federal grant money are distributed based on the One Nevada Agreement. That plan divides money between the state, counties and some cities based on need.

Clark County will get approximately 37 percent of all of the state’s money due to its large population. Another 7 percent will go to the city of Las Vegas. In total, Clark County and its municipalities account for 46 percent of the settlement’s funds. The state takes 44 percent.

County spending plans

The county is taking a three-prong approach to spending its share of settlement funds, Schiller said. Officials are expanding current treatment services, creating new prevention programs and using funds to shore up needs for transitional housing.

Housing is a key part of the county’s plan, Schiller said, because many of the struggles organizations have with treating addiction start there.

“In the treatment world, you can’t talk about opioids in a vacuum,” Schiller said. “There is such a nexus to social service, you can’t talk opioids without talking about housing.”

Many addicted people are homeless or lack steady housing, he said, and by providing transitional and temporary housing to people in treatment, that treatment can be more likely to be effective.

“A byproduct of addiction is homelessness, but you also need stability in order to engage in treatment,” he said.

That means new and expanded in-patient facilities where people with addictions can stay while receiving treatment. It’s especially important in a city like Las Vegas where housing prices continue to climb, he said.

While spending from these settlements focuses specifically on opioid addiction, there are resources the county wants to expand for more broad mental health care, including counseling services for addictions as well as other programs.

One expanded program focuses on people with addictions who have recently been released from prison, with both an in-patient and out-patient version, Schiller said. Those people are at an especially high risk for relapse, he said, so expanding those programs would have a significant impact.

Clark County is in a better position compared to other municipalities receiving money from the agreement because of its size and the amount of money it is receiving from the plan, Schiller said.

“We’re in a unique position compared to other governments because we don’t have to put a line in the sand when it comes to jurisdiction,” he said.

That allows the county to better provide for victims of opioid addiction because programs can be more accessible over a wider geographic area.

Smaller municipalities, like Henderson and North Las Vegas, are now waiting for additional recommendations from the state before beginning their own spending plan process.

State recommendations

The state Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with creating a plan to spend the state’s 44 percent allocation of settlement funds. The state’s priorities are based on a Johns Hopkins University set of principles, according to Dawn Yohey, a department clinical program planner.

“Spend money to save lives, use evidence to guide spending, invest in youth prevention, focus on racial equity, and develop a fair and transparent process for deciding when to spend the funding,” Yohey said in a statement.

That means programs at every step of the addiction treatment process, from prevention and early intervention to workforce and housing services. It even includes programs aimed at children who have been exposed to opioid use through their families and others who are more likely to become addicted because of their unique circumstances.

The state’s plan, which is complete and will be presented at a special legislative committee meeting later this month, is also constantly evolving, Yohey said. While it needs to be updated at least every four years, DHHS will also release a transparency report annually which discloses exactly how the department is spending settlement funds.

The most impact can be made through work with local government via the One Nevada Agreement, Yohey said.

“The progress Nevada makes to addressing the opioid crisis will be dependent on the collaboration and collective investment the state and local jurisdictions make in addressing the highest needs while looking toward ensuring investments are meaningful, based in evidence and best practices, and have suitability over the long term.”

Former President Donald Trump visited the Strip on Friday evening to stump for statewide candidates Adam Laxalt and Joe Lombardo.

Trump’s speech and the preceding panel focused on law enforcement policy and criticized Democratic leadership in Washington, D.C.

“We are a nation in decline,” Trump said. “We are a failing nation … All the while the streets are filled with the blood of innocent crime victims … If we are going to make America great again, our first task is to make America safe again.”

Friday’s event was hosted at Treasure Island, which is owned by Trump ally Phil Ruffin, who also co-owns the Trump International hotel with the Trump Organization.

The evening was a who’s who of Nevada Republicans, with appearances from state party chair Michael McDonald, congressional candidate Sam Peters, secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant, treasurer candidate Michele Fiore, lieutenant governor candidate Stavros Anthony and attorney general candidate Sigal Chattah.

Trump praised China and Singapore for executing drug dealers, drawing cheers from some in the audience. He said those who kill police officers should also face the death penalty, to massive cheers.

“We have to give police back their authority, their power and their prestige,” Trump said. “If we don’t get that it will only get worse, and it will get worse rapidly.”

He criticized “Democrat-led cities” for the rise in crime nationally. That includes Las Vegas, despite the fact that Lombardo sat on the stage feet away from him.

“As you know, Nevada is a cesspool of crime,” he said.

Trump declined to say whether he would run for election again in 2024, but he spoke like a candidate despite not being one, even listing some policy proposals.

Trump wants Congress to pass a bill funding additional police in “every city and metro area,” as well as increase police pay and benefits nationwide. He also wants to strengthen qualified immunity and other legal protections, which critics believe shield police from accountability for their actions.

He repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 election and that it was “rigged.”

“We have a president who ran twice and won twice,” Trump said, referring to himself.

At the end of his speech, he endorsed the two candidates on the stage with him and attacked their opponents.

He called Gov. Steve Sisolak a “radical left governor” and blamed him for the state’s increase in crime, while supporting Lombardo in his stead. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is an “open borders fanatic,” according to Trump, as he threw his support behind Laxalt.

“Law and order is at the very heart of the American promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he said. “Without law and order, there is no justice. There is no safety. There is no prosperity. There is no freedom.”

Laxalt and Lombardo on crime

Before Trump spoke, Laxalt and Lombardo sat on a panel with law enforcement officials to discuss police policy. As the Clark County sheriff, Lombardo dominated the panel discussion.

He lauded his record as sheriff but acknowledged that crime is up in the county since he became sheriff in 2015, blaming national trends. He also responded to criticism that the gubernatorial campaign might be a distraction from his work by saying that being away from the job for a few days at a time doesn’t have a significant impact on crime.

The overall crime rate has increased by 2.7 percent year to date, according to Metropolitan Police Department data.

He blamed that rise in crime on the Legislature and Attorney General Aaron Ford and said that Clark County’s rise in crime is less than rising rates statewide and across the country.

Laxalt pushed back against police reform movements, which largely started in response to the 2020 protests over George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.

“This anti-cop rhetoric, this demonization of police, is demoralizing,” Laxalt said. “This is radical leftism brought into the mainstream … How many Democrats that were representing this state did you see standing with law enforcement in 2020? The answer is zero.”

He also went after his opponent, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who supported the protesters and police reform.

“As for Sen. Masto, former attorney general when it’s convenient, former top cop. She was nowhere to be found in 2020,” Laxalt said. “She said she supported BLM in 2020, which we all know now and I knew at the time was a radical movement … This was dangerous rhetoric at a time where she needed her to actually break with her radical party.”

Earlier Friday, the Cortez Masto campaign issued a statement attacking Laxalt’s ties to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

“Adam Laxalt led efforts to overturn the 2020 election for Donald Trump and has dedicated his campaign to spreading Trump’s ‘big lie’ that the election was stolen,” spokesman Josh Marcus-Blank said. “Laxalt has made it clear he will break the rules to try to win this election.”

Laxalt worked for the Trump campaign in Nevada in 2020 and made Trump’s endorsement a major focus of his 2022 primary campaign. He has since tried to distance himself from those attempts to overturn the election, but has continued to rally alongside speakers who continue to echo false claims about election fraud.

Last month, Laxalt and Lombardo spoke at a rally with Donald Trump Jr. in Las Vegas where other speakers repeated those election conspiracies.

