Nevada Election Results

The Washington Post reported on Monday that nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud — Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.

Senior counselor Matthew Friedrich, turned over notes to Congress that detailed a telephone conversation about voter fraud with another Justice official, Benton Campbell, chief of staff for the Criminal Division.

The notes show that Campbell identified Nevada as a problem district. Daniel G. Bogden of Las Vegas was among the nine U.S. attorneys known to have been removed from their jobs last year.

Rick Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School who runs an election law blog, said that “there’s no question that Karl Rove and other political operatives” urged Justice officials to apply pressure on U.S. attorneys to pursue voter-fraud allegations in parts of the country that were critical to the GOP.

Hasen said it remains unclear, however, “whether they believed there was a lot of fraud and U.S. attorneys would ferret it out, or whether they believed there wasn’t a lot of fraud but the allegations would serve political purposes.”

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering to replace U.S. attorneys viewed as weak on voter fraud, from state Republican parties to the White House, is one element of a nationwide partisan brawl over voting rights in recent years. Ever since the contested 2000 presidential election, which ended in a Florida recount and intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, both political parties have attempted to use election law to tip close contests to their advantage.

Possible voter fraud in Nevada. I can’t believe it. It’s not like we live in a state where Clark County commissioners would give key employer status to Vinnie Faraci who is going to prison later this year–after several commissioners received jail sentences for taking bribes over another strip club incident; or the Las Vegas city council or its mayor, Oscar Goodman, would continue to support mob run businesses, such as Crazy Horse Too; or judges would sit on cases involving business partners; or Governor Gibbons would be under investigation for possibly taking favors, including an alleged $100,000, to award contracts to a friend while Gibbons was in Congress. I mean…I would just be shocked!

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Casino City Times reported that Las Vegas City Council members received more than $80,000 in contributions from casino operators in 2006, according to a conservative estimate based on campaign finance reports.

Mayor Oscar Goodman led the pack with $42,000 in casino donations. About half, $20,000, came in the form of two $10,000 contributions from Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns three downtown casinos. Goodman logged $10,000 from Boyd on Oct. 13 and $10,000 from the Boyd-owned California on the same day.

Council member Gary Reese reported $35,000 in contributions from casinos. Station Casinos, Boyd subsidiary Coast Casinos, El Cortez and Four Queens were among the contributors. Council member Lois Tarkanian received $5,000, a contribution from Station Casinos she reported in January.

Council members Steve Ross, Steven Wolfson and Larry Brown didn’t report any casino money in 2006.

Of course, in today’s Las Vegas that has been “cleaned up” since the good old days, if a bag of cash ever fell on an office floor, I’m sure it would be spent, I mean, reported immediately.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Secretary of State Office has published the Nevada results of the 2006 midterm election and, by and large, Nevada is a Red stronghold which plans to stay that way a while longer, even if the margin is narrowing.

The Short of the major Races:

Ensign(R) took the Senate seat.
In the House of Representatives Shelly Berkley(D),Dean Heller(R) and Jon Porter(R) (Porter with 48.44% to Tessa Hafen’s 46.59%) took the Seats.

Our new Governor Jim Gibbons survived the trio of scandals to take a narrow victor with 47% over Titus with only 44%. Brian Krolicki(R) is his Lieutenant.

Democrats won big with Ross Miller(D) over Danny Tarkanian for Secretary of State and Kate Marshall(D) as State Treasurer.

For the State Ballot Measure Questions the short of it is:

1. Education First – YES
2. Eminent Domain modification – YES*
3. REMOVED
4. Smoking Question the Bar and Taverns backed – NO
5. Smoking Ban the health industry backed – YES
6. Minimum Wage Increase – YES
7. Legalize Marijuana – NO
8. Used vehicle tax exemption – YES*
9. Constitution Alteration to the appointment of University Regents – NO? (No 50.67% YES 49.33)
10. Allow the legislature to call itself – NO
11. Increase to Pay for the legislature – NO

For the long of it I’ve created a color coded Nevada State Question voting chart with the early voting data from the Sec of State website with the winning answer color coded for each county, several of the question, such as #4 had a significant split between the rural and urban voting blocks.

*I believe the voters were duped into passing an amendment that will in fact benefit a small group rather then the majority… time will tell, I provided some of my reasoning for this earlier and will address these questions that passed at greater length in the future.

Posted by pokerprof at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)