Voting aside, Lombardo confident ‘this primary is over’

By Jessica Hill

Sunday, May 29, 2022 | 2 a.m.

At the end of a debate of the five leading GOP candidates in the Nevada gubernatorial race, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo — the presumed frontrunner — closed with a proclamation that the race was over.

“For practical purposes, this primary is over,” Lombardo said at the end of the debate Wednesday, citing his ability to “weather attacks” from his Republican opponents as well as from Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s campaign. He also bragged about his lead in the polls, his endorsement from President Donald Trump and having a fundraising edge on his competitors

Lombardo’s opponents took turns criticizing him.

Former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller brought up Lombardo’s previous support for Sisolak’s campaign, and attorney Joey Gilbert called Lombardo “Sanctuary Joe,” criticizing him for Metro Police’s relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

With just a little more than two weeks to go until the primary, the candidates touched on the several big issues: how to prevent mass shootings, how to curb the water crisis, what immigration measures they would take, how to fix Clark County School District, and what kind of abortion restrictions, if any, they would support in Nevada.

In light of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, gun control and the prevention of mass shootings was at the forefront.

Lombardo, who was sheriff during the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip, said he did not support constitutional carry, which would allow Nevadans to carry concealed handguns without a permit.

He said training should go along with getting a gun, and he supports mental evaluations and regular background checks for gun purchasers.

Others weren’t as progressive, including Gilbert who said, “We have enough gun laws and this always seems to happen in gun-free zones. We need more involvement from the parents. … This is a mental health issue, and gun laws aren’t going to solve it.”

On immigration, the candidates were asked if they would send the Nevada National Guard to help secure the southern U.S. border. With the exception of Lombardo, they all said yes.

“There’s a finite amount of money,” Lombardo said. “If you deploy them to the border, that money would dry up quickly and prevent them from responding to any crisis within the borders of our state.”

He also rebutted attacks on claims that he made Clark County a sanctuary city, saying the Nevada Legislature makes such decisions, and the Legislature has not identified any part of the state as a sanctuary city.

The department still works with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but it did lose a lawsuit involving the ACLU and lost access to the federal database of illegal immigrants, he said.

His opponents’ criticisms aren’t entirely off-base. Depending on the source, some do consider Clark County an immigration sanctuary. The Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, research organization, for instance, labels the county as a sanctuary.

On abortion, Heller accused Gilbert and Lombardo of being “pro-choice” after Gilbert said that while he is against abortion, he understood that Nevada was pro-choice and a change in state laws would have to come from the voters. Lombardo said he would support additional abortion restrictions and would look at everything through a “pro-life lens,” but he did not give specifics on what kind of restrictions he would approve.

“I want Nevada to be a pro-life state,” Heller said. “I don’t want to make it a sanctuary state for abortions. That cannot happen. I will keep that from happening.”

North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee said he is was against abortion but said, “if it’s rape or incest, that’s a family issue.”

Nohra, who fought in the civil war in Lebanon said that “when you’ve taken lives and seen lives taken, you become pro-life.”

The moderators asked Lee, whose biggest talking points were about the success he’s had governing North Las Vegas, why he did not speak out against the racist presentation slide that was shown at a concealed carry weapons training that he attended last month. Lee said he spoke with the instructor privately and told him he should not have done that.

“It’s not my job to try to run him out of business,” Lee said.

Rural internet access

Gov. Steve Sisolak last week launched the first phase of the “High Speed NV” initiative that will invest $200 million in closing the digital divide between rural and urban areas.

Using a combination of state and federal funds from the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the initiative aims to create “universal, scalable and affordable internet access for all” by 2029, according to a statement from Sisolak’s office.

“The pandemic shone a bright light on issues that existed long before COVID-19,” Sisolak said in the statement. “In the past two years, we’ve seen just how important equitable access to high-speed, reliable internet is for work, education, health care and civic participation. We cannot leave any community behind, urban or rural, as we work to close the digital divide.”

The governor’s office said that as many as 450,000 Nevadans were considered underserved for high speed internet, according to the Office of Science, Innovation and Technology.

Banning the dead

Former Nevada U.S. Sen. Harry Reid isn’t welcome in Russia. Same for former Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Orrin Hatch of Utah.

All three are deceased, but they were still included on Russia’s recently published list of 963 U.S. notables and leading officials permanently barred from entering the country.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement said the ban was in response to “constantly imposed anti-Russian sanctions,” according to Reuters. Russia has faced sanctions from the U.S. and other countries over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

All of the members of Nevada’s federal delegation were also named on the list.

“If this is what I get for standing up to a brutal dictator who launches an unjust war and commits war crimes against the innocent people of Ukraine, then I’ll wear this sanction from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin as a badge of honor,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., wrote in a Twitter post.

The list also includes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and actor Morgan Freeman, who in 2017 accused Russia of “cyber warfare to attack democracies around the world.”

It doesn’t include former President Donald Trump, who was friendly with Putin, or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Nevadans in Congress

Rosen and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., visited Metro Police’s reality-based training center on Friday in northeast Las Vegas, meeting with law enforcement and touring the remodeled facility.

Nevada Joint Training Center, a place for first responders to train, received $3 million in federal funds for technology and training equipment, Cortez Masto’s office said in a statement.

The 164,000-square-foot includes an “indoor, climate and environmentally controlled tactical training village” where officers can simulate scenarios they’d enter in the field, including mass shootings.

In other news from our federal delegation last week, Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., hosted the Committee on Homeland Security for a field hearing last week at Harry Reid International Airport to look at Homeland Security efforts to improve processing for international travelers, Titus’ office said in a statement.

Titus, who is chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, said in a statement that as the country bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic, it was important to make sure no tourist was discouraged from visiting because of long wait times or processing delays going through U.S. Customs.

“Despite low travel rates due to the pandemic, air travel is making a significant comeback, particularly as we approach the summer months,” Titus said in the statement. “As these numbers spike, we must continue to support our travel industry so that tourists leave our city with positive travel experiences, a sense of trust in our security processing, and a desire to come visit again.”

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., announced Thursday that Nevada would receive more than $3.3 million in grant funding from the Department of Education for its Upward Bound programs.

Upward Bound programs provide support to high school students from low-income families or from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree, Lee’s office said in a statement. The goals of the program are to increase high school graduation rates and enrollment rates at universities and colleges.

“Every student deserves the chance to pursue higher education opportunities,” Lee said in the statement “and Nevada’s Upward Bound programs are helping our underserved students achieve success every single day.”

Countdown

Early voting: Started Saturday

Days to primary: 16

Days to midterm: 162