During the event, about 15 protesters, some of them Democrats and some Joey Gilbert supporters, picketed outside the casino. Gilbert lost the Republican governor primary to Lombardo and has refused to concede, alleging fraud.

Joshua Rush with Nevada Democratic Victory walked past the crowd while dressed as a clown.

“We came out here because we think Adam Laxalt, Joe Lombardo and Donald Trump are clowns for trying to push the ‘big lie’ here in Nevada, and we wanted to make sure that they didn’t feel alone,” Rush said.

He held a sign that read, “The real clowns are inside.”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was in Las Vegas on Friday with health care providers to support abortion rights after the Supreme Court effectively overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision last week.

Cortez Masto framed the fight over abortion rights not as a political one, but as the freedom for women to do what they want with their bodies.

“Not just a majority of Nevadans, but a majority of Americans support the right of a woman to choose to access health care and recognizes her equal rights,” Cortez Masto said. “This decision was to be very personal, with her family and her doctors, and not government officials weighing in.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think Ted Cruz should tell us what we should be doing,” she said.

Abortion remains legal and accessible in Nevada because voters passed a statewide referendum to protect the right to access abortions in state law in 1990.

But Cortez Masto framed her re-election bid against Republican Adam Laxalt as what could decide whether abortion is banned on a federal level.

Laxalt, the former state attorney general, celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and previously said he would support additional abortion restrictions in Nevada.

There is no question in my mind that my opponent, Adam Laxalt, would support a federal abortion ban that eliminates access to reproductive care nationwide,” Cortez Masto said. “He is out of line with a majority of Nevadans in this state.”

The Laxalt campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Cortez Masto said that Republicans in the Senate are already planning to introduce a bill to ban abortion nationwide and that her seat could be the deciding vote on whether legislation like that passes. The Senate is divided 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast tiebreaking votes.

For Cortez Masto, the abortion issue is rooted in freedom, she said.

“I shouldn’t be imposing my beliefs, my experiences, on anyone,” Cortez Masto said. “That’s not what freedom is about.”

More than 100 Culinary Workers Union Local 226 members, all wearing red, gathered at the front of North Las Vegas City Hall on Thursday to submit signatures to put a rent control measure on the ballot in November.

Union members and leaders were joined by Gov. Steve Sisolak, Congressman Steven Horsford and Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom.

The ballot measure would tie maximum rent increases in North Las Vegas to the consumer price index, or 5 percent annually, whichever is lower. The consumer price index is a government indicator for how much the costs of basic goods have changed over time.

Speakers mostly blamed rising housing costs on commercial landlords, who buy up large numbers of property to rent.

“Rent has gone up almost 30 percent since last year,” Horsford said. “You know why? Because out-of-state corporate investors have come in here and they’ve targeted our neighborhoods.”

The union needed 15 percent of recently active North Las Vegas voters, about 475 people, to sign petition for the ballot measure. It said in a statement that it had gathered 3,396 signatures, or more than seven times what was required.

“Our state in the last couple of years has faced unprecedented growth in out-of-state speculators coming in and buying up homes in our neighborhoods, and raising the rent,” Sisolak said. “They’re not investing in our community. They’re taking money out of our community back to their corporate headquarters and not supporting the citizens.”

Political charge

Sisolak, who is running for re-election, also attacked his opponent, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

“My opponent, Joe Lombardo, is supported by the elite out-of-state landlords that are fighting a dark money campaign trying to buy up homes, and we can’t afford that type of development,” he said.

Lombardo campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Ray replied that Sisolak’s campaign is no stranger to dark money, either.

“Steve Sisolak just can’t make up allegations and assign blame for his own failures to Joe Lombardo,” Ray said in a statement. “But it’s funny, did Shady Steve happen to mention the millions in dark money that the Democratic Governors Association spent against the Sheriff in the Republican primary? Or the hundreds of thousands in unreported money that (Democratic Assemblywoman) Sandra Jauregui’s partner spent against the Sheriff in the Patriot Freedom Fund PAC? Did he open the books on Home Means Nevada PAC?

“Even before his Northshore COVID-19 testing scandal, Steve Sisolak was the least ethical governor in Nevada history,” Ray added. “Nevadans are sick and tired of his lies, corruption, and pay-to-play politics at their expense.”

North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who ran in the Republican primary for governor but placed fourth, gave support for the measure in a statement but derided Sisolak’s campaigning.

“Housing is arguably the most severe crisis our state is facing right now, and Gov. Sisolak has the unilateral constitutional authority to call a special session to fix this statewide emergency right now!” Lee said in a statement. “The talking points and pandering we’ve received to date may sound good on a campaign flyer but does absolutely nothing to help the scores of Nevadans struggling right now! Our residents demand and deserve better now!”

Targeting price-gouging

Horsford said he will introduce a measure in Congress to target landlords who price gouge with rent at the end of the July 4 recess.

“What is my bill going to do? It’s going to hold those out-of-state corporate landlords accountable for gouging my constituents,” he said. “It’s going to make sure that we empower the secretary of (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) to go after these price gougers to get the evidence to show that they are targeting Black, Latino and single family neighborhoods because they care more about their profits than the people in our neighborhoods.”

Sisolak said he views the North Las Vegas initiative as a sort of pilot program, and wants to implement it in other parts of the state if it is successful.

“My legal team is looking at what’s been done across the country, whether there can be assessment against (corporate landlords),” Sisolak said. “And they’re buying these (homes) with tax abatements on all the properties as well, which is reducing property taxes which is reducing our funding for schools. So we need to have everything on the table when it comes to addressing the greed of corporate landlords.”

In a statement, North Las Vegas spokesman Patrick Walker said affordable housing was a valleywide issue.

“We welcome that our community partners are working to find a solution to the statewide affordable housing crisis,” Walker said. “All local jurisdictions in Southern Nevada have been struggling with affordable housing, and we look forward to working with the Culinary Union to solve this spiraling crisis impacting our working families.”

As Clark County commissioners certified the results of the 2022 primary election Friday, dozens of voters claimed that there was fraud in the process. Others spewed insults at the county employees who ran the election.

The county’s election review found no errors in vote tabulation, Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said. However, that didn’t stop a slew of voters voicing their concerns in the public comment period in what ended up being a 2½-hour meeting.

The Review-Journal spoke with Gloria on Tuesday to address those concerns. He disputed claims of fraud, which he said mostly stem from misunderstandings in how elections are run in Clark County.

“This was the most transparent that we’ve ever been in Clark County,” he said.

Some voters said they saw Wi-Fi available at polling locations and were concerned that election machines are vulnerable to outside actors. Is that true?

“People saw Wi-Fi because polling places are sometimes in locations where Wi-Fi is available for free. We use Mi-Fi, which is locked up through cybersecurity measures that don’t allow anybody to log into our network and routes through what is essentially a VPN.

Voting machines are never connected to the internet. They are standalone units. “The only thing that is hooked up to the internet are the electronic poll books that are used so voters can sign in because we need to update those in real time to make sure people don’t do something illegal, like trying to vote twice,” Gloria said.

All books include a database of voters in the county that track who has voted, and where. Internet connectivity is required so that each poll location can be in sync in real time to prevent people form attempting to vote at more than one location.

“For instance, if you went downtown to historic Fifth Street (School) and voted, if all the poll books weren’t connected, you could go straight to RTC and Meadows mall and cast votes at all those places,” Gloria said.

