Nevada Confidential

   Since 2005, Nevada Confidential has been keeping you posted on who is talking about running and who others are talking about as candidates for office here in Nevada.

   When this year’s legislative session ended, we published our first take on who might be running in 2010.  Our early speculation was reasonably accurate on many races and rather wrong on others.  Like, who would have guessed there would be 15 announced candidates against Harry Reid by the end of the year?  Plus, we were rather certain Barbra Buckley would run for Governor and that Brian Sandoval wouldn’t.  So, based on that experience, you can be near certain that the list below will NOT be accurate after the filing deadlines.

   Those listed in Bold have announced they are a candidate and/or formed an official campaign committee.  The name of a candidate usually contains a link to her or his campaign website.

   As you will see, these folks who have publically committed to run are about the only ones on this new list.  We now have such a plethora of read-deal candidates; there is simply not much room for idle speculation.  Well, apart from when it is related to Mayor Oscar Goodman.  Why the exception?  Because: (1) he’s Oscar Goodman; and (2) whether he takes advantage of it or not, he has the unique opportunity this year to dramatically change politics in Nevada & nationally.

   Stay tuned for all the exciting details. If you are aware of others who should be on this list, please post a comment below – or drop us an email.

CONGRESS

United States Senate

2004: Sen. Harry Reid (D) 61%, Richard Ziser (R) 35% 

Democrats

• U.S. Senator Harry Reid

Republicans 

• Sharron Angle  - Ex-State Assemblywoman for 4 terms, Businesswoman
• Mark E. Amodei – State Senator
• John Chachas - Investment Banker
• Greg Dagani – Ex State Board of Education member
• Chuck Flume – Dentist
• Chuck Kozak - Attorney
• Sue Lowden – Ex-State GOP Chair, Ex-State Sen. & Businesswoman
• Mark Noonan - Retired
• Bill Parson – Former Senior Project Manager, Nevada Test Site
• Terry Suominen – Businessperson
• Danny Tarkanian – Businessperson and ‘06 GOP nominee for Sec of State
• Robin L. Titus  – Physician
• Mike Wiley - Ex-Radio Talk Show Host, Ex-Democrat & '94 Candidate in Florida

Libertarians  

• Jim Duensing - Radio Talk Show Host, Attorney & Frequent Candidate

 Independents

• Jeff Durbin – Businessperson

1st Congressional District

2008: Rep. Shelley Berkley (D) 68%, Kenneth Wegner (R) 28% 

Democrats

• Congresswoman Shelley Berkley

Republicans

• Craig Lake – Retail Store Owner
• Kenneth Wegner – 2008 GOP nominee

Independents

 2nd Congressional District

2008: Rep. Dean Heller (R) 52%, Jill Derby (D) 41% 

Democrats

• Paul Reeves - Concert Organizer
• Jack Schofield - Ex-State Sen., Ex-State Rep., Developer, Educator & WWII Veteran
• Dems & progressives still openly recruiting for a candidate

Republicans

• Congressman Dean Heller

Independents

3rd Congressional District

2008: Dina Titus (D) 47%, Rep. Jon Porter (R) 42%

Democrats

• Congresswoman Dina Titus
• Shanna Phillips

Republicans

• Joe Heck -  Ex-State Sen., Physician & Iraq War Veteran 
• Edward S. Bridges II  - Retired Air Force Colonel
• Rob Lauer – Real Estate Investor
• Eleanor "Ellie" Ahern - Independent Telecommunications Professional & Cong. Ron Paul supporter

Independents

• Brad Lord-Leutwyler -  Professor of Logic and Critical Thought at UNLV

STATE-WIDE OFFICES

Governor

Democrats

• Rory Reid - Clark County Commission Chair
• Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman

          Note:  Goodman is currently a registered Democrat.  If that does not change in December 2009, he will only be eligible to run for office in 2010 as a Democrat.

