Nevada Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak addresses his Republican opponent in the upcoming midterm election, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, during a debate Sunday in Las Vegas. The two squared off on a number of issues, including taxes, education, former President Donald Trump and his successor President Joe Biden.
Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Not too long ago, Steve Sisolak and Joe Lombardo considered themselves friends.
Even though the men were from different political parties, each contributed to the other’s campaign — Sisolak backing the Republican Lombardo is his reelection bid to be Clark County sheriff, and Lombardo supporting Sisolak four years ago in his successful campaign for Nevada governor.
The friendship was a benefit to the community in the aftermath of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting when Sisolak — then the chairman of the Clark County Commission — and Lombardo worked side-by-side in bringing comfort and aid to the victims. They even launched a victims fund that raised millions of dollars.
But much has changed now that the two are rivals in the contest for Nevada governor. Early voting begins today ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm election.
Lombardo has earned the backing of conservatives far and wide, including that of former President Donald Trump.
“He’s changed,” Sisolak said of Lombardo, when the two debated this month. “He changed when he suddenly saw a political opportunity, and this was his vehicle to climb the political ladder. And he’s entitled to do that. But his priorities have changed in that time.”
For years, Lombardo downplayed Metro Police’s role in immigration policies and deportations, but has boasted since that 10,000 undocumented persons have been deported under his leadership. And after posting a photo of him receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, the image was removed six months later after his gubernatorial campaign began to gain momentum, as many Republicans opposed vaccine requirements.
The race is expected to be close, as a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed Lombardo one percentage point ahead of Sisolak. Lombardo also holds a slight edge in other polls — but virtually all of them within their respective margin of error.
Here is a closer look at these candidates:
Steve Sisolak
Party: Democrat
Hometown: Milwaukee
College: Bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a master’s in business administration from UNLV
Past experience: Owned a telemarketing firm that sold coffee cups, pens and promotional items to businesses. Sisolak was on the Nevada Board of Regents from 1999-2008, and served on the Clark County Commission from 2009 to 2019 (and became commission chairman in 2013).
Economy
While Nevada’s economy did suffer mightily during the pandemic — unemployment peaked at 28.5% in April 2020 — Sisolak touts the state’s rapid rebound as reason to be optimistic.
Unemployment sat at 4.4% as of August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the governor says Nevada has had one of the fastest rates of employment growth in the country.
Sisolak’s website highlights keeping Nevada a “low-tax” state, and diversifying the workforce so that future economic disruptions won’t have such a dragging effect on the state. To do that, Sisolak has pledged no new taxes and, like Lombardo, has called for reduced licensing fees and red tape to make it easier to start a small business.
In August, Sisolak’s administration announced it was cooperating with the nonprofit business incubator StartUpNV to invest millions into local startups in the form of venture capital. The program, helped by monies earmarked from the American Rescue Plan, is called the Battle Born Venture Program.
Schools
Sisolak cites education investments made over the past four years in facilities, teacher salaries, substitute licensing fees, student teacher stipends and making school meals free for all students, along with switching Nevada to a pupil-centered funding model, as just some of the proof that he’s pro-schools.
The Legislative Interim Finance Committee, for example, allocated $75.9 million in federal pandemic relief money this summer to extend the universal school meal program through this year. In 2019, Sisolak signed a bill giving teachers 3% cost-of-living raises — the Clark County School District followed by bringing up entry-level pay by as much as 16% for early career teachers.
Sisolak has also allocated some $200 million from the American Rescue Planto address learning loss caused by the pandemic, as well as additional resources for mental health, school safety and violence-reduction initiatives.
Public safety
Sisolak has endorsed legislation that sought to ban bump stock attachments that can alter the firing rate of semiautomatic firearms to shoot several rounds at a time. He’s also called for background checks for private party sales of guns. He received an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association in part because of these actions, and said on Twitter in May he’s “damn proud of it.”
Sisolak’s website stated he supports raises for state police officers, and has boasted that funding for state police has gone up 11% over the past three years.
The governor has also used this campaign to criticize an increase in crime under Lombardo’s watch, claiming homicides, property crime and carjackings have all increased.
Affordable housing
Sisolak in April announced the state had secured $500 million to help build 1,700 affordable housing units, as well as maintain 4,000 existing units and help retrofit homes owned by elders and disabled people to allow them to stay in place.
Dubbed the “Home Means Nevada” initiative, the money, which was also allocated from the American Rescue Plan, must be spent by 2025.
“We’re not going to have problems spending it by 2025. We’ve got an abundance of applications for affordable housing,” Sisolak said at a roundtable with construction groups. Despite the recent headway, projections show Nevada could use as many as 80,000 affordable housing units, he said.
That’s exacerbated the problem for Nevadans who want to become first-time homebuyers. They’re being priced out by buyers who have more cash on hand to offer for a prospective home, said Sisolak, but said rent control can be a tool to keep Nevadans from getting pushed out of areas being redeveloped.