Party affiliation and other information is sometimes printed on the outside of ballot envelopes, and some people believe that violates the concept of a secret ballot. What does a secret ballot mean in an election?

“The complaint they are lodging there is actually a statutory requirement. Because we have a closed primary, we’re required to name the voter’s party so there’s no confusion on what ballot the voter will be using when they go to a voting machine.

The secret ballot has to do with privacy in casting your actual vote, so that no one knows for whom you voted, either in a voting booth or, when voting by mail, the secrecy of placing your voted ballot in an envelope and returning it to the county.

“It was painful for me to hear that they were upset about that,” Gloria said. “That’s something that’s statutorily required and would take legislative action to change.”

At the meeting, some voters said they were given provisional ballots and don’t believe they were counted. How do provisional ballots work?

“Provisional ballots only go to someone registering for the first time, brand new,” Gloria said. “Then we have to research to make sure they are in fact eligible to vote and should be allowed to cast their ballot, and wait from a report from the secretary of state to make sure they haven’t voted in another county” before the ballot is counted.

“All of those provisional ballots are counted. There is not a ballot submitted to us, whether through the mail, in-person or provisional that is not counted. That is a myth. A lot of people say the mail ballots aren’t counted unless it’s a close race. That’s not true. All ballots that are received are counted, regardless of the tally. If they’re eligible to be counted, they are counted.”

We heard some complaints from voters saying they received mail-in ballots they had not asked for, or their mail-in ballot was delivered to the wrong address. How do you better educate voters on the rules of mail-in ballots in Nevada?

“Well in our defense, mail-in voting is new to us. Although we’ve always had mail-in ballots, sending them to all voters is brand new. So it’s even more critical for those voters to keep in mind that they need to update our records leading into every election, which they can do online. We don’t know that you’ve moved unless you tell us.”

The first election in which mail ballots were sent to all active registered voters was during the pandemic, in 2020. Under a change made by the 2021 Legislature, mail ballots now are sent automatically to all active registered voters.

On Friday, some speakers claimed that poll workers directed voters of certain political parties to certain voting machines. They were concerned that voters of one party’s votes were getting thrown out wholesale. What was actually going on?

“That’s actually a best practice we train our poll workers to do,” Gloria said, “Every voting machine has a paper printout so every voter can check on the veracity of their ballot. If we just haphazardly direct voters to the 20 machines at a polling site, and voters just use the closest ones as they come in, by the end of the day the six or seven machines will run out of paper. That will create an issue with replacing paper, and there will be fewer machines for the evening rush.

“It’s more prevalent in early voting where we can have machines going for 14 days. That’s something we teach our folks to do and it’s not just for Republicans, it’s for every voter.”

A few voters claimed that their voter registration was changed by the DMV without their knowledge or consent. Do mistakes like that happen sometimes?

“That’s unfair to the DMV. It’s a back-end process. It’s the responsibility of the voter to make sure they indicate that they want to change their party affiliation or register under a certain party or not. If they don’t, the registration still goes through, but they’re going to be listed as nonpartisan.

“We had a lot of this. During early voting, some people went all the way to the voting machine and said, ‘Hey, wait a minute.’ They didn’t pay attention when (the poll book said when they) sign in that they were nonpartisan. We sent them a sample ballot that said nonpartisan. We send a registration card at the beginning of the year that said nonpartisan.

“They went all the way to the voting booth and said, ‘I want to change my party,’ and they can do that. We have to back out and go to sign in, and then they have to show us a Nevada ID and they could change to Democrat or Republican and vote on that ballot.

“As long as they had a Nevada driver’s license or ID, they weren’t disenfranchised. They were still able to change that information when they came in.”

Others had concerns about the counting and verification process, especially about the access of observers in counting. How do you think the counting process went for observers in the county?

“As far as we’re concerned, and compared to what we’ve done in the past, this was the most transparent that it’s ever been as far as what observers can observe. These complaints really focused on issues that were already decided prior to the election. We were sued, and our DA and their lawyer went to mediation and came to an agreement on exactly what we’re going to provide for observation, and in all areas they were in complete agreement.

“However, unfortunately, most of the statements that they were making were based on observation that wasn’t approved in the court case. We stuck to what was agreed upon prior to the election and continued to do that so they would know exactly how many observers could be in certain areas. And simply, in certain areas we have limited space.

“Bottom line, they just wanted to be able to do things as an observer that isn’t covered by state law. You can’t peek over the shoulder of my worker and make your own determination as to whether a signature matches. They’ve been trained and they do it for several days in a row. They’re also educated to be conservative, where if they have any doubt they send it the curer.”

(“Curing” is the process of verifying a ballot that appears to have a mismatched signature was actually cast by the voter to whom it was sent. If a signature doesn’t match, the county reaches out to the voter to verify, or “cure,” a mismatched signature. Ballots that cannot be cured are not counted.)

A lot of people wanted an audit, but an audit is already in place for the election here. What does that audit consist of?

“In addition to an audit, or systems are certified on a federal, state and local level. Software is also certified at a federal level. They take the machines and heat them up to 180 degrees, then freeze them, and they still have to work. Testing like that.

“We have what we call the Accuracy Certification Board, which is statutorily required and we always select one Democrat and one Republican to participate in the board. There are three rounds of testing: before early voting, before Election Day and after Election Day where we get the board to go through a series of tests and verify that the tabulation system is accurately recording votes.

“Then we have the audits which are also statutorily required. We do a 2 percent sample of all the voting machines and all the paper rolls and we scan all the paper rolls and run a report of our tabulation system and match it against the results it has and it has to be 100 percent accurate, which it was for this election and always has been.

“And this isn’t statutorily required, but we also do a risk assessment audit where we again take a random sample of mail ballots and paper rolls and read those manually and compare them to tabulation reports. We’ve done that audit since the 2020 election and we’re preparing to do it again. This will probably be the last year that we will be doing that optionally because it will probably be required by law, but we’ll see about that.”

What are your takeaways from this primary process?

“I just want people to understand that we look into all credible concerns,” Gloria said. “There were many things brought up into that meeting that if they would give us the information we could have answers for them. But instead they want to hold this information and save it for a court case, which doesn’t make any sense.

“If there were credible reports, they would bring them straight to the source, either the secretary of state or even better the local election official because we can look it up and see exactly what happened as far as mail-in ballots and other measures in our county.

“And as our county matures, because we’re still new to mass mail-in ballots, these things will improve. The mailing list will become cleaner, something which is difficult in a county as transient as Clark County. The process will become cleaner, but it takes time to get to that level.”

Local religious leaders shared mixed opinions on the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that had enshrined abortion as a constitutional right for nearly a half-century.

The court’s ruling, released Friday morning, gives states the ability to legislate abortion rights, and many states have already severely limited or outlawed it.

Bishop George Leo Thomas of the Diocese of Las Vegas released a statement in support of the court’s decision.

“The (Catholic) Church believes in the sacredness of human life, beginning at conception until natural death. Every child born and unborn has the right to life,” the statement reads.

Shortly after the decision was released, protesters gathered in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. An abortion-rights protest in downtown Las Vegas also took place Friday night.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reaffirmed its stance against abortion with an updated website Friday.

“The church’s position on this matter remains unchanged,” the site says. “As states work to enact laws related to abortion, church members may appropriately choose to participate in efforts to protect life and to preserve religious liberty.”

Other religious leaders derided the court’s decision.

