by Dennis Myers
NRA ups the NevAdA ANte
Smaller parties must initially circulate petitions to get on the Nevada ballot.
With its usual exquisite political timing, the National Rifle Association chose the day after Donald Trump suggested gun owners kill Hillary Clinton to announce it would spend $3 million to attack her in Nevada broadcast messages. Its news release read in part: “The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) today launched a new $3 million TV ad buy making the case that Hillary Clinton is an out of touch, hypocritical politician who would leave the American people defenseless. This ad helps highlight the fact that the right of law-abiding Americans to keep a firearm in their homes for self-protection is on the ballot in this presidential election. The ad, titled ‘Defenseless,’ began airing this week on national cable as well as local broadcast stations in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada and North Carolina.” The NRA is already active in a campaign against a Nevada ballot measure calling for background checks, so it will probably put a fair amount of capital into the state’s economy this year. The group has opened a Las Vegas office and is running television spots in the campaign, which have pitted some law enforcement officers against domestic violence victims. Last week gun advocates got wide publicity for announcing that all sheriffs but one in Nevada are opposing Question One. The one—Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who represents most Nevadans—has said he will remain silent on the issue. However, his undersheriff Kevin McMahill is speaking out against the measure and is featured on the NRA website. Of course, in Nevada the NRA acronym might first call to mind the casino lobby—Nevada Resort Association.
PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS
pot tAle of the week In an interview with Guy Farmer in the Nevada Appeal, prohibitionist Genoa lawyer Jim Hartman said of Colorado marijuana supporters, “They claimed the marijuana black market would disappear with legalization, but it didn’t.” Here’s the part Hartman didn’t tell Farmer—legalization never came to Colorado. It came to certain places, but remains illegal in more than 240 towns and cities and broad swaths of the state. So there is still a black market. Colorado Amendment 64, enacted by voters in 2012, left it up to communities to decide whether to make marijuana legal. Moreover, this they-claimed-the-black-marketwould-go-away pitch is repeated often by critics of marijuana, but they rarely cite sources. Hartman does not name anyone he is quoting. Colorado supporters of 64 didn’t necessarily all speak with one voice. Some may have made the claim, but certainly not all. We have been unable to find anyone who said the black market would just go away. Rather, they tended to say illicit marijuana sales would be reduced. For instance, this is the Denver Post in 2012: “[Mason] Tvert and other supporters of the measure have said it will generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for state and local governments. They said it would shed light on the black-market marijuana industry and ultimately cause dangerous cartels to wither.” Ultimately is a good word to keep in mind. After decades of prohibition and government-generated crime, it takes a while for the effect of restored liberty to be fully felt.
—Dennis Myers
8
|
RN&R
|
08.18.16
Third way Nowhere is it required that voters choose either Trump or Clinton the Green party is still battling its way onto the Nevada ballot. “We had until June 3 to collect at least 5,431 signatures to get ballot access for the Green Party in Nevada,” reads one of the party’s sites. “We turned in 8,277.” It’s always good to have a cushion, particularly in a state with Nevada’s population turnover. But those 2,846 extra signatures were not enough. On June 22, the state reported that the party had fallen 400 signatures short. Greens went back out for more signatures, circulating petitions through the end of July. But on Aug. 12 the Nevada secretary of state’s office announced the party had still not crossed the threshold. Party leaders said they would go to court and that a map on the “Jill2016” website—Jill Stein is the party’s presidential nominee—shows Nevada and Oklahoma as two states where the issue is “under litigation,”
although at this writing no legal action has been filed in Nevada. Two other small political parties, meanwhile, are already on the Nevada ballot by virtue of their draw in the last election—the Libertarian Party and the Independent American Party. In the past, even when there were strong independent candidates, like John Anderson in 1980, or third party candidates, like Ross Perot in 1992, they tended to fade as election day neared and voters returned to the comfort of the familiar two major parties. This year, however, there is a dynamic at work never seen before—two very unpopular major party nominees who do not make a return look all that comforting. Could the lesser candidates keep their standing this time? “They can, and they likely will,” said Nevada political analyst Fred Lokken. “Ironically we have more than one potentially viable third
party candidate. This time around Republicans, especially, are shopping, because they just cannot vote for Donald Trump. Democrats can’t do it either, but I think there are more Republicans looking for another place to go.” He said the smaller parties could “revitalize American democracy.” The Libertarians at the moment are riding high with their candidates—former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson for president and former Massachusetts governor William Weld for vice president— picking up a considerable number of disaffected Republicans. Johnson is placing at about 10 percent in leading opinion surveys, unusually strong for a third party. Fifteen percent is required to get into the presidential debates controlled by the two-party Commission on Presidential Debates. Jill Stein is at about five percent. The American Independent Party—its name everywhere except Nevada, where the first two terms are reversed—is the surviving remnant of George Wallace’s 1968 third party. It’s not clear whether it will have a national presidential nominee this year. In California, the party has named Donald Trump as its candidate, giving the billionaire Republican two lines on the ballot. The Greens’ problems in Nevada are not unusual. The two main political parties have structured state and federal election laws to be convenient for themselves and inconvenient for smaller parties. The Democratic Party in particular is a thorn in the side of independents or third parties. When it comes to third parties and independent candidates, the Democratic Party is the least democratic party. Over the years, the Republican Party has more or less rolled with what came. It twice lost the presidency to Bill Clinton because Ross Perot drained off votes from its candidates, yet did not try to stop Perot’s candidacy and didn’t complain afterward.
pARty of the people? Democrats, on the other hand, have tried to throw legal obstacles in the way of Eugene McCarthy in 1975, John Anderson in 1980, and Ralph Nader whenever it could. And Democrats still whine that Nader cost