Republicans

• Governor Jim Gibbons
• Mike Montandon  - North Las Vegas Mayor & Banker
• Brian Sandoval - -Ex-US District Court Judge, Ex-Attorney General & Ex-State Assemblyman

Independents

• Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman
• Chrissy Israel Mazzeo - former Wynn Las Vegas cocktail waitress

Lieutenant Governor

Democrats

• Jessica Sferrazza - Reno Councilwoman
• Robert Randazzo – Corporate Management Company Owner
• Robert E. (Bob) Goodman – Former Dir of NV Dept of Economic Dev
• Robert 'Bob' Unger - ’06 Dem nominee for LtGov
• Steven Horsford - State Senator
• Ruben Kihuen - State Assemblyperson 
• Plus all those mentioned above as possible candidates for Governor

 Republicans

• Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki
• Barbara Lee Woollen - came in 2^nd in ’06 GOP Primary for Lt. Gov.
• Plus all those mentioned as possible candidates for Governor on that page

 Independents

• Robert "Bob" Cashell – Mayor of Reno as possible running-mate for Oscar Goodman

Secretary of State

Democrats

• Secretary of State Ross Miller

Republicans

• Brian Scroggins – Outdoor Sign Contractor & former Clark County Republican Party Chairman who came in 2^nd in ’06 GOP Primary for SoS

Independents

Attorney General

Democrats

• Attorney General Catherine Cortez-Masto

Republicans

Independents

State Treasurer

Democrats

• State Treasurer Kate Marshall

Republicans

Independents

State Controller

Democrats

• State Controller Kim Wallin

Republicans

Independents

Danny Tarkanian has unofficially announced his candidacy to challenge Democrat Harry Reid in next year's U.S. Senate race. He will launch his campaign Monday in Las Vegas.

Tarkanian ran unsuccessfully in 2006 for secretary of state, losing to Democrat Ross Miller.

In 2004, he ran for the State Senate and lost to incumbent Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas. Tarkanian sued Schneider for civil libel and slander over campaign materials, and a jury last week ruled in his favor. Schneider has since agreed to settle the case for $150,000.

Tarkanian is, of course, the son of former basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian

    Not long ago, we routinely patted ourselves on the back when yet another national report was released claiming Nevada was the best – or, at least, one of the best – places in the U.S. to do business.

    The Chamber & NDA would glow and pose for pictures; politicians issued news releases taking credit; everything seemed right with the world (even though some of us had a nagging uneasiness because we couldn’t actually see all this new business growth the rankings were describing)

    A credible new survey is out today (“America’s Top States for Business ‘09”) that presents an ugly truth: Nevada is ranked 47th of all 50 states on competitiveness for business start-up and growth.

    Financial-news network CNBC (Cox channel 35) this morning  released its third annual review of “the states that put it all together for business—and the ones that don’t, and everyone in between.”

    Sadly, Nevada didn’t even get close to their “in-between” category.

    Each state was scored using "publicly available data on 40 measures of competitiveness.” They say they separated those metrics into the ten broad categories, then, with input from national business groups, weighted them and came up with their final ranking.

    Individually, in the various categories, this is how Nevada fared: cost of doing business: 36th; technology and innovation: 40th; education: 49th; access to capital: 36th; transportation: 29th; quality of life: 36th, workforce: 18th, and diverse economy: 49th.

    Taking top honors this year was Virginia – followed by Texas (2nd); Colorado (3rd); Iowa (4th) and our friends in Utah were 5th. Arizona and Oregon tied for 18th place. Even California was rated much better for business (32) than Nevada. If it is any prize, we did do better than Palin’s Alaska which came in 50th.

    This survey presents rather dismal prospects for the state’s near-term future. Only by helping businesses start-up and grow, will we see significant new jobs for our still-growing population. This time, the big boys – large multinational corporations - aren’t going to come in and bail us out.

    Creating jobs, growing and diversifying the economy have to be the top priorities for the state. Could someone please txt this to Governor Gibbons?

    Sadly, nothing of substance came from this year’s legislative session to encourage investment and business start-ups in Nevada. Some words – but no action stimulating small business, innovation and job creation.

    Looking at CNBC’s criteria like education, transportation, diverse economy and quality of life – all the legislature can claim is that the state was not harmed as much as it might have been under the Governor’s budget. 