According to Rabbi Sanford Akselrad of Congregation Ner Tamid in Henderson, in Judaism, a fetus is viewed as part of the woman, not a separate person, and life is believed to begin at birth.

“This ruling removes a religious choice for Jews,” he said. “Potential life is still holy and sacred, but abortion is a decision that should be made by a woman, her physician and her rabbi and religious council.”

For Akselrad and others, the Roe v. Wade decision was not about encouraging abortion but providing a right to bodily autonomy to women.

Islam holds a belief that life begins between about 40-120 days after conception, Muslim community activist Fahima Khalaf said.

“Even though Islam is viewed as backward and the most conservative religion — which is not true — every school of Islam believes in the right to abortion in some circumstances,” she said.

Some Jewish rights groups have already considered filing lawsuits against state governments based on this decision and other policy limiting abortion, claiming that banning abortions infringes on their religious freedom.

A majority of Americans — 53 percent, according to a Gallup poll from May — believe that abortion should remain legal under most or all circumstances.

In Nevada, abortion remains legal because of a 1990 referendum that was approved by nearly two-thirds of voters.

Cultural implications

The court’s decision is viewed as part of the rising tide of outwardly religious conservatives in American politics, Khalaf said.

“The law of the land is the separation of church and state,” she said. “You can’t have a small minority rule on something that impacts so many.”

For the Rev. Karen Anderson of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Las Vegas, it’s representative of the perversion of religion as a political tool.

“Faith has been used to manipulate the issue,” she said. “Because if you’re really pro-life, it has to extend after birth.”

She called out what she views as the hypocrisy of mostly Republican lawmakers and voters who want to limit abortion rights but do not support other methods to help people.

“You have to support resources to provide for children, expand Medicare to support the elderly, universal health care to keep people healthy,” she said. “And on top of all that, oppose the death penalty.”

Anderson linked Friday’s ruling to those released by the court Thursday, one of which rolled back a New York law limiting access to concealed carry permits for handguns.

“It begs the question, do guns have more rights and protections than I do?”

By transferring the legislative power over abortion to the states, millions of Americans will no longer be able to access abortion care.

“One of the things God has given us is free will and choice,” Anderson said. “This law says that women have been given second-class citizenship.”

It’s a movement backward from previous generations, Khalaf said.

“My daughter has less rights than I did and her grandmother did.”

Inspiring congregations

For this weekend’s services, both Akselrad and Anderson said they plan to address the Supreme Court’s rulings with their congregations. They hope to be an inspiration to the women who may feel crushed by the court’s decision.

“We must be tenacious in recovering the rights we’ve lost,” Akselrad said.

For Anderson, that means making sure that her congregation, especially young women, don’t feel despair.

“I need to make sure that women know that God made us equal,” she said. “But I’m terrified about the world we’re leaving our young people.”

A state senator is requesting a broad audit of all state spending made under the governor’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, alleging that some spending may have been “corrupted by politics.”

Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, who represents the Centennial Hills neighborhood, submitted a letter Tuesday to the state Legislative Commission requesting the audit.

Hammond was inspired to pen the letter by a ProPublica investigation into a fraudulent COVID testing company that operated in Nevada. That company, Chicago-based Northshore Laboratories, had COVID testing contracts with the University of Nevada, Reno, the Washoe County School District and some operations in Las Vegas, and the tests they provided were faulty. The company’s license was rescinded after a state investigation.

“It was the sum of all fears for a legislator,” Hammond said. “When this broke, your heart stops because we didn’t have control (over the spending).”

Hammond said he believes the company was allowed to operate in the state because of connections to state leaders, including Gov. Steve Sisolak, which allegedly made gaining a license easier. Sisolak’s office denies any knowledge of Northshore’s operations in the state beyond the investigation.

“If the facts reported are accurate, the contract vetting process was corrupted by politics. Moreover, those in the executive branch have likely not only misled Nevadans but also betrayed us to the benefit of a campaign donor,” the letter said.

Audit request vague

Sisolak’s office said it was unclear what Hammond wants to examine.

“Until we see what Sen. Hammond is calling for, we can’t speculate or provide further comment,” said Sisolak’s spokeswoman, Meghin Delaney.

When the Northshore scandal came to light, the governor’s office called the test failures “despicable” and ordered the company to stop testing. The state never contracted with Northshore, the governor’s office said at the time, but local governments in Nevada did.

Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars are already audited by the federal government, and the results of those audits are posted online.

Hammond’s proposed audit is purposefully vague — a new legislative subcommittee would draw up its specific boundaries — but he’s targeting the federal relief money provided to the state in response to COVID-19.

That’s $1.25 billion in funding sent to the state via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, $836 million of which went directly into state coffers. Specifically, the audit would cover all spending of COVID relief funds under the governor’s emergency order, which ran from March 2020 until last month.

“There is a lot of money that went into the state that we, as legislators, did not have oversight over,” Hammond said.

Audit request not political

Despite being from the other party from Sisolak and his administration, Hammond made it clear that his motives are not political, and he is hoping for bipartisan support for his proposal.

“This isn’t political at all. I’m not on the ballot,” he said. “This is just something the Legislature needs to do, have oversight over the executive.”

Sisolak is running for re-election this year, facing Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo in the November general election. Lombardo won the Republican primary with 38.4 percent of the vote.

Ultimately, the audit is about Nevadans regaining trust in their government.

“Nevadans distrust government at every level. This most recent revelation of political favoritism and corruption has only deepened that mistrust and enlarged the gulf between elected officials and Nevada families,” the letter said. “The only responsible thing to do is to request and audit of each and every dollar spent.”

Hammond’s proposal will be considered at the commission’s next meeting in August.

“To me, it is clear that this is the least we can do, and anything less would be a dereliction of our duty to the people we serve.”

Incumbents ruled the day in the 2022 primary for state legislative races. Of the 11 races where incumbents were challenged between the state Assembly and Senate, the incumbent won every time except for one.

The lone loser was Republican Don Tatro of Senate District 16 in Carson City. While technically an incumbent, Tatro was appointed to his seat in November 2021 and was never elected.

With almost all ballots counted, only two legislative races remain within two percentage points. They are the Republican primaries for Assembly District 29, in Henderson, and Assembly District 5, in The Lakes neighborhood of Las Vegas. Both districts are represented by Democrats.

Since ballot counting began, one county flipped in the U.S. Senate primary: Republican Adam Laxalt completed his sweep of Nevada as he took the lead in Douglas County and now leads in every county in the state. He won his primary against Sam Brown, taking 56 percent of the vote. He will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in November.

Fight the power

Two close legislative races pitted power-backed candidates against each other for open seats.

In Senate District 17, the rural area surrounding Reno and Carson City, two Republican legislature leaders faced off. Longtime assemblywoman and current GOP caucus leader Robin Titus defeated former leader and Assembly colleague Jim Wheeler. Wheeler was the head of the Republican caucus in the Assembly starting in 2017, but was ousted after poor election results in 2019. Titus was his replacement, and won the state Senate race by just over 3 percent.

Democratic Assembly race saw one school board member take on a candidate backed by multiple state education associations. In Assembly District 27, north of Reno, Washoe County School District Trustee Angie Taylor defeated Brian Lee. The race was highlighted by mudslinging flyers which connected each candidate to Republicans.

