Governor

By Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Matt Griffin is leaving his post next month to return to private law practice with the Capitol Company, Secretary of State Ross Miller said today.
Miller appointed Griffin as his elections deputy when he took office in January 2007.

CARSON CITY – Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval today said he is disappointed with an order from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel dismissing Nevada’s legal challenges to the high level nuclear waste repository proposed for Yucca Mountain.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Secretary of State Ross Miller said today an audit released last week examining current and former state employees winning contracts with state agencies contained “alarming findings.”

By Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Lobbyists and policy-makers who can’t wait to get a jump on the 2011 legislative session can start their reading assignments now.
Forty-four bills have already been drafted and pre-filed on the Legislature’s website in advance of the session that will begin Feb. 7.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Long-time Republican political operative Sig Rogich said today that Sarah Palin is not a viable candidate for president in 2012.
Rogich, who was involved in the campaigns of Ronald Reagan and both Bush presidents, said Palin, a Tea Party favorite and former Republican Alaska governor, is unelectable.

By Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Chancellor Dan Klaich has announced the formation of a new lobbying team that will represent the Nevada System of Higher Education free of charge at the 2011 legislative session.
The team will be chaired by former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan and will include Alfredo Alonso, Michael Hillerby, Rose McKinney-James, Keith Lee, John Pappageorge and The Capitol Company.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A panel of private sector fiscal experts today projected the Nevada state general fund will have about $5.3 billion in tax revenues to spend on government services for the next two years.
The Nevada Economic Forum spent the day making projections for gaming, sales, business and other major tax revenues for use by Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval and the Legislature in crafting a balanced budget for the two years beginning July 1, 2011.

CARSON CITY — Wally Murray, president and CEO of Greater Nevada Credit Union was honored as the outgoing Nevada Credit Union League board chairman during the League’s recent annual meeting and convention.

During the convention, the Nevada Credit Union League received a national award for its outstanding advocacy efforts. Greater Nevada Credit Union was also recognized by the California and Nevada Credit Union League and awarded Nevada Credit Union Advocate of the Year.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval said today he will make it a priority as governor to encourage businesses to relocate to Nevada from neighboring states where taxes have been raised to deal with the economic slowdown.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s public employee retirement system will require increased contributions from the state and local governments next year to maintain the long-term financial health of the defined benefit plan, the board overseeing the program was told today.

By Nevada News Bureau staff
CARSON CITY – The private attorney working on Nevada’s challenge to the new national health care law says a federal judge in Florida should rule on the case by January, setting the stage for an appeal that ultimately is expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

I turned off the TV late last night, unable to withstand another minute of talking head after talking head trying to come up with a narrative for this election.

For some reason, it seems they think that their audience is comprised of 6-year-olds who can't comprehend anything that isn't force-fed to them in tiny, single-concept bites.

Was it the NObama election? Was the the fiery phoenix of the Tea Party? Was it creeping socialism, or simple arrogance? What about government spending? Or was it just time to throw the bums out?

Carson City Republican Pete Livermore has won the Nevada Assembly District 40 race against Democrat Robin Williamson, costing the party a crucial seat against Republican Governor-elect Brian Sandoval.

Livermore received 51.42 percent of the vote in Carson City and within a sliver of Washoe Valley. Williamson had 48.58 percent of the vote.

"I'm humbled and grateful that so many have shown trust for me," Livermore said. "I'm eager to get started so we can get people back to work."

Republican Steve Martin, whose neck-and-neck race with incumbent state Treasurer Kate Marshall will be decided Tuesday, recently answered some questions about his candidacy in an e-interview with the Nevada News Bureau.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Senate Democrats are running a slate of candidates across the state in the hopes of winning a 14-seat, veto-proof majority for the upcoming 2011 session.
But Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said he does not expect it to happen, and he has not discounted the possibility of the GOP winning the majority.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The question of how well the Gibbons administration has done in quickly and efficiently deploying Nevada’s share of stimulus dollars is difficult to quantify.

By Nevada News Bureau staff
CARSON CITY – A survey of more than 600 chief executive officers who rated the best and worst states for business in 2010 has scored Nevada highly at fifth place, an improvement of one spot over 2009.

By Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons has ordered the flag at the state Capitol Building to be flown at half staff today to honor United States Marine Corps Sgt. Frank Zaehringer III.

Dozens of Nevada’s nonprofit groups, service providers and others met this week in Reno and Las Vegas to consider the looming threat of deep cuts to the state budget cuts which threaten to eliminate or dramatically reduce health care, education, and human services.

Service agency and nonprofit directors from Lyon and Storey counties attended the Monday meeting, hoping for insights on how to plan for the upcoming deep cuts to Nevada’s public education, health and social services that will hit the rural areas especially hard.

(Updated at 11:45 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2010, to include Gov. Gibbons comments.)
Questionable attack ads and the role of the federal government in job creation were the top issues in an energized debate Wednesday between Rep. Dina Titus and Republican challenger Joe Heck in one of the most closely watched house races of the Nov. 2 general election.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Service
A debate today among the three candidates for Nevada attorney general focused on a disputed ad discussing a decades old criminal conviction of the Republican seeking the post and allegations of political favoritism by the incumbent, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.

Hundreds made their way to the Carson City Courthouse today, the first day for early voting in Nevada.

A record number of people could be voting in this election, said Alan Glover, Carson City Clerk-Recorder.

"I think it's going to be high again, just like 08. I see maybe a 90 percent turnout when this is done," Glover said. "I think the Senate race is cranking them out."

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A national group that supports judicial restraint is opposing a measure on the Nevada ballot to change the way judges are selected from direct elections to appointment and retention.
The Judicial Crisis Network also presented a survey of Nevada voters’ views on the change that shows a majority oppose the idea of appointing instead of electing members of the state Supreme court.

By Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is joining a 49-state bipartisan mortgage foreclosure working group as part of a coordinated national effort by states to review the practice of so-called “robo-signingâ€� within the mortgage servicing industry.

Those registered voters who don't want to wait until Election Day, Nov. 2, to cast their ballots can do so daily beginning Saturday and ending Oct. 29.
Voters can go to the Carson City Courthouse, 885 E. Musser Street to vote. The hours are as follows:
Saturday, Oct. 16 and Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Friday, Oct. 18-22, and Oct. 25-29, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Click here for more information.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The neighborhoods of this capital city and the Washoe Valley just to the north are ground zero for one of the most fiercely contested state legislative races in Nevada this year.
Potentially at stake is the makeup of the 42-member Assembly and whether Democrats can sustain their dominance of the lower house with a 28-member, veto-proof majority.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
Taxes, the state budget and a looming revenue shortfall in 2011 took center stage Thursday in the second debate between the two major party candidates for Nevada governor.

CARSON CITY – An investigation into the conduct of the former executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, sought by a state lawmaker after questions were raised about salary increases he awarded himself on the job, remains unresolved after more than two years.
A Nevada News Bureau public records request sent to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office generated a brief response saying the matter regarding Bob Loux was still under investigation and no information was available for release.

CARSON CITY – State Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio said today he will make an endorsement in the neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race within the next few days.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – With the Nevada campaign season kicking into high gear in the four weeks remaining before election day, candidates and their supporters are also starting to focus on what could mean the difference between victory and defeat: voter turnout.