News

Numbers game

The Sandoval administration, which runs Nevada’s health care exchange that implements the federal Affordable Care Act, has refused to release running tallies on how many people are applying and being served. But numbers are being released, anyway, through other sources—particularly the federal Health and Human Services Department (HHS).

HHS has issued a report showing 9,186 Nevadans have completed applications, another 14,819 have completed applications and applied for coverage, and 1,217 have received coverage.

Various media entities who are trying to track numbers state by state have had difficulty getting numbers from the state and have used other numbers, including the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post.

Kaiser spokesperson Chris Lee said, “We haven’t had any luck getting data from Nevada yet, either.” He said Kaiser is relying on the HHS numbers.

Supremes rule

The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled against Sparks City Councilmember Mike Carrigan in his latest round with the Nevada Ethics Commission.

The court had previously supported Carrigan when he argued that the Ethics Commission interfered with his freedom of expression by admonishing him for voting on a casino project supported by his campaign manager (“Ethics or expression,” RN&R, April 28, 2011). The city attorney had advised him he could vote.

But the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Nevada Supreme Court, finding that an officeholder’s vote “symbolizes nothing” and so is not protected free expression.

Carrigan then returned to court and argued that the Nevada statute dealing with conflict-of-interest recusal is unconstitutionally vague, thus violating due process, and that it unconstitutionally burdens freedom of association between elected officials and their supporters.

The court disagreed with Carrigan on both counts. The case is Carrigan v. Commission on Ethics.

In another case, the Nevada court upheld the Nevada press shield statute in a matter where Aspen Financial Services tried to force a television news producer, Dana Gentry, to testify in an action against guests who appeared on a show she produced. Lawyers for the corporation argued they were not subpoenaing her as a news producer, but in her personal capacity. The court ruled that the corporation used a subterfuge—a claim that she had accepted gifts that compromised her news judgment—to try to learn her sources, which is barred by the law.

“[A]lthough Aspen claims that it is not seeking Gentry’s sources because it already knows who those sources are, the circumstances of this case demonstrate that Aspen actually is effectively seeking to confirm the identities of Gentry’s sources,” the court ruled. The case is Aspen Financial Services v. Eighth Judicial District Court and Dana Gentry.

From the right

It may come as a shock to those who think the state is experiencing the second term of the Gibbons administration, but Brian Sandoval is under fire for being too liberal.

Clark County Republican Central Committee member Edward Hamilton said he is entering the primary race for governor against incumbent Sandoval because “[he] is more liberal than the two Democratic leaders in the Nevada Legislature, Assembly Speaker [Marilyn] Kirkpatrick and state Senate majority leader [Mo] Denis. Sandoval is pro-sales and gasoline taxes increases, pro-Obamacare expansion in Nevada. He signed into law three fast-tracking bills to launch and implement Obamacare in Nevada, pro-abortion; and pro-big government agenda in general. … In summary, Governor Sandoval is out touch with the conservative base and liberty faction of the GOP in Nevada, especially in the north and rural counties.”

Hamilton also calls himself a tea party candidate. He has run for office before, including a 2010 U.S. Senate race as a Democrat. —Dennis Myers

Obstacles

Libertarian leader’s angst shows third party handicaps

“WEAVER CAPTURES NEVADA” read the headline in the New York Times on November by 10, 1892. Dennis Myers It was a first-and-only moment in the state’s history. People’s Party presidential nominee James Weaver, running on the Nevada Silver Party line, won the state’s electoral votes in a landslide. Though the Times said he won only a plurality, in fact he swept up a massive majority, swamping his three opponents and their parties combined.

“This could very well be that rare occasion in American history.”

Rhodes Cook Political analyst

Libertarian leader Joseph Silvestri’s statement can be read at http://votesilvestri. com/8-i-need-a-breakfolks

It happened once. Could it happen again? Not if Joseph Silvestri is to be believed. Two days before the Libertarian Party of Nevada held a Nov. 16 state convention, party chair Joseph Silvestri posted a message on his website:

“After more than a decade trying to help build the LPN into a viable political organization that could compete with the establishment parties, and get Libertarians elected, I have conceded defeat. I’ve grown tired of (fill in the blank), the list is endless. … In the past, I’ve worked to support myself and a team of quality activists get elected and work to grow the party. But not this time, I’m done. I’ve decided to not seek any officer position. Unable to build a large enough coalition of support to justify further efforts, I accept reality. I yield the field to the knuckleheads. I am exhausted from the endless stupid drama that prevents our party from achieving critical mass. … You should understand I don’t really blame the knuckleheads. I blame the good decent folks who really want to see a viable third choice on Election Day, but do nothing to further that end.”

With 10,729 registered voters, the Libertarians are the state’s fourth largest political party.