Weak endorsements

The state Republican and Democratic parties saw a number of their endorsed candidates lose on election night. Three of Republicans’ five endorsed candidates for Senate lost, as did two of the party’s seven endorsed Assembly candidates. The Democratic Party fared better, with only one endorsed candidate losing in an Assembly race upset.

Election results were middling for the Vegas Chamber, which saw 13 of its 20 contested endorsed candidates win their races overall. The chamber makes endorsements based on candidate’s “knowledge and understanding of business issues, voting record (when applicable), as well as dedication to creating a good environment for business growth, job creation and economic development.”

The organization endorsed a slate of Democrats and Republicans.

The chamber went 2-for-3 in contested Senate races, where the endorsed Tatro lost to Assemblywoman Lisa Krasner. In the Assembly, four of the chamber’s 10 contested candidates lost.

The Vegas Chamber also picked Tom Roberts over Kevin McMahill for Clark County Sheriff. McMahill took 58 percent of the vote in the primary and won the job outright.

The chamber had fewer wins in 2022 than in the last primary in 2020, where nine of its 13 contested endorsed candidates won. That year, the chamber’s endorsees were 0-for-1 in the Senate and 8-for-10 in the Assembly in contested primary races.

The Vegas Chamber did not respond to a request for comment.

Right-wing Republican candidates won a majority of statewide races in the Nevada primary Tuesday, many of whom have embraced election conspiracies. But that doesn’t mean that a red wave is coming in November, some experts say.

Election night was a win for the right and for Donald Trump — all Trump-endorsed candidates won — but results could say more about what the loudest Republicans believe than about what all Nevadans want in their political future.

“This is not the first time right wing candidates have done well in Republican primaries in Nevada,” said Ken Miller, an assistant professor of political science at UNLV.

Adam Laxalt, who has pushed election fraud conspiracies, won his primary for U.S. Senate and will face Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. Jim Marchant, the most extreme candidate in a crowded secretary of state field, won his primary, even shedding doubt on the veracity of his own election. Sigal Chattah defeated a moderate opponent in the attorney general race. Michele Fiore, the firebrand who left the governor’s race to instead run for treasurer, won her primary as well.

Miller chalks up those right wing victories more to how primaries work than to a new movement in the conservative wing of state Republicans.

“Primaries can be turbulent,” Miller said. “There’s low turnout, and especially for down-ballot races there’s less campaigning, fewer ads and the voters have less information. The most activated voters show up in higher numbers.”

Marchant’s self-doubt

Marchant’s victory may have the most direct impact on future elections. The secretary of state runs elections and Marchant, a former assemblyman, has proposed radical reforms, including stopping mail-in voting all together. He raised doubts about the 2020 election in Nevada and about the primary Tuesday night, even though he won.

“I’m not really confident in the result,” Marchant said. “There’s a lot of doubts in electronic voting systems. Fraud is a harsh word, but there could have been anomalies — malicious or accidental — based on what I’ve heard.”

He claims that people have told him about improper election practices, “especially in Nye County,” though he did not cite specifics. That didn’t stop him from declaring victory.

“What am I supposed to do, not win?” he said.

Marchant said he will have the same doubts over the upcoming November general election.

“I’m surprised that I won,” he said. “But I don’t know that the system worked.”

“The election system is too complicated. We need to simplify it,” he said.

His proposed changes to how the state would conduct elections include eliminating early voting and only using paper ballots, something which election officials say would make election results take days, if not weeks, to tally. He also wants to mandate voter ID and prevent ballot harvesting.

“Those policy proposals just aren’t popular (in general elections),” Miller said. “Nevadans want voting to be easier, not harder, as well as being secure.”

Marchant said his goal is to make people confident again in the state’s election, and bring additional transparency to the process.

He said he wants every county auditor in the state to commit a full audit of primary results by hand, something he would mandate if elected and is pushing for now. He’s asked the Clark County Commission for these audits before, with no luck.

“The Clark County Commission won’t even talk to me, but you know how they are,” he said.

Last October, Marchant spoke at a QAnon convention at the Ahern Hotel. He still claims that he’s not familiar with the right-wing conspiracy theory.

“I spoke there because I wanted to talk to a room of 1,000 people. I’m running for office!” he said.

Establishment victory

The only right-wing candidate to lose their race to a more moderate opponent was governor candidate Joey Gilbert, who lost to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo. Gilbert claims that he is the victim of voter fraud and refuses to concede, but no evidence has been provided to back up his claim.

The most telling races for what Nevada’s political future holds were the governor and senate primaries, Miller said. The common thread there? Establishment-backed victory.

Those races’ two winners, Lombardo and Laxalt, had the backing of major Republican organizations, Trump and all the money and influence which come with them.

While Gilbert still garnered over a quarter of all votes in that race, Lombardo’s victory is Nevada Republicans siding with a more established, moderate candidate in the race which got the most attention and discussion on the ballot, Miller said.

“Nevada is not an ideologically extreme state,” Miller said.

Even Trump’s influence didn’t move the needle that much, according to Miller.

“Trump plays a much smaller role than he’s given credit for,” he said. “Trump is concerned about his standing in the party. He’s a scoreboard watcher, and picks candidates who are already favored to win.”

Right wing victories may even be a blessing for statewide Democrats, Miller said. He compared the upcoming general election to 2010, where Republicans had a real chance to unseat Sen. Harry Reid, but nominated a right-wing candidate in the primary who couldn’t get it done.

The biggest win of the night for right wing Republicans was Chattah’s attorney general primary victory. Her opponent, Tisha Black, was backed by the state establishment but started her campaign very late, in February. Chattah is much farther to the right than Black, she even derided Black as a “Democratic plant.” A tight race was expected, but Chattah defeated Black by 11 percent of the vote. However, Chattah’s victory makes incumbent Democrat Aaron Ford’s re-election bid easier, Miller said, as more extreme candidates are less palatable to general election voters.

For down-ballot Republicans — Marchant, Chattah, Fiore and others — to succeed, they need Lombardo and Laxalt to turn out voters.

“Their fate is tied to the top of the ballot,” Miller said. “Especially for the down ballot races, not many people are going to split their tickets.”

Conservative Republican candidates appear to have won races for Nevada’s constitutional offices on Tuesday, according to results posted by the Nevada secretary of state.

Vote totals include early and Election Day in-person voting, and mail ballots received and counted up until the election. Results could change, however, as mail ballots postmarked by Election Day are received and counted by the county.

Secretary of state

Of the seven Republican candidates for secretary of state, all wanted to in some way limit access to voting in the interest of “election security.” For most, that means doing away with universal vote-by-mail, ending ballot harvesting and implementing voter identification requirements.

Former Assemblyman Jim Marchant is projected to win the race with just under 38 percent of the vote. The Associated Press has called the race. His closest competitor, former state Sen. Jesse Haw, had 20 percent.

Marchant is the most extreme of the field of candidates, wanting to completely eliminate early voting, voting by mail and mandate voting with paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines. He promised to launch an investigation into the results of the 2020 election in the state if he wins election in November. (Marchant lost a bid for the 4th Congressional District that year, a loss he attributed to voter fraud.)

“(The voting system) needs to be thrown out and totally redone from the bottom up,” Marchant told the Review-Journal last month.

“We haven’t, in Nevada, elected anybody since 2006. They have been installed by the deep state cabal,” Marchant told the “Flyover Conservatives” podcast in January.

He also spoke at the QAnon convention held at the Ahern Hotel last October.

Marchant will face Democratic nominee Cisco Aguilar, who was not opposed in the primary. Republican incumbent Barbara Cegavske is term-limited.

