Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Political Notebook:

Whose public safety credentials are best for Nevada governor? Camps weigh in

K9 Operations Center Groundbreaking

Wade Vandervort

Sheriff Joe Lombardo speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department K9 Operations Center Monday, March 21, 2022.

The sound of the gunshot was so loud that it startled Clark County resident Liz Becker, who jumped out of bed at 4:30 a.m. because of the violence in her neighborhood.

A police officer knocked on the door shortly after and asked if they had any outside surveillance footage. A cartridge case was found 30 feet from her front door.

One of her neighbors had interrupted a robbery, chased the suspect on foot and fired a gun at them.

“That bullet could have entered my home or my neighbors’ home and killed or injured someone,” said Becker, who is a mother of a 10-year-old. “I am angry that I now feel less safe in my home than when we moved to it in 2015.”

Becker spoke with other Clark County mothers last week against Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who is running as a Republican for governor, saying they feel unsafe and Lombardo, who became sheriff in 2015, isn’t doing enough to squelch crime.

Jamie Bunnell, a mother of an 8-year-old, said crime is continuing to spike and that she was worried about taking her child to Clark County schools.

“The rise in crime all across Clark County has many concerned families leaving Las Vegas to live in safer communities,” Bunnell said. “The thought of raising my family in Clark County is scary right now.”

Now that Lombardo is on the campaign trail trying to “get promoted,” he doesn’t have time to help address the issues, Bunnell said.

“Lombardo could literally do anything to show support for our schools and students, but he has not said, much less done anything to help,” Bunnell said.

Crime statistics in Clark County over the last several years don’t necessarily support the narrative that Lombardo’s tenure as sheriff has led to an increase in crime. The annual homicide rate increased in 2020 and 2021, in which murder increased by 44% in Clark County, the area saw a decrease in homicides in the previous three years.

In 2014, before Lombardo was sheriff, there were 137 homicides in Clark County. In 2021, there were 193. And taking into account the nearly 15% growth rate of the county from 2014 to 2021, it’s not looking like one can point to Lombardo’s leadership as a failure.

Additionally, aggravated assault cases have remained steady over the last five years in Clark County. It was at its highest in 2018 with 8,329 assaults. In 2021, there were 6,514 assaults.

Lombardo says he wants to hire more officers and adds that he has a track record of doing so, which is true.

In 2013, Metro had 2,743 full-time, sworn personnel, 19 residents per every 10,000. And 4,000 total, full-time employees. In 2020, Metro increased to 3,300 officers.

Lombardo also says he supports police reforms focusing on better recruitment and more extensive vetting and training of officers, according to his campaign website. He argues that Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, his would-be general election opponent, and the “left” are pushing to defund the police and take away law enforcement’s ability to keep Nevadans safe.

But Sisolak has taken steps aiming to lower crime in the state. Bunnell pointed to Sisolak’s signing in 2021 of Assembly Bill 291, which added “red flag” language to allow for the seizure of firearms without due process, as well as Senate Bill 143 in 2019, which closes the “gun shell loophole” and requires background checks for firearms purchases.

Both Lombardo’s and Sisolak’s camps are pointing to the other and accusing them of not being fit to lead and not doing enough to help with public safety. They boast about what they will be able to get done if they win.

Sisolak said during his State of the State address last month that he would introduce legislation to increase law enforcement officers’ salaries at the next legislative session in 2023.

It’s an interesting Catch-22 in a way, as both Sisolak, who runs the state, and Lombardo, responsible for the public safety of Nevada’s largest county, are the ones who can currently be doing more.

Laxalt to challenge ‘22 election

A New York Times article last week criticized Nevada GOP Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt for saying he was planning to fight election fraud in the 2022 election, 200-something odd days before the election takes place.

The Times obtained an audio recording where Laxalt laid out “detailed groundwork to fight election fraud in his race — long before a single vote has been cast or counted.”

To Nevadans following the Senate race, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Laxalt, who has Donald Trump’s endorsement and has long fought the 2020 presidential election results, has centered his campaign on false claims of election fraud. He’s talked before about his plans to pursue lawsuits on the 2022 election results.

Laxalt’s campaign shared the statement with us that they sent to the Times, saying that Clark County in particular “remains problematic.”

“Without a single Republican vote, Democrats radically changed the election rules within the final stretch of the campaign that year, and many voters lost confidence in the system as a result,” Laxalt said in the statement. “Their partisan transformation of Nevada’s system handed election officials an untested process that generated over 750 thousand mail-in votes with unclean voter rolls, loose ballots everywhere, and virtually no signature verification. Every voter deserves more transparency and to be confident in the accuracy of their election results, and I will proudly fight for them.”

Of course, as the Times also emphasized, there was no widespread election fraud in Nevada, or Clark County, “nor anywhere else in the country, as numerous audits, recounts, court challenges and investigations have confirmed.”

Republican Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske spent more than 125 hours investigating the allegations brought forward in 2020 and found no widespread fraud. There was that one incident though in which a registered Republican submitted his dead wife’s ballot.

Free community college?

Sisolak announced last week that the state had set aside about $5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to explore ways to make community college or apprentice and training programs free for more Nevadans by 2025, his office said in a statement.

The announcement delivers on a promise from his State of the State address last month, and he tasked his workforce development committee to explore ways to get it done. The $5 million will help kickstart initial recommendations the committee has.

The committee, chaired by Melody Rose, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, can also make additional funding recommendations for the next legislative session to address the issue, according to the statement.

“We know that skills training is essential to our workers and businesses,” Sisolak said during his speech. “A high school education isn’t enough, and we should recognize that it’s no longer “pre-school through grade 12,” but at least “pre-school through community college or other post high school training.”

At the College of Southern Nevada, a lower-division credit course costs $109.75 per credit. Upper division classes are $180 a credit.

The push to make higher education free or at least cheaper has been part of a national dialogue for years, but nobody’s been able to get it done (In 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden promised to make public colleges tuition-free for families with incomes below $125,000, but as president the proposal has stalled).

A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that among all U.S. adults surveyed, 63% favor making tuition at public colleges free.

People may want it, but it’s a tricky proposition to get accomplished on a national scale. On the state side, making community college free for more Nevadans is a step in that direction.

Lifting travel impairments

U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., announced last week that her bipartisan legislation aiming to make it easier for non-English speakers to travel had advanced from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

The TSA Reaching Across Nationalities, Societies and Languages to Advance Traveler Education (TRANSLATE) Act, which Rosen introduced with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is intended to simplify air travel for non-English speakers, international travelers and those who have visual or hearing impairments by ensuring Transportation Security Administration signage and materials are available in more languages and different forms at airports, her office announced in a statement last week.

TSA will have to develop a plan to ensure more people can understand signage and information at major airports.

“Nevada is a proudly diverse state that also attracts millions of international visitors each year,” Rosen said in a statement. “As we continue restoring our state’s travel and tourism industry, we can take steps to make travel information more accessible in more languages for all of our residents and visitors.”

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., co-introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, where it passed last year.

Countdown

Days to primary: 78

Days to midterms: 225