PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS
Workshop leader Lauren Harmon teaches activists how to hone their sales pitches.
Metering still national issue The decision by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to layer net metering with new fees is drawing continued comment across the nation, much of it likely to persuade alternative energy firms to look elsewhere. Bloomberg Businessweek magazine reported on Jan. 28, “First, NV Energy deployed its lobbyists to limit the total amount of energy homeowners and small businesses were allowed to generate to 3 percent of peak capacity for all utilities. Then it expertly argued its case before regulators, who rewrote the rules for net-metering customers. In December it scored a major win: Nevada’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) imposed rules that not only make it more expensive to go solar, but also make it uneconomical for those who’ve already signed up. Similar regulatory skirmishes are playing out in dozens of other states, but no other has gone as far as Nevada to undermine homeowners who’ve already installed solar arrays.” The headline in Investor’s Business Daily: “Will Nevada NetMetering Vote Cripple Solar Financing?” London Guardian: “Nevada solar industry collapses after state lets power company raise fees.” Meanwhile, an initiative petition has been filed to end NV Energy’s monopoly by breaking up the corporation. It was sponsored by an outfit called Nevadans for Affordable, Clean Energy Choices.
Encyclopedic errata Readers may have heard of the uncertain reliability of information on Wikipedia. Perhaps a demonstration would be useful. Under the topic “Nevada caucuses,” Wikipedia reports, “Prior to 2008, Nevada usually held primary elections, not caucuses to choose delegates for the Democratic and Republican national conventions. In both cases, these delegates then choose party nominees for the general presidential election. Many parties have held state level caucuses since the 1960s; however, 2008 is the first time both the Democratic and Republican parties held caucuses throughout the local (precinct), county, and state levels.” This information is false. Nevada has not “usually” held presidential primaries. It has always held caucuses, including the mere four occasions when it held presidential primaries (1912, 1976, 1980, and 1996). The caucuses are held at the precinct level. The delegates to the national conventions are chosen at the state party conventions. This information is footnoted by Wikipedia to a Nevada Secretary of State’s website page that does not contain the same information.
Pick a card The Iowa coin tosses that settled some disputes in the presidential caucuses and also threw the final result into question have sometimes been used in Nevada. That is, chance has been used, though not specifically coin tosses. In 2002, a 107-107 tie in an Esmeralda county commission race was settled by choosing cards from a new deck fanned out, high card winning. Ties in a 1982 contest for Eureka county clerk and a 1972 Gabbs justice of the peace race were also settled with cards. Some states have used drawing lots in the case of ties.
Logo news The Washoe County District district attorney’s office has a new logo. A statement from the DA’s office said it “replaces an older version that was used for many years, but was ready for a change.”
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—Dennis Myers NEW
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FEBRUARY 11, 2016
Summit As caucuses approach, political training is held “Any of you here want to run for office?” asked Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve. Schieve was closing the last by session of a progressives “summit” Dennis Myers for Northern Nevada, held for training and planning purposes. A few hands went up in response to her question. “It is not easy,” she said of officeseeking. “I had no idea.” She also gave it to them straight about what most politicians consider the worst part of running for office. “I had to call people up to ask for money,” she said. “Do you know how hard that is? … I think it’s the worst part of running for office. … It’s not comfortable for everyone.”
“Saying ‘Get money out ’ seems unrealistic.” Lauren Harmon Consultant
That practical piece of advice may have been a surprise to the young activists in the audience who think the venom in politics is its worst feature. This summit, in fact, was called in part to increase the ability of progressives to deal with the virulent tone of politics. In one workshop, titled “You vs. Sheldon Adelson (Money in Politics),” participants were taught to
re-frame issues when an approach they were using seemed not to work. This is particularly advised when an issue seems too huge to deal with, such as the mammoth amount of corporate money that floods Congress. Center for American Progress trainer Lauren Harmon said bewailing the corrupting power of money isn’t necessarily the best way to attack it. “It just seems too huge,” she said. “And saying ‘Get money out’ seems unrealistic.” She suggested breaking it into less unwieldy parts that relate better to the concerns of voters: •●Drug corporations writing health care legislation drives up prescription drug prices. •●When coal companies weaken carbon emission legislation, children end up with asthma and other respiratory problems. •●When the private prison industry can get addiction prevention money killed while pushing through longer sentences, more kids go to jail instead of to school. One participant in the workshop offered a local variant: “When NV Energy is a political power, we end up with old fashioned energy sources.” There were indications of some of the dilemmas facing progressives, including the name itself, which gave a defensive tone to the event. The term liberal was avoided. And the group kept encountering problems in which progressives have often been the worst offenders. During
the Adelson workshop, one participant suggested using a pitch that George W. Bush’s closeness to the banking industry had led to the repeal of usury and to payday loan outfits that have enslaved some people to debt. The problem is that there is an awkward bit of political history to this issue—it was the Democrats who repealed it, back in the days when deregulation was all the rage in Democratic circles. Author William Greider: “Usury used to be illegal in the United States but it was “decriminalized” in 1980— the dawn of financial deregulation. A Democratic president [Jimmy Carter] and Congress repealed all interest-rate controls and the federal law prohibiting usury. Thirty years later, American society is permeated with usurious practices—credit cards charging 30 percent and higher, subprime mortgages and other forms of predatory lending, the notorious ‘payday’ loans that charge desperate working people an effective interest rate of 500 percent or more. Businesses, especially smaller firms, are also prey to usury in less direct ways.” In addition, if progressives get too deep into relating Bush’s money from the banking industry to public policy, it raises one of the issues in the current Democratic presidential campaign— candidate Hillary Clinton’s millions of dollars in fees from financial institutions for speeches whose content has gone undisclosed. In fact, the Democratic presidential campaign was omnipresent during the summit. Representatives of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were on hand to work literature tables and recruit. Outside the building, the campaign in the third-in-the-nation Nevada caucuses went on.
Campaign trail With Sanders expected to win the New Hampshire primary three days after the summit, he would be looking for where he could next win. Nevada’s caucuses on Feb. 20 are the next presidential nominating event for the Democrats. Sanders would dearly love to take Nevada, which went for Clinton over Obama in 2008. This year, Clinton has a highly efficient organization in Nevada. AfricanAmericans—a mainstay of support for the Clintons—are a small group in Nevada, and there are indications that Sanders is gaining with them. Nevada has a large Latino population and a substantial labor union presence in Las Vegas hotel/casinos. Sanders aide Tad Devine told the Boston Globe that internal campaign polls of Nevada
