Republican gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert poses for photo Monday, February 28, 2022. YASMINA CHAVEZ
Sunday, May 8, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Reno attorney and former boxer Joey Gilbert received the Nevada Republican Party’s endorsement for governor, just a couple of days after Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
And in the U.S. Senate race, Sam Brown received the endorsement of the Nevada Republican Party, instead of Trump-endorsed candidate Adam Laxalt.
Neither of the Trump-endorsed candidates, the presumed frontrunners in their primary races, were the favorites among the attendees at the Nevada GOP State Convention at Palace Station, where delegates representing Nevada’s 17 counties came together to vote on endorsements and talk midterms and vote on party-related resolutions.
The next question: Which endorsement means more to Nevadan Republicans?
The Nevada Republican Party is the state’s affiliate to the national Republican Party. Its leaders, like Chairman Michael McDonald, are the state’s members on the Republican National Committee. Trump, however, is the unquestioned leader of the Republican Party and is expected to run for president again in 2024.
David Damore, chair of the department of political science at UNLV, thinks a Trump endorsement carries more weight for Nevadans. Trump’s decision to back the presumed frontrunners in both the state’s high-profile primaries — governor and Senate — instead of candidates who might be considered more Trumpian speaks to how much he wants to pad his win totals, Damore said.
“If Trump is picking likely winners who have fundraising advantages and, therefore, are better able to tout those endorsements, while their opponents who do not have as much cash to play with and cannot advertise their non-Trump endorsements as aggressively, then this would give the impression that the Trump endorsements carry more weight if his endorsed candidates win,” Damore wrote in an email.
Fundraising is driven by expectations for performance, which in turn shapes endorsements. Those cause a self-fulfilling prophecy when the candidates with the most money and the most high-profile endorsements win, he said.
Damore’s reasoning that Trump’s endorsement means the most can be backed up by a WPA Intelligence poll from late March that asked 404 Republican primary voters in Nevada which of the following describes themselves politically: “traditional Republican”; “Tea Party Republican”; “Trump Republican”; or “Libertarian Republican.”
Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed responded “Trump Republican” and 37% identified as a “traditional Republican.”
Mining vs. natives
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., has found herself caught in the middle of a political squabble between two groups she typically supports — Native Americans and Nevada’s miners.
There are 32 Indian reservations and colonies across Nevada, and Cortez Masto has been a reliable advocate for them on the federal level.
Last week, she cosponsored a bipartisan resolution that recognized Thursday as National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls.
At the same time, as a representative of a state with a long history of mining — Nevada isn’t called the Silver State for nothing — she has generally been pro-mining.
So, how does Cortez Masto balance her support for Nevada’s tribes, several of which are opposing different mining projects, with her support for the mining industry?
It hasn’t been so easy, lately.
People of Red Mountain, one of the opponents of a proposed lithium mine at Thacker Pass in Northern Nevada, contend the General Mining Law of 1872 needs to be reformed and that mining companies need more accountability.
The law allows mining companies to extract hard rock minerals without paying royalties to the federal government, unlike oil and gas companies that must pay royalties when operating on federal land.
A proposal to establish federal royalties between 4% and 8% on these mining operations was turned down last year in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Cortez Masto opposed the reform, saying the legislation would have had an unfair impact on Nevada, where most of the land is owned by the federal government, and would have created uncertainty for the industry.
“Senator Cortez Masto fights for all her constituents,” a spokesperson for her office wrote in an email to the Sun. “Working with Democrats and Republicans, she passed landmark legislation to address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, she has delivered federal funding to improve infrastructure, schools, and housing in our Native communities, and she stood up to her own party and blocked a reckless mining tax that would have threatened Nevada jobs.”
New legislation in the House of Representatives calls for something similar.
The mining industry, meanwhile, is spending $2.1 million this year — nearly twice what it spent last year — to lobby federal agencies and Congress, according to Rollcall.com.
Nevadans in Congress
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., helped lead a bipartisan group of colleagues in writing a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to expedite the administration’s investigation into solar panels and cells imported from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, according to a statement from Rosen’s office. Investigators are trying to determine whether China is circumventing tariffs by assembling the solar equipment thorughout Southeast Asia.
“Initiation of this investigation is already causing massive disruption in the solar industry, and it will severely harm American solar businesses and workers and increase costs for American families as long as it continues,” the senators wrote. “We strongly urge your administration to swiftly review the case and make an expedited preliminary determination. Such a determination should carefully consider the significant policy ramifications and reject the petitioner’s request for retroactivity.”
Also, Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., a member of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, last week sent a letter with Rep. Steve Cohen, R-Tenn., to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland expressing their concerns about recent reports of wild horses suffering from mysterious respiratory and neurological illnesses in Bureau of Land Management facilities, according to Titus’ office.
BLM conducted a preliminary investigation into the Cañon City facility in Colorado where wild horses have experienced nasal discharge, coughing, hypoxia and other respiratory issues.
“We urge the BLM to investigate the relationship between facility conditions and recent outbreaks,” the members wrote, “and consider halting further roundups until the safety of wild horses and burros can be guaranteed, both during the roundups and while they are corralled.”
Countdown
Days until early voting begins: 20
Days to primary: 36