The Libertarians, unlike other third parties like the American Independent and Reform parties, was built around a philosophy, not a candidate. But neither method seems to be a good route to the mainstream, at least in the modern era. One commentator thinks that might be changing. National political analyst Rhodes Cook put the possibility of a third party on the cover of his latest Rhodes Cook Letter, and observed:

“Any new third party nowadays would likely come from one of two sources—another split in Republican ranks with the ‘Tea Party’ veering off from the party establishment; or a Perot-like entity carved out of the disaffected political center. No doubt, creating a viable third party from either source would not be easy.

Voters seem perpetually disgusted with politicians. How bad does it have to be before they look to a new party?

Elections at the federal and state levels continue to grow more and more expensive. And ballot access can be consuming enough for an independent or third party presidential candidate, let alone for a party that is also running scores of candidates for Congress and other offices. … But it would probably not be impossible in an era when the two major parties appear to be continually dropping the ball. In short, this could very well be that rare occasion in American history when it just could happen.”

Others say the obstacles are greater than the disgust with the existing choices.

“Insurmountable,” political analyst Fred Lokken said. “You’d think voters would want to shake the tree, but we just don’t. … Sure there are voters who are disgruntled with Republicans and Democrats, but they don’t generally vote for third parties.”

One of the biggest obstacles to third parties is election laws. In most states, the dominant political parties have reduced access to the ballot through a myriad of signature requirements or other mechanisms. Indeed, election laws have given political parties primacy over those who want straight politics without parties.

For example, state presidential electors—the members of the electoral “college,” though there is no actual collegial group—are now selected by political parties, instead of by the voting public or legislatures, as originally done by the founding generation. And in many states including Nevada, electors are bound to vote for their party rather than serving as the free agents the founders intended.

Ballot access laws are often incredibly burdensome and spark legal action. “The election laws are engineered to be sure third parties don’t win,” Lokken said.

An indication of how onerous election laws can be for third parties came in 1968 when George Wallace of Alabama created the American Independent Party as a vehicle for his candidacy. In the important state of California not just signatures were needed—66,000 voters had to be convinced to actually register to vote as members of the AIP. One Wallace supporter said, “I tell you, Alabama was just about deserted. The whole state just lit out for California. … I tell you, there wasn’t a lawyer left in town.” In Nevada, the effort to get Wallace’s name on the ballot was led by the late Daniel Hansen, who changed the party’s name here to Independent American. Wallace received 13.2 percent of the vote in

Nevada, and his party has been on the ballot for most of the years since.

In 1980, running as an independent, not a third party candidate, John Anderson had to lay out huge amounts of money for lawyers to battle Democratic Party efforts to keep him off the ballot, the assumption being that he would draw votes away from Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. “All of the energies and resources of Anderson’s campaign went to getting on the ballot,” Lokken said. “John Anderson mortgaged his house” to pay for ballot access.

One of the best indications of the uphill fight for third party and independent candidates came last year when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg floated some trial balloons about his running for president. “He had the money, but when he took a look at how tough it would be, he stopped talking about that crazy third party bid,” Lokken said.

“Party affiliation is so strong with enough people that the Republicans and Democrats, no matter who their candidates were, no matter who voted, would get enough votes that you could get every independent vote, it would still not be a majority,” Bloomberg said.

Lokken said just because outside candidates don’t win doesn’t mean they don’t have impact. Sometimes they serve as spoilers. In 1992 and 1996, Ross Perot had the money to get his Reform Party on the ballot, and his conservative candidacy helped draw votes from the Republican candidates and elect Bill Clinton by less than a majority both times.

If a new third party were to become well established in Nevada, the small counties would probably have a role. While the Democrats are the second largest party in voter registration, Republicans have become so dominant in those counties that the Democrats sometimes cannot scrape up candidates—but the Independent American Party does. After the 2010 election, IAP leader Janine Hansen—who lives in Ryndon, east of Elko—said her party had displaced the Democrats as the principal competition to the GOP.

“There were no Democrats on the ballot in Elko County local races, except my Assembly race,” she said. “We fielded numerous candidates. That was the same in many rural counties. If the Democrats cannot even field any candidates, and we garnered significantly more votes than them in the only race they participated in, in Elko County, that makes us the de facto second party in Elko County.”

The IAP actually won some offices in the small counties—public administrator in Nye County, district attorney in Esmeralda, a county commissioner in White Pine, and clerk treasurer in Eureka.

“The result is in the nature of a revolution,” the New York Times reported of Weaver’s Nevada 1892 victory. But revolutions don’t exactly come along every election. Ω

Mark of anger

At Wildflower Village last weekend, Angus McCleod portrayed Mark Twain in Dark Twain. Unlike other Twain impersonators, McCleod uses material from Twain’s bitter and angry writings, including denunciations of U.S. government warmaking, many of them from late in the writer’s life. Demo, scratch, and dent inventory at an amazing price!

DECEMBER 7 10am - 4pm 1484 Kleppe Lane Sparks NV 89431

CASH & CREDIT CARDS ONLY DIT CARDS ONLY ARDS ON RDS O S