by Dennis Myers
Survey of u.S. voter enthuSiaSm pollS
Democratic nominee for governor Steve Sisolak in Reno with supporters Kevan (center) and Monique Laxalt. PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS
African American voters UP Young African American voters UP MORE Asian Americans UP Swing state voters UP Democratic women TURBOCHARGED (Politico’s term) Gain from Kavanaugh dispute: Republicans UP Democrats UP MORE Young voters DOWN This could be the rare midterm when turnout rises. In the last midterm election, Nevada turnout was 29 percent of eligible voters.
Q3 goeS negative With environmentalists now pushing hard for the defeat of the deregulating ballot Question 3, supporters of the measure have gone heavily negative with attacks on NV Energy, the regulated monopoly that supplies most of Nevada with power. Journalists around the state get lots of news releases with titles like “NV Energy’s Campaign Tells Biggest Lies Yet.” A wraparound in the Oct. 21 Reno Gazette Journal carried this quote, allegedly from the Clark County Education Association: “NV Energy has leveraged their monopoly power to overcharge the Clark County School District by millions of dollars every year.” NV Energy did not comment on the charge, but the Washoe County School District and Nevada State Education Association oppose Question 3.
heller’S Switch getS noticed The Wall Street Journal this week carried a story headlined “Nevada’s GOP Senator Bets on His Conversion to Trumpism.” It began: “No Republicans on the ballot in 2018 have shifted their Trump-era political allegiances more than Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. Mr. Heller never endorsed President Trump’s 2016 campaign and declared himself ‘99 percent against Trump.’ During Mr. Trump’s first months in office, Mr. Heller called a press conference to announce his opposition to the Republican health care overhaul Mr. Trump promised. “Then ...”
nevada duckS ag Search Thirty-five states have entered a competition for 700 jobs the U.S. Agriculture Department wants to export from D.C. Nevada is not among them. An Oct. 22 USDA statement said the department “has received 136 expressions of interest from parties in 35 states interested in becoming the new homes of the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). … The entities expressing interest in hosting EFS and NIFA include educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, state development agencies, county development agencies, municipalities, and for-profit entities.”
—Dennis Myers
6
|
RN&R
|
10.25.18
Growth Candidates don’t talk much about coping in 1978, in a spectacularly bad example of local planning, six casinos opened in Reno within weeks of each other. These included the massive MGM Grand Hotel—now Grand Sierra Resort—which became a symbol of the resulting deterioration of Reno’s quality of life. Publicity of the hotel boom across the nation brought numerous job seekers into Reno. The newcomers could work as many jobs as they wanted, but soon there was no place to live. People were living in their cars or at roadside rests on Interstate 80 or on dirt roads outside the city proper. If they were able to find housing, the rents were sky high. A bond issue had to be rushed through to expand the suddenly strained sewage treatment plant. Traffic overwhelmed existing configurations. Developers bought up laundromats to get the water connections. As it happened, 1978 was also the year of a governor’s race in Nevada, and both Democrat Robert Rose and Republican Robert List addressed the difficulties the Truckee Meadows faced during the campaign. When the election was over and winning Republican Robert List took office, he established a Commission on
the Future of Nevada to address some of the problems raised by the negative effects of growth. In 2018, however, the candidates have barely mentioned the failings of the state’s economic development efforts and the unfavorable impact of Tesla and other sudden large workforces on Washoe County’s quality of life. Neither Democrat Steve Sisolak nor Republican Adam Laxalt have offered much about how they would deal with high rents and the unavailability of housing in Washoe. The National Association of Realtors in February ranked Reno second only to San Jose in the rate of home price increases. After Laxalt issued a paper on economic development, the Republican Governors’ Association—which is trying to get Laxalt elected in Nevada— put out a news release that quoted the Nevada Independent: “Sisolak, his general election opponent, has not released a similarly detailed economic development plan.” Perhaps the best response to that is, “Neither has Laxalt.” What the Republican nominee has called his economic development plan is not a bit
detailed. It is 737 words long, about as long as a high school essay. The section on housing is 42 words long, if the heading is included, and reads, in its entirety: “Reduce barriers that limit Nevadans’ access to affordable houeing. Nevada’s housing market has seen marked volatility in recent years, but the state is again growing, and housing prices have soared to the point that affordability has been strained, particularly in Northern Nevada.” If the barriers referenced are volatility and housing prices, the 42 words do not contain a hint of how Laxalt would deal with them. His paper describes the problem, not solutions. And while education is mentioned more often (six times) in the plan, it never gets around to answering one of the principal questions that has been repeatedly raised during this campaign: How will Laxalt both repeal the commerce tax and keep education spending at the same level, both of which he has promised to do? Nor have either Sisolak or Laxalt offered any sense of what guidelines they will follow when handling demands for corporate welfare to lure business. Sisolak seems to have a comfort level with the concept, given his support of the Raiders stadium, but Laxalt has not provided even that much information on his stance.
neighborS Lance Gilman, owner of Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) where Tesla is based and a GOP Storey county commissioner, has endorsed Sisolak, which may send a message all its own. Gilman was involved in luring Tesla to TRIC in Storey County without showing much anxiety over the impact it would have on housing, traffic, sewage, water and other factors in neighboring counties, which are bedroom communities for Tesla workers. Gilman told Ray Hagar in the Fernley Reporter that he considered Sisolak the logical successor to Gov. Brian Sandoval: “I can’t say enough about Sandoval and his support for us. Tesla is here because of Sandoval and his efforts, and supporting us … with Switch and even Google. And there is only one candidate in our opinion that has the appetite, commitment, capabilities and background to continue that financial investment and vision for economic diversification and
