Nevada GOP has fallen far in short time since Sandoval was its leader

Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021 | 2 a.m.

For an idea of how deeply and quickly the Republican Party has deteriorated into extremism, consider the days when Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval was the state GOP’s leading figure and its top national star.

It was just six years ago — in 2015, a year after Sandoval won re-election with a staggering 70.5% of the vote — that there was serious talk of him being a presidential candidate in 2016. Three years earlier, Sandoval had been considered for the Republican ticket as a vice president.

And why not? Sandoval was golden at the time. A former federal district judge, his image as an even-handed, moderate, poised leader resonated with Nevadans, as reflected in his approval ratings that routinely soared over 65%. The national GOP, which at that time was interested in attracting moderates and voters of color, was attracted to Sandoval’s across-the-board popularity among Nevadans and his Hispanic heritage.

Here was a Republican governor who was pro-choice, openly supported the Dream Act and a general loosening of immigration laws, and spearheaded a tax increase for a massive investment in education. And he not only had a place in the Republican Party, but an up-and-comer role in it.

Then came Donald Trump, and everything changed.

To see how much it changed, look at the race for the Republican nomination for Nevada governor in 2022.

Instead of a Sandoval, we have one candidate who is accused of assaulting one of her colleagues on the Las Vegas City Council, is under investigation by the FBI for possible campaign finance violations, has openly supported the radical Bundy family and its gang of militia groups in Nevada and Oregon, and has made a series of profane and racist remarks in public for which she was forced to apologize, among other things.

And that candidate, Michele Fiore, has a legitimate chance of winning Trump’s endorsement and drawing support from extremist base voters.

Joining her is a large cast of other candidates sounding the sour notes of today’s extremist GOP — spinning out the Big Lie, vilifying immigrants, attacking vaccination and mask mandates, vowing to abolish critical race theory (no matter that it’s not being taught in Nevada’s public schools), etc.

Here are six candidates who either embrace the Big Lie or refuse to say whether they believe Joe Biden is the rightfully elected president of the United States. Not a single one has contradicted the GOP’s dangerous stances on COVID-19 precautions or anti-vaccination rhetoric within the party.

One, former Sen. Dean Heller, has expressed support for Texas’ prohibitive abortion law. One is an anti-vaccine former boxer who spoke at a rally near the Capitol before the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Another, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, disgraced himself by not condemning the violent right-wing groups that have been welcomed into the Nevada GOP, leaving Southern Nevadans to wonder whether their sheriff will protect and serve everyone in our community regardless of political persuasion.

The current GOP side of the race looks like it will be a sprint to the bottom, with each candidate trying to prove he or she lives closest to the dark heart of the party’s current “values.” Not one has broken away to appeal to the responsible, moderate members of the party, who deserve better candidates. So do all Nevadans, for that matter.

Any support of the Big Lie, whether direct or tacit, is an indication that a candidate is a threat to free and fair elections in Nevada, as well as voters’ access to the polls. Especially for candidates currently holding office, Nevadans deserve to know that they’ll protect the vote here.

The same goes for protecting the immigrant families who are an integral part of our communities and our economy, for protecting the population at large by supporting reasonable and responsible gun safety legislation, for protecting gender and LGBT equality, and more.

These candidates represent a risk to all of this.

The governor’s race isn’t the only place where this threat rears its head. U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt is another Republican who exemplifies the party’s decline.

Laxalt, who has already drawn Trump’s endorsement, took the point on the former president’s attempt to overturn the election through the courts, filing bogus lawsuit after bogus lawsuit. Yet despite going O-fer in his legal challenges and failing to produce any credible evidence of meaningful voting fraud, he’s still hanging his election bid on the Big Lie.

That’s repulsive. The false claims of election rigging subject good people — the voting officials and volunteers whose work resulted in a free and fair election in 2020 — to ongoing risk of threats and intimidation. It’s even worse that Laxalt, Nevada’s attorney general during Sandoval’s second term, once swore an oath to protect the state constitution and the people of Nevada.

Against all of this ugliness, it seems like a lifetime ago when Sandoval was serving the people of Nevada — all of the people of Nevada — with decorum and judiciousness.

He didn’t promote conspiracy theories. He didn’t vilify immigrants. (To the contrary, he supported things like driver authorization cards for undocumented immigrants and funding for English-language learner programs.) He didn’t attack the vote. He didn’t call names or use desultory language. He didn’t label his political opponents enemies of the people or, worse, get accused of beating them up.

His decisions didn’t make everybody happy, because that’s not the way it works in a two-party system, but he went about his business honorably.

At one time, that made him a rising star nationally in the Republican Party.

But today, he’s serving as the president of UNR and the position he used to hold is being sought by a group of candidates who don’t deserve it.

That’s how far things have devolved for the GOP.