Cathleen Allison / AP
Nevada Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson speaks during Senate floor debate on Gov. Brian Sandoval’s tax proposal to overhaul the state’s business license fees at the Legislative Building in Carson City on Tuesday, April 21, 2015.
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015 | 10 a.m.
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist speaks at Americans for Tax Reforms annual Tax Day Eve news conference, April 14, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
The guardian of the no-new-tax pledge singled out GOP congressional candidate and State Sen. Michael Roberson on Monday — highlighting an ideological divide within the Republican party in Nevada.
Grover Norquist, founder of the right-wing think tank Americans for Tax Reform, tweeted about Roberson’s vote on “29 tax hike bills in 2015. Every last one of them.” Norquist added, “Politicians face a choice. Reform government to cost less or raise taxes and keep doing everything the same as always. Reform or Tax.”
Roberson, who signed the pledge in 2010, was influential in passing the state’s more than $1.3 billion tax hike in the 2015 legislative session, along with other measures to bolster state spending.
Roberson did not respond to a request for comment.
Norquist’s tweets underscore a big question for GOP voters in the 3rd Congressional District: will Roberson’s position on taxes influence the outcome of the race?
Some conservatives think that Roberson’s tax record will hurt his candidacy.
“It will be a big issue in the campaign,” Chuck Muth, a GOP consultant whose group Citizen Outreach tracks the no-tax pledge in Nevada. “Not just because he voted for the tax hikes, but because he signed the taxpayer protection pledge and went against it.”
Roberson is the moderate candidate in a Republican field that has three no-new-taxes candidates: Danny Tarkanian, who ran for congress in 2010 and 2012; Annette Teijeiro, who ran for congress in 2014, and Andy Matthews, former president of the right-wing think tank, Nevada Policy Research Institute.
Roberson is likely to be the only moderate candidate from Nevada’s political establishment candidate to run, making it easier for him to consolidate support, said Victor Joecks, vice president of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, which as a nonprofit does not participate in campaigns, “It’s a lot harder to win if more people are splitting the conservative side.”
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