2012 Election

Nevada Democratic Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson resigned from his legislative seat on Tuesday in a tear-filled speech on the Senate floor, announcing he would be pleading guilty to federal charges of misappropriation of campaign funds for personal use and taking “full responsibility” for his actions.

While Carson City Library staff members are celebrating being a finalist for the nation’s most prestigious library award, they are also taking note of how they got here.

While Carson City Library staff members are celebrating being a finalist for the nation’s most prestigious library award, they are also taking note of how they got here.

The League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada, in conjunction with Sierra Nevada Forums and American Association of University Women, has announced a series of election forums to be held Sept. 22 through Sept. 30 in Carson City. The forums will present both candidates for races and ballot proposition questions that will be on the ballot for the general election on November 4. The public is invited to attend these forums, which will be held at the Carson City Community Center, Sierra Room. Doors open at 5:30 and the forum begins at 6:00 each evening.

A petition representing over 213 concerned Carson City constituents (including 8 business owners) and 1661 other Nevada residents was presented to the Carson City Board of Supervisors on Thursday, December 6.

The petition asks the Board to join over 300 cities and 11 states in passing a resolution that supports a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision which opened the flood gates for unlimited outside spending in all political elections.

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s unemployment rate ticked up one-tenth of a percentage point to 12.1 percent in August from July, the second month of increases in the jobless rate after hitting a three-year low in May, a state agency reported today.

CARSON CITY – The House Ethics Committee announced today that it has established an investigative subcommittee to review ethics questions raised about Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and whether she inappropriately furthered the business interests of her husband, Dr. Larry Lehrner.

The committee voted unanimously on June 29 to establish the subcommittee.

CARSON CITY – Republican candidates have big leads in fundraising in four of five seats considered critical to control of the state Senate in the 2013 legislative session, with a slight monetary advantage in the fifth, according to campaign contribution reports filed this week.

Both Democrat and Republican caucus leaders are fighting hard to win the seats to control the 21-member house where Democrats now lead 11-10.

CARSON CITY – They have names like “A Better Nevada PAC”, “A Bolder Nevada” and “The Nevada Hispanic Legislative Caucus”.

They are all political action committees formed or renewed by state lawmakers this year to help promote their parties, push their candidates and protect their ranks in an effort to maintain and/or win control of the Assembly and Senate.

CARSON CITY – After months of prognostications and political maneuvering, Nevada’s 2012 election season crystallized today as the state’s two-week filing period for public office came to a close.

Next up: A June 12 primary followed by the Nov. 6 general election, which will see a lengthy ballot topped by the presidential race, a competitive U.S. Senate race and four congressional contests.

Also at stake is control of the state Legislature, particularly the state Senate, where Democrats have a razor thin 11-10 majority.

CARSON CITY – There was a flurry of candidates filing for office and some political maneuvering today as Nevada’s 2012 election season officially got under way.

Over 90 candidates filed for a variety of offices in Clark County.

Another 17 filed with the Secretary of State’s office and others filed in their respective counties around the state.

CARSON CITY – A conservative Nevada think tank today published a guide for policymakers and the public on issues ranging from the state spending to public education to tax policy.

The 88-page sourcebook, called “Solutions 2013” is a compilation of research and policy recommendations from the Nevada Policy Research Institute addressing 39 different subject areas.

CARSON CITY – For years the Nevada state Senate was a pretty stable place, with many lawmakers serving for decades.

From one election cycle to the next, the names and faces in the 21-member body didn’t change very often.

That reality was altered in a big way when term limits finally began to have an impact on the state Legislature starting in 2010.

CARSON CITY – With the potential for several vacancies within the state District Court system in the 2012 election year, the Secretary of State’s Office has issued a legal interpretation to address the issue of nominating candidates to vacated seats and to clarify questions about the process.

At least one District Court judicial seat in Clark County, and possibly more, could soon be vacant.

CARSON CITY – Nearly 250 capital city Democrats took time out today to participate in the party caucus, supporting President Barack Obama in a process that held no surprises for the party faithful.

The caucus at the Carson City Middle School was one of 118 held around Nevada today as the state Democrat Party gears up for the 2012 election.

CARSON CITY – Reno Republican Assemblyman Pat Hickey was unanimously elected today to be the new GOP Assembly Caucus Leader.

The former minority Leader, Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, stepped down because of his intention to run for the Nevada State Senate in District 19.

Assembly Republicans currently hold 16 seats in the 42-member Assembly, while Democrats control 26 seats.

Hickey, who represents District 25 in Reno, returned to the Assembly in 2010 after an absence of several years.

CARSON CITY – The business of drawing new political boundaries will now get under way by three court-appointed special masters following two days of public hearings on what Nevada’s legislative and congressional districts should look like for the next decade.
The clock is ticking.

CARSON CITY – The results of the vote in the special election in the 2nd Congressional District went the way that most pundits had predicted: Republican and former state Sen. Mark Amodei will assume the seat vacated with the appointment of Dean Heller to the U.S. Senate.

Republican Sen. Dean Heller fired back Wednesday at his likely opponent in the 2012 election, denying he ever voted to eliminate Social Security or Medicare.Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., made those...

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, says he wishes the judge who ruled in the second congressional special election case had disclosed business interests he shared with Republican candidate Mark Amodei.

CARSON CITY – Assembly Speaker and announced candidate for Congress John Oceguera acknowledged today that a number of Democrats are seeking seats in the House of Representatives in the 2012 election, and that hopefully any costly primary battles can be avoided.

CARSON CITY – Term limited Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, today announced he will run for Congress in one of four districts that have yet to be finalized in Nevada’s contested redistricting process.
Oceguera, a native fourth-generation Nevadan, said he wants to bring his skills in finding compromise on difficult issues honed in the Nevada Legislature over the past nearly dozen years to the House of Representatives.

CARSON CITY – Efforts to resolve Nevada’s redistricting impasse remain a work in progress after a proposal floated Tuesday by a Carson City judge to use county election officials to draw new legislative and congressional lines ran into some opposition.
The job of redrawing Nevada’s political lines has fallen to District Judge James Todd Russell after two Democrat-approved redistricting plans were vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval. Sandoval vetoed the measures after concluding the proposals did not follow the federal Voting Rights Act.

CARSON CITY — Since the governor did not like their last redistricting plan, Democrats are trying again with revisions to their redistricting maps.
Gov. Brian Sandoval earlier vetoed the Democratic plan for the boundaries of political districts, which must be redrawn every 10 years according to U.S. Census demographic data.

RENO — Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she is “taking the pulse” of Reno this week as she considers a bid for Republican Sen. John Ensign’s seat in the 2012 election.
She told Sam Shad and Ray Hagar on Nevada NewsMakers today that she is raising campaign money, but she said the money is for her re-election bid in Congress. For now.

I sent an email to all of the members of the Carson City Board of Supervisors for their reaction to the initiative petition filed on Friday to put the Nugget Project to a vote in 2012.

We now have responses from the four supervisors, and I just added Mayor Bob Crowell's comment below.