GOP candidates for Congress debate immigration, taxes, bathroom bills

By Megan Messerly

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 | 2:54 p.m.

Compared to the last gathering of Republican candidates for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, a town hall discussion today at a meeting of the Southern Hills Republican Women was a relatively civil affair.

The seven candidates, who will face off in Nevada’s June primary for the Republican nomination, debated key issues including taxes and immigration.

The eventual nominee will face off against the Democratic candidate to replace Republican Rep. Joe Heck, who is vacating his seat to run for U.S. Senate.

The candidates include state Sen. Michael Roberson, businessman Danny Tarkanian, Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, physician Annette Teijeiro, businessman Sami Khal, Air Force veteran Kerry Bowers and former Nevada Policy Research Institute President Andy Matthews.

Roberson and Tarkanian, who hold substantial fundraising advantages over the other candidates, are widely considered the top contenders for the seat.

They already are putting out negative ads and press releases about each other, with Tarkanian attacking Roberson’s legislative record and Roberson’s camp highlighting Tarkanian’s past business dealings and lawsuits.

At the same time, policy differences separate the candidates, with Roberson generally earning the reputation as a more mainline conservative and Tarkanian a Tea Party conservative.

Tarkanian said the race would determine the direction the Republican Party is heading.

“You can go down one path or you can go down the other path,” Tarkanian said, not mentioning Roberson by name. “It’s going to be a very close race. Your votes are going to matter.”

Roberson couched himself as the “most accomplished conservative” in the race. “It isn’t even close,” he said.

The town hall moderator, conservative radio host Alan Stock, pressed the candidates on a series of issues in the news, such as whether they would support the eventual Republican nominee for president and what they thought about transgender “bathroom bills,” such as one recently passed in North Carolina.

All of the candidates said they would support the eventual GOP nominee for president, except Fiore, who said that she would “most likely not” support a candidate other than New York businessman Donald Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Roberson defended his role in shepherding the governor’s $1.5 billion tax package through the Nevada Legislature, saying the move was necessary to improve education. Economic development experts informed him that education was the missing piece in luring businesses to the state, he said.

“Under those circumstances, I think it was the right thing to do,” Roberson said. He acknowledged, though, that “obviously it’s not politically popular with everyone.”

Tarkanian attacked Roberson’s defense of the tax package, saying only $600 million of the omnibus tax package went toward boosting education funding. He also advocated for tightening immigration, suggesting all visas be tracked through a database to make sure people don’t overstay their visas.

On social issues, Tarkanian stressed that he is pro-life, but he said that the country needs to focus on what’s “killing” it, such as national security issues. “We have a country that’s ready to fall off the cliff,” Tarkanian said.

Fiore defended her support of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who led an armed standoff against federal officials in Bunkerville in 2014.

“If you point a gun at me, I’m going to point it right back,” Fiore said. “We will not be governed at gunpoint.”

She also argued against tax increases, noting that she voted against the tax package last legislative session. She said money for education should come from cutting other areas of government, like the money spent on prisons.

Teijeiro, meanwhile, took oblique shots at Roberson, Tarkanian, and Fiore, saying she wouldn’t support any of them if they received the Republican nomination.

She referred to a 450-page opposition research book about Roberson, saying it contained “all the promises he made and didn’t keep,” and she emphasized Democrats’ enthusiasm for Tarkanian, believing him to be the easier candidate to beat in the general election.

“I would support a real Republican that can win in this race,” Teijeiro said.

She also said she would vote against raising taxes, support voter ID laws and advocate for veterans.

Bowers promised to continue Heck’s work on veterans issues, saying he would have a staff member in his office devoted to the issue. He also noted that he and his wife are veterans, saying, “We’re about as close to the military as you can get.”

Asked about legislation that would require people to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological gender, Bowers said there should not be bathroom monitors and no one should be punished for using any bathroom.

Khal, a Syrian-born Christian, called pushing Syrian refugees back fleeing a war-torn country “un-American.”

He said the U.S. government should work with the Syrian government and other countries to combat ISIS. “We’ve got the most powerful military in the world,” Khal said.

On the bathroom legislation, Khal said the answer was simple — people should go to “the bathroom of their gender.”

Matthews generally said most issues should be left up to the states, such as taxes, voter ID laws and education policy. On income inequality, Matthews said there needs to be a framework that allows people to get ahead.

“Free market capitalism has been the greatest vehicle of that,” Matthews said. “If you look at what’s going on, it’s the federal government intervention that is preventing those people from getting ahead.”

The candidates will face off June 14 for the Republican nomination.