Treasurer

Two Republicans challenged each other to face incumbent Democrat Zach Conine in the race for state treasurer.

Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore claimed victory over businessman Manny Kess, with Fiore holding 61.4 percent to Kess’ 29.5 percent.

Fiore, a Trump-supporting firebrand, began the 2022 election cycle running for governor but later switched to run for treasurer instead. Both candidates touted their business acumen, but provided few specific policy goals. Fiore told the Review-Journal she wants to audit “every account” under the treasurer’s control, which includes the state’s college savings and numerous investments.

The treasurer race has been dominated by Fiore’s many scandals. She supported the Bundy standoff in Oregon in 2016 which led to 26 people charged with felony conspiracy and one person killed. While on the Las Vegas City Council, she was accused of getting into a fight with a fellow councilwoman and breaking her finger. Additionally, she made racist comments about affirmative action in 2020 which resulted in her resigning her post as mayor pro tem. She is also under investigation by the FBI for possible campaign finance violations and had her home raided by the agency last year.

Conine released a statement Tuesday night addressing his likely opponent.

“Being Treasurer is a serious job, and Nevadans deserve a qualified and experienced individual to ensure our state remains on solid financial ground,” he said. “Michele Fiore isn’t that individual and I’m looking forward to talking to Nevadans about the vast difference between our qualifications.”

Attorney general

Incumbent Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, will face off against right-wing defense attorney Sigal Chattah to defend his seat as the state’s top prosecutor.

Chattah defeated more moderate business lawyer Tisha Black for the Republican nomination, according to the Associated Press, with Chattah garnering 51 percent of the vote. Black holds 39.7 percent.

The attorney general campaign has been marked by repeated attacks from Chattah on Black’s character. Chattah, a combative lawyer most notable for lawsuits against the state regarding pandemic restrictions, refers to Black as a “Democrat plant,” citing Black’s donations to statewide Democrats in the past.

Black has criticized Chattah for her representation of criminal defendants, and has called Ford “soft on crime” and vowed to support measures to strengthen U.S.-Mexico border security.

In February, a former ally of Chattah leaked texts where Chattah said Ford should be “hanging from an (expletive) crane” for what she saw as his poor job performance. She said the comment was tongue-in-cheek and not racist — Ford is Black — but came from her Israeli background.

Lieutenant governor

Both Democrats and Republicans face contested races for the state’s No. 2 executive.

On the Democratic side, incumbent Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead leads Henderson Mayor Debra March, with 56 percent of the vote. March had 24.8 percent.

Gov. Steve Sisolak tapped Burkhead in December to replace Kate Marshall, who left Nevada to join the Biden administration. Burkhead was a teacher and principal in Clark County schools for 25 years before retiring in 2020.

Burkhead, a relative political novice despite being the incumbent, is on track to defeat the veteran March.

Republican Las Vegas Councilman Stavros Anthony leads his primary, holding 30.3 percent of the vote so far. Anthony lost out on a Clark County Commission seat by only 10 votes in 2020.

He leads retired Air Force Lt. Tony Grady, who has 24.8 percent of the vote, and political newcomer and investor John Miller with 16.3 percent. In a close fourth is former state Treasurer Dan Schwartz, who has 12.6 percent of the vote.

Controller

With current state controller Catherine Byrne, a Democrat, deciding not to seek reelection, longtime state Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel will take up the Democratic nomination, winning 65.7 percent of the vote in her primary. Spiegel will face her Republican state Assembly colleague Andy Matthews in the general election to become the state’s chief fiscal officer and auditor. Matthews did not face a Republican primary.

Donald Trump Jr. visited Las Vegas on Friday night for a campaign rally with U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt and Clark County Sheriff and governor candidate Joe Lombardo.

The 2020 election and attacks on President Joe Biden took center stage, as speakers falsely claimed that the previous Nevada election was “rigged” and spoke highly of Laxalt’s efforts to contest it.

Laxalt, a former state attorney general, is facing Sam Brown and others in the Republican primary to face Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. Laxalt is viewed as the front-runner in the primary race, but Brown has gained ground in recent polls.

Laxalt notably backed efforts to de-certify the 2020 election results in Nevada while working for the Trump campaign. While he distanced himself from those beliefs in a debate with Brown last month and did not mention them in his speech Friday, Laxalt is inexorably tied to to effort to upset the election which opponents call “The Big Lie.” His stage mate, Trump Jr., has also repeatedly pushed those false claims.

Laxalt focused his attacks on Biden, highlighting recent inflation data and rising gasoline prices in the state.

“This country has gone the wrong way since Donald J. Trump was president,” Laxalt said.

He also ran down a list of popular conservative talking points, deriding the Black Lives Matter movement and a recent assassination attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as well as bringing up immigration issues..

Asked after the event, Laxalt did not comment on the ongoing Jan. 6 committee meetings in Washington, D.C.

Conservative lobbyist Matt Schlapp was one speaker who repeated the false election conspiracy claims.

“I saw how they tried to take your votes,” he said.

Lombardo began his speech by deriding audience members who jeered him and chanted in support of opponent Joey Gilbert, saying they “don’t move the party forward.” The Gilbert supporters were asked to leave. Lombardo has been confident about his chances in the Tuesday primary, even saying in a debate last month that “this primary is over.”

Lombardo left the event early to attend to the family of a Metropolitan Police Department detective who was killed in a crash Friday morning.

The sheriff is the leading candidate in the Republican primary for governor. He faces Reno attorney Gilbert, former Sen. Dean Heller and North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, among a slate of other candidates.

Trump Jr. also focused his speech on Biden, calling him an “idiot” and following previous speakers in talking about inflation as well as the U.S. military’s exit from Afghanistan. He also railed against gun control proposals and attacked trans rights as well as the Black Lives Matter movement.

He said that the arrests made during the Jan. 6 insurrection aren’t legitimate and that what happened wasn’t actually an insurrection.

“If your grandmother was within 500 miles of Washington, D.C., and took a selfie, she was questioned by the FBI,” Trump Jr. said. “If she was within 100 miles, she’s probably still in prison.”

Trump Jr. last visited Las Vegas in October 2020 to campaign for his father’s re-election.

Trump administration officials Ric Grenell and Matt Whitaker as well as Nevada Republicans chair Michael McDonald also spoke at the event.

Nevada treasurer candidate and businessman Manny Kess dressed up as his primary opponent, Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore, in an attack ad parodying an ad she ran during her brief campaign for governor.

Kess’ new attack ad features himself dressed in a blonde wig, sloppily brandishing a handgun as he highlights Fiore’s numerous scandals.

At the launch of her campaign for governor, which she ended to run for treasurer instead, Fiore dropped a viral ad which featured her driving a pickup truck through the Nevada desert and shooting beer bottles labeled “vaccine mandates,” “CRT,” and “voter fraud.”

Kess’ parody calls Fiore self-interested and “in the business of politics.” It also highlights her extensive travel as a member of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the fact that she’s the focus of an FBI investigation and notes racist comments she made at a Republican Party event in 2020, all citing Review-Journal stories.

Kess was inspired to make the ad after he believes Fiore changed her mannerisms after she switched from the governor to the treasurer race.

“When she was running for governor she was all breasts out, guns blazing, but when she switched to treasurer she became a grandma, dressed up well and in ads with her grandkids,” Kess said. “Everyone can see through that and to who she really is.”