    Maybe true, but how does that get us out of 47th place?

    Tax bills will be mailed to property owners starting July 17, according to County Treasurer Laura Fitzpatrick. Of the nearly 730,000 parcels in Clark County, the taxes on over half of them will be lower than they were the prior year.

    The total taxes levied on all real property in the county for fiscal year 2009-2010 (which began July 1) is $2.2 billion, compared to $2.3 billion last fiscal year. This year’s levy includes the taxes on 5,300 new parcels. It also reflects the continuing impact of the property tax relief measure passed into law in 2005. That law, which was put into place to curb the impact of the then-rapidly-escalating property values, limits the amount that taxes can increase from one year to the next. Had the tax cap law not been in effect, the tax levy for this fiscal year would have been $2.6 billion.

     Taxes are due on the third Monday in August, but may be paid in four installments if the taxes exceed $100. The installment due dates for fiscal year 2008-2009 are: 

• Monday, August 17, 2009
• Monday, October 5, 2009
• Monday, January 4, 2010
• Monday, March 1, 2010

    Any installment may be paid prior to its due date. In order to avoid penalty, an installment must be paid no later than ten days after its due date.

    The property taxes billed and collected by the County Treasurer are disbursed monthly to the various governmental entities that levy taxes, including the state, school district, county, cities, libraries and other special districts.

   Sometimes you can gain significant political insight just hanging out at home enjoying your favorite adult beverage and answering the telephone. 

   Actually, I nearly didn’t pick-up the call late Friday afternoon when I noticed Caller ID was blocked. But I did (since I have some dubious friends who have their ID blocked -- probably for good reason) and I began talking with a relatively professional interviewer from some generically-named political polling firm.

   Naturally, I agreed to be interviewed – to let my opinions be heard and hoping to discern who was paying for a poll this far distant from any election.

   Once I established that I was, indeed, registered and voted frequently, the survey began with rather typical questions about what I saw as the important issues facing Nevada. Right off, I was intrigued when the structure suggested that the survey was state-wide in focus. I was quizzed on my opinions about a range of topics related to education – both K-12 and higher ed; how I well I thought this year’s Legislative Session did in addressing the state’s problems; and whether or not I thought the state was “balancing the budget by taking money from local government services.”

   I quickly jumped to the tentative conclusion that the poll was probably being done for Commissioner Rory Reid’s likely campaign for Governor.

   We soon were into a series of direct, horse-race questions about the upcoming election. “If the election was today and the candidates were Gov. Jim Gibbons and Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, who would you vote for?” I was asked. Next, the same with Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley as the Dem Nominee. After that, there were a couple questions about Reid and Buckley – including whether the fact that Reid might be running at the same time his father was on the ballot for U.S. Senate would make me more likely or less likely to vote for him.

   Now, I was even more convinced that it must be the campaigns of Buckley or Reid who had commissioned the poll.

   Then, the interviewer went back through the whole series of “who would you vote for” questions – but this time including the option of Independent Candidate Bob Cashell, Mayor of Reno – followed by same questions but with the Independent being Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

   “Well, they must be taking Oscar seriously!” I thought to myself.

   Next, there were a couple questions about my general attitude towards candidates who were not nominated by one of the two major parties.

   When the survey went so far as to ask whether I thought Goodman should be the nominee for Governor and Cashell the nominee for Lt. Gov or should it be Cashell/Goodman – I began to reassess my hasty conclusion.

   In retrospect, I would now hypothesize that the polling is actually being done by Friends of Goodman and Cashell - no other campaign would have reason to ask that last question.

   And I would conclude that the “Independent Option” isn’t just a whimsical hallucination of the Mayors. Rather, they are looking at it very analytically.

   Wouldn’t we all love to know what results this polling is showing? Such a candidacy would not only dramatically shake-up the races for Governor & Lt. Governor – but could spill over and affect the outcomes of the elections for other offices including, possibly both of our U.S. Senate seats.

   What fun 2010 may be!  Run Oscar Run!