Abortion
In 2019, Sisolak signed the Trust Nevada Women Act, which repealed antiquated criminal penalties the state had on the books since the 19th century, as well as required the physician performing the procedure to certify, in writing, the woman’s consent and establish the woman’s marital status and age before performing the abortion.
In that same session Sisolak signed an accompanying bill clarifying how state dollars could be used for family planning resources and allocated $6 million to fund services like contraception, maternal care, cancer screenings and STI prevention.
In 2021, he also signed into law a bill that allowed women to order birth control directly through a pharmacy.
At the Oct. 2 debate, he was pressed by the moderator on whether he supports any restrictions on abortions, and said he believes the decision for a woman to end a pregnancy should be between her and her doctor.
Piggybacking off his June order to protect in-state abortion providers and out-state abortion seekers, Sisolak said in August if reelected he would work with the legislature to pass a law with the same framework.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo makes a point during Sunday’s debate with Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, Oct. 2, 2022, in Las Vegas. Lombardo, the Republican nominee, is trying to unseat the Democratic incumbent in next month's election.
Joe Lombardo
Party: Republican
Hometown: Las Vegas
College: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in crisis management, both from UNLV
Past experience: Served in the U.S. Army, Army Reserve and U.S. National Guard in a span of eight years. Lombardo joined Metro Police in 1998, becoming a sergeant in 1996, a lieutenant in 2001, assistant sheriff in 2011 and sheriff in 2014. He has also served on boards of the LVMPD Foundation, Goodwill of Southern Nevada and the Make A Wish foundation, among others.
Economy
Lombardo references former President Ronald Reagan’s theory of “trickle-down” economics, a belief that by eliminating burdensome regulations and cutting taxes for business owners, those costs will be reinvested into companies to stimulate job growth and increase wages.
He stopped short of saying he would cut taxes, and vowed not to increase taxes at all.
“I’m telling you at this point, right here, in front of the audience and public viewers, I will not raise taxes. Never,” Lombardo said during his debate with Sisolak. “My position is that it flows downhill. You’re not hitting everyday citizens, but if you put it on businesses, then it does hit the everyday citizen.”
Lombardo hasn’t returned requests from the Sun for an interview.
Lombardo, like other Republicans, blames Sisolak for “draconian” business closures brought on by lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The resort corridor was shuttered for nearly three months before reopening with capacity limitations. Those limitations were also in place for small businesses, of which Lombardo says thousands statewide permanently went out of business during the closures.
Schools
Lombardo has often voiced support for school choice programs, which would allow tax dollars to be spent on students attending private and religious schools under voucher programs.
He argues it would allow students better access to education, and allow parents and educators more control over what’s taught in classrooms.
In the debate this month, the sheriff also called to raise pay for teachers across the state, and front-load per-pupil spending to emphasize reading by third grade and holding students back if that benchmark isn’t met.
“It’s a core responsibility of the government, education,” Lombardo said.
Public safety
Lombardo on his website indicates he will prioritize funding for the Nevada State Police Highway Patrol Division and revamp the department’s recruitment processes and training. He also claims Sisolak is “soft-on-crime” for legislation he supported, such as pardoning thousands with minor marijuana convictions.
The Nevada Police Union this week issued a vote of no confidence in Sisolak, citing a high rate of turnover caused by pay inequality and working conditions, as well as stalled collective bargaining talks with the state.
The vote, however, was not an endorsement for Lombardo. The union has not endorsed either.
Affordable housing
Lombardo suggests cutting red tape so developers can fast-track new projects, as well as work with state agencies to eliminate bottlenecks in the licensing process.
He would also work to implement “free market competition” to curb costs, but didn’t outline specifics.
The two also agree they would work with Nevada’s congressional delegation to help buy land from the Bureau of Land Management, a branch of the U.S. Department of Interior that owns more than 85% of Nevada’s land. In a forum with construction and homebuilding leaders in September, Lombardo said he was against rent control.
Lombardo opposes project labor agreements, which serve as agreements establishing work terms and conditions for a specific project.
Guns
Lombardo is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, but supports expanded background checks because they “enhance safety and maintain law and order,” according to his website.
Background checks, he says, should be efficient, cheap and serve the sole purpose of preventing “criminals and those struggling with mental illness” from accessing firearms.
The sheriff also touts on his site he helped eliminate Clark County’s gun registry in 2015, and supports removing Nevada’s “red flag” law, which allows individuals to file temporary restraining orders that would allow the state to temporarily confiscate a person’s firearm if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others.
Lombardo is also against passing legislation restricting limits on high-capacity magazines, and vowed to veto legislation that would prohibit the purchase of ghost gun kits.
Abortion
Lombardo is a self-proclaimed pro-life Catholic, and states on his website he will “always govern as a pro-life governor.”
Nevada is one of a handful of states that has the right to abortion up to 24 weeks gestation due to a referendum passed by voters in the 1990s. That could only be reversed if a federal law with increased restrictions is passed, or if Nevadans hold another referendum.