He said Fiore is “the worst example of politics in this country,” a “horrible human being,” and “thinks she’s God’s gift to the state.” Kess said Fiore has lied about him while on campaign stops throughout the state.

“We both have an ‘R’ next to our names, but we could not be more different,” He said. “She will never get my vote.”

A campaign email from Fiore called the ad “hilarious,” but didn’t address the scandals.

“But here’s the thing, this is a serious race. I’m running for State Treasurer because I’ve been a businesswoman all my life and our state deserves conservative financial leadership that will fight back against the socialist schemes in Washington,” Fiore wrote in the email. “I’m proud that my campaign has not released a single attack ad and won’t be now, because Republicans shouldn’t win by attacking each other,” the email said.

A Fiore campaign spokesman declined to attack Kess, instead referring to a tweet by Attorney General candidate Sigal Chattah going after him.

Nevada will begin to divest all public funds from companies that manufacture or sell assault weapons, state Treasurer Zach Conine announced Thursday.

The announcement comes as a direct response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 students and two adults last week.

“We have a moral obligation not just to offer thoughts and prayers, but to act,” Conine said in a video statement. “And we have a financial obligation to rid ourselves of investments that carry this much risk.”

The treasurer’s office handles nearly $50 billion in public investments, $89 million of which the office plans to divest because of this policy shift. Conine announced that no positions will be sold at a loss and that any unprofitable positions will be held until they expire but not be repurchased.

Investment in assault weapons manufacturers and retailers carries too high of a financial and moral risk, Conine said.

“An investment is a plan for the future, an agreement to give up a little bit of opportunity now for a little bit more opportunity down the road,” he said. “What opportunities exist for the victims of gun violence? What opportunities exist for the parents and grandparents dealing with unimaginable loss? What future plans were snuffed out as innocent children and teachers were slaughtered in a classroom by a weapon that belongs on a battlefield?”

Conine has been preparing the policy for a while and is now following the treasurers of Connecticut and Rhode Island, which divested their states’ public funds from gun manufacturers in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Many state and local pension funds nationwide have done the same. Conine said he believes that financially, gun manufacturer stocks will perform poorly because of rising pushback against gun violence.

“The nation has an absolute pandemic of gun violence. I believe there’s been 103 mass shootings since 1 October (2017) with Uvalde, and we’ve had more since,” Conine said. “The risk of these assets from an investment perspective continues to expand. Each day, they become riskier investments so the sooner we get this done, the better off the state’s finances are going to be.”

The new policy will directly impact four of the five funds managed by the treasurer’s office. It will be implemented for the $530 million permanent school fund immediately and then for the state’s $7.2 billion general portfolio, the $2.4 billion local government investment pool and the $400 million Nevada Higher Education Prepaid Tuition Trust after approval by the state Board of Finance. The treasurer’s office will also encourage the trustees who oversee the state’s $39 billion college savings plans to implement the policy too.

The plan will be presented for formal adoption to the state Board of Finance and the Board of Trustees of the College Savings Plans of Nevada later this month.

Conine, a Democrat elected in 2018, is running for re-election this November. Among his potential Republican opponents is Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore, who opposes gun control measures and ran a viral television add firing a handgun in the Nevada desert during a short-lived campaign for governor before she switched to the treasurer’s race.

Conine isn’t afraid of making this a campaign issue if his eventual opponent chooses.

“I don’t think this is a political statement at all. I think it is a rational statement,” he said. “If (my opponent) wants to make this a political issue and they don’t want to make this state safer for our kids, then God bless them. But that’s not the Nevada I want to live in.”

Lobbyist and lawyer Sam McMullen, a staple at the Nevada Legislature for more than 40 years, died Monday. He was 72.

McMullen worked in the Legislature since 1973, starting as a student lobbyist while attending the University of Nevada, Reno. He later attended Georgetown Law. A fourth-generation Nevada native, he grew up in Elko and lived in Las Vegas.

“He goes back to the days where a deal could get done with a handshake,” his wife of 48 years, Mary-Ellen McMullen, said. “(Clients) knew when Sam McMullen walked in the door they were getting a straight shooter, they were getting the truth, and he always cared ultimately about how it would impact Nevada.”

During his lobbying career, he represented a number of gaming interests as well as medical firms and mining companies, and at points both the Las Vegas and Henderson chambers of commerce, among other clients. He also worked as an adjunct professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV alongside his daughter Erin, who is also a lawyer and lobbyist.

Deep Nevada roots

McMullen was extremely proud of his Nevada roots, according to his family. He was the fourth Sam McMullen after his great-great-grandfather immigrated from Ireland to a ranch outside Elko in the 1860s. He frequently returned to Elko and was on the board of the Western Folklife Center there.

He started his own lobbying firm, McMullen Strategic Group, in 1990, leaving an high-level position at Harrah’s (now Caesars) in order to spend more time with his family. In 2006, McMullen joined Las Vegas law firm Snell & Wilmer to found its government lobbying arm.

"The No. 1 thing on his mind was what was best for the state of Nevada,” said George Ross, who worked with McMullen at his lobbying firm.

McMullen had the ability to see two steps ahead of other lobbyists, Ross said. He also had an eye for detail. Ross recalled one night during the 2005 session when McMullen stayed up until 4 a.m. to read through a proposed bill and found new language on page 80 which would have hurt his client’s interests.

“He loved nit-picky details,” Ross said. “He knew that the smallest word, even just a period, made a difference.”

Some of his most important work came during the 2003 session’s tax fight, according to Ross. McMullen represented the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to lobby against against a gross receipts tax, a battle he won.

“He made the Las Vegas chamber a major player in Nevada politics,” Ross said.

The group, now known as the Vegas Chamber, called McMullen “instrumental” to its growth in a statement.

”His lifetime of work in Nevada policy making ensured that businesses across the state had a trusted and steadfast voice standing up for them during the Nevada Legislature,” the statement said.

McMullen was a significant advocate for women’s rights, especially in law, according to his daughter.

“He was all about giving people a chance,” Erin said. “I’ve heard from a lot of young women that he helped them get their start. He was just very inclusive and he was so loved by our students at UNLV.”

Family time

At home, McMullen always made time for his family, never missing a Little League game, they said. After getting home late in the night he would read his daughter’s math homework and leave a handwritten note for her to see the next morning, Erin recalled.

He also valued travel, sometimes pulling his kids out of school to take the family to exotic locales such as Australia, Easter Island and Petra in Jordan. He had a habit for doing things on the fly, deciding to extend trips on a whim, even once buying a used Ferrari off eBay to the surprise of his family.

“I felt like Jonny Quest,” his son Sam, Jr. said. “As a kid I almost thought that my dad was a secret agent taking us to far off places.”

McMullen brushed off those who view lobbyist as a dirty word. “Everyone deserves representation,” Mary-Ellen McMullen recalled her husband saying. He supplemented his lobbying and advocacy with pro bono work and support of local charities.

He is survived by Mary-Ellen, son Sam, Jr., daughter Erin McMullen Midby, granddaughter Mia, all of Las Vegas, also sisters Kay McMullen Brooks, of Elko, and Colleen McMullen, of Carson City.

“We look back and we feel like we left no stone unturned as a family,” Mary-Ellen McMullen said. “He was the mastermind of all of that and created a great life for all of us. He came from a modest background and worked very hard to be able to provide his family with just wonderful experiences.”

