Nevada governor’s candidate unmasks himself as a craven political opportunist

Friday, Feb. 4, 2022 | 2 a.m.

By saying he believes Joe Biden is not the duly elected president of the United States, former Nevada Sen. Dean Heller has disqualified himself thoroughly and irredeemably as a candidate for governor of our state.

After months of playing footsie about whether he supported the Big Lie, Heller finally showed where he stood on the matter Monday during an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He went all-in on the dark side by saying he did not believe Biden was the legitimate president.

And what’s his proof of this? According to his camp, Heller says 71% of Republicans in Nevada think Biden wasn’t legitimately elected, and he does too.

Where on earth does that 71% figure come from? Your guess is as good as ours. We asked Heller’s campaign for an explanation, but they wouldn’t give us a straight answer. But even if the figure is accurate, it’s not proof of widespread fraud in any way, shape or form. All it would prove is that a lot of Nevada Republicans buy into the extreme-right’s false claim of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election.

By finally stating his position on the issue, Heller unmasked himself as yet another GOP leader who, without a shred of credible evidence of fraud on a scale that would affect outcomes, would undermine the election process and subvert the will of the people on the baseless claim.

Heller had already discredited himself by refusing to disavow the Big Lie, but now he’s gone even further by suddenly puffing himself up as a dyed-in-the-wool Trumper. This from a cowardly candidate who’d evaded questions on Biden’s legitimacy.

Say what you want about the true Trumpers who are vying along with Heller for the GOP nomination — Michele Fiore and Joey Gilbert — but at least they make it clear that they stand on the extremist right. Heller, by contrast, blows wherever the political wind takes him. And in a party where violent alt-right organizations like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are gaining an increasing presence, that can lead to some dangerous places.

In another low moment of the interview, Heller also emulated Trump by vilifying immigrants in a comment about Las Vegas being a sanctuary city.

“When 250,000 people are coming over the border, where do you think the federal government sends them? They send them to sanctuary cities,” he said. “You think they stay in sanctuary cities? No. They take their gangs, they take their drugs, they go up to Washoe, they go to Elko, they go to Winnemucca and they have drug and gang problems in all those communities, all because Clark County’s a sanctuary city.”

Where to start with this comment?

In the first place, the federal government does not “send” undocumented people to sanctuary cities. That’s a paranoid fever dream of Heller’s coming straight from the darkest ratholes of extremist internet forums. Nothing of the sort happens. Heller is engaging in bad far-right cosplay.

It’s a pity because Nevada is overfilled with shrieking candidates pandering to the far right, and if Heller hewed to a moderate position, he would be a candidate worth celebrating in these bleak times in the GOP. We’re sure many moderate Republicans miss the old Heller and wonder if they have anyone left to believe in as they watch their party descend further into lies, hatred of democracy, madness and extremism.

Secondly, it’s been revealed that Metro Sheriff Joe Lombardo — also one of Heller’s rivals for governor — misled the community on the sanctuary city issue. Lombardo told the public that Metro had stopped cooperating with federal immigration officials on deportations, but Metro secretly kept working with the feds. So much for Las Vegas being a sanctuary city. And so much for Lombardo’s credibility — another political coward incapable of standing for anything, he’s cut from the same cloth as Heller.

And the idea that immigrants from Clark County are solely responsible for gang and drug problems in rural communities is howlingly false. We did a spot check by searching the online archives of the Elko Daily Free Press, and the vast majority of stories that we found on violent crimes and drug crimes involved white Elko County residents.

Heller used his comment on sanctuary cities to criticize Lombardo, and clearly was fearmongering in hopes of gaining support from mostly white rural and northern communities. It’s strongly reminiscent of Trump’s comment on Mexican immigrants from his infamous 2015 campaign-launch announcement: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Such broad-brush portrayals of immigrants — by Heller or Trump or anyone else — are false and morally bankrupt. The overwhelming majority of immigrants live their lives peacefully and productively, just like the majority of their native-born neighbors.

To suggest that Southern Nevada immigrants are responsible for a crime wave up north is a lie and a dog whistle to racists.

Nevadans demand a governor who will serve the interests of all eligible voters in our state and of every contributing member of our society, regardless of their political leaning, their ethnicity or whether they were born here or are seeking citizenship.

Nevadans also deserve politicians who will take a clear position, be willing to publicly discuss and defend it, and who don’t start trembling and changing their positions the instant the political winds shift. Nevada deserves, in other words, candidates with backbone. Pathetic grovelers, Heller and Lombardo fail on that score. Since Gilbert’s campaign remains little more than vain frippery, that leaves Fiore, love her or hate her, as the only GOP gubernatorial candidate willing to stand for something and even debate her positions. She even talks to the media while Lombardo hides from Sun political reporters and only speaks to reporters he believes will ask soft questions.

For Trump voters, Fiore is the real deal.