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo endured attacks over his immigration policy from four fellow candidates for governor during a televised debate on Wednesday.

Candidates also discussed school safety in the wake of a deadly shooting at a Texas elementary school and abortion rights during the debate, broadcast by KLAS Channel 8.

The top five candidates of 15, as determined by polling, were invited, including former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, Lombardo, businessman Guy Nohra and attorney Joey Gilbert.

Every candidate except Lombardo said they would send Nevada National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to assist with border security. Lombardo claimed that costs of such an operation would be excessive, citing his law enforcement experience.

Heller and Gilbert attacked Lombardo’s record on immigration as sheriff, claiming that Lombardo made Clark County into a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, which Lombardo vehemently denied. Heller said that Lombardo is “bringing illegal immigrants into the state and spreading them across the state.”

Lombardo defended his record, claiming an ACLU lawsuit has hampered his department’s ability to catch undocumented immigrants and said the federal government is largely to blame for them in Clark County. Lombardo has faced criticism on the campaign trail for his immigration policies, including a quiet deportation policy established after a court ruling led to the end of the Metropolitan Police Department’s partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gun control

In the wake of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and 2 adults were killed Tuesday, all candidates said they wouldn’t support any additional restrictions on firearms. Instead, they said, the mass shooting problem in this country is a mental health issue. To prevent mass shootings at schools, Gilbert and Nohra said they want more security on school campuses. Lombardo said he supports public-private partnerships to increase mental health resources in education and law enforcement.

Abortion rights

As the Supreme Court is expected to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision this summer, which guarantees access to abortion care in the country, all candidates said they were pro-life.

Gilbert was clear, however, that Nevada law currently protects abortion rights, and that Nevadans should choose what any new state policy should be. Lombardo said he would consider more regulation on abortion providers in Nevada.

Heller called both Gilbert and Lombardo “pro-choice” because of their comments — which both denied — and said that his track record on voting for anti-abortion Supreme Court justices while in the Senate shows that he is a “proven conservative.” Heller said he would do “whatever it takes” to overturn Nevada’s current law on abortion, which bans the procedure after 24 weeks. Heller also acknowledged that he supported abortion rights in the past, because he was “more libertarian at the time.”

Lee said he would push to pass a “heartbeat bill” in Nevada, which would ban abortion from the point a heartbeat can be detected in a fetus, which can be as early as six weeks.

“Nevada is a pro-choice state,” Gilbert said. “I would love to see no abortion. But at the end of the day, that’s not what a governor gets to do. … I absolutely would steer Nevada toward a pro-life state.”

Education

Heller, Gilbert and Lee each supported breaking up the Clark County School District into smaller districts to give school leaders and residents more control over their schools. Lee said he wants North Las Vegas to have its own district. He also encouraged competition among school districts and private schools with school choice voucher programs.

Gilbert also lamented the amount of waste he believes is present in Nevada public schools, and said that as governor he would privatize certain public school services in order to free funds to better support teachers.

Inflation and the economy

Candidates agreed that as governor they would put pressure on federal leaders to curb stimulus they believe is causing inflation. Gilbert said he wants to fight Washington, D.C., on economics, calling himself “the Ron DeSantis of the West,” referencing Florida’s governor who has been openly against actions of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Heller emphasized lowering taxes as part of his economic plan. He committed to eliminating gas taxes on fuel sales above $4 per gallon and to reduce the state sales tax equivalent to inflation, about 8 percent.

Lombardo attacked Gov. Steve Sisolak’s shutdowns because of COVID-19, which he and other candidates blamed for rising costs.

“I was the author of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (of 2017) when I was back in Washington, D.C., and the purpose of that was to spur economic growth, and it did,” Heller said. “We can do the same thing here in the state of Nevada, which has never been tried … We’re going to spur economic growth like we’ve never seen before.”

Water conservation

As Lake Mead and Lake Powell face all-time low water levels, candidates were asked how they would face the state’s water supply crisis. Heller and Lombardo said they want to renegotiate the Colorado River Compact, which regulates how much water each state along the river can use. They and other candidates claim that California is getting too much water and that Nevada’s share must be increased.

Candidates also proposed investment into new technologies and methods to recover water, like desalination in California. Nohra half-jokingly suggested transporting Mississippi River floodwater to the state. “Let’s give it a try. We’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. For Gilbert, water conservation focuses on irrigation and rural Nevada, which can take advantage of new technology to use less water and save more for cities, he said.

Controversial endorsement

Lombardo doubled down on his support of his former Undersheriff Kevin McMahill, whom he has endorsed to replace him in November. McMahill was accused by a woman of asking her to partially undress for him at a traffic stop in 1995.

“I think this is a ridiculous question,” Lombardo said. “I support Kevin McMahill 100 percent. This is an incident that took place 25 years ago, and he went through the due process associated with that, and he was cleared.”

Gilbert was questioned about his claim that the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting was in some way a cover-up. Gilbert backed down on his claim of a cover-up, but said that as governor he would try to bring more transparency into how the investigation was performed.

Lombardo, who was part of the investigation, lashed back at Gilbert: “For people to impune my officers’ integrity and the investigation associated with that is ridiculous,” Lombardo said. “I stand by them in all aspects of that investigation.”

Lee said he privately condemned racist comments made by the leader of a concealed weapons training seminar, but said he never addressed the issue publicly because “it’s not my job to put him out of business,” he said.

During the hourlong debate, most of the focus was on attacking front-runner Lombardo and incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak. Heller went on the offensive the most, arguing with Lombardo back and forth multiple times and claiming that Lombardo is “friends” with Sisolak. During his closing remarks, Lombardo derided the attacks of his opponents.

“For all practical purposes, this primary is over,” he said. “(These attacks) are all bogus, they’re not working … because I’m leading in all the polls. I have the most money associated with a successful campaign, I have the endorsement of President Donald Trump and I have the endorsement of 16 of 17 sheriffs.”

Lombardo declined to take questions after the debate.

The debate was moderated by KLAS-TV, Channel 8 anchor Denise Valdez and reporter Vanessa Murphy as well as Las Vegas Review-Journal government and politics editor Steve Sebelius. The Nevada primary is on June 14, and early voting begins May 28. Read the Review-Journal’s 2022 voter guide here.

Gov. Steve Sisolak and his wife, Kathy, received their second COVID-19 booster shots at the Southern Nevada Health District on Tuesday afternoon.

The governor and first lady were eligible because of their age. Sisolak emphasized the need for Nevadans to receive booster shots as COVID-19 cases are on the rise. The state’s two-week moving average of daily new cases recently rose to 429 from 317.

“We’re starting to see a slight uptick in positive cases, so anything somebody can do to protect themselves and if you do get COVID, it’d be a lot less severe,” Sisolak said. “I encourage anybody that’s eligible (to get a booster). Vaccines are available, it’s effective, it’s free and take advantage of it.”

Nevada has one of the lowest rates of people vaccinated with booster shots, 23.8 percent, when compared with neighboring states, according to covidactnow.org. Cases have risen by 80 percent in Clark County in the past two weeks, according to The New York Times.

The governor’s shot comes days after he officially ended Nevada’s state of emergency because of COVID-19.

“I think everybody’s tired of the pandemic. I’m tired of the pandemic,” he said. “I understand people have been going through a lot for the last two and a half years, but we’re not through this. … We’re doing everything we can to make sure that people have adequate protection, that they can get a vaccine if they want it. And we’re encouraging people to do that.”