Commentary: Drive-by Muthings from the campaign trail

A Million Reasons to Dump McCain-Feingold

Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Chachas has donated $1 million to his own campaign for the GOP nomination to run against Sen. Harry Reid next November. The only problem: John Chachas doesn't live in Nevada, doesn't work in Nevada, doesn't send his kids to school in Nevada, doesn't pay taxes in Nevada, and doesn't shop in Nevada.

Wouldn't it be better if John Chachas was able to donate that million dollars to, you know, a Nevada candidate instead of to himself?

Another Raggio Republican

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, leads an establishment cast of endorsers for an Oct. 22 fundraiser for GOP Assembly candidate Jodi Stephens. The list of supporters includes a bevy of incumbent Republican legislators who didn't score very well on Citizen Outreach's conservative ratings in the last legislative session.

Conspicuously missing from Stephens' co-host list: The incumbent conservative assemblyman she hopes to replace, as well as the current and immediate past chairmen of the conservative Nevada Republican Study Committee. I wonder why?

What Are You Waiting For?

Sen. Harry Reid's son, Rory Reid (D), has finally officially announced his candidacy for Nevada governor. And in an interview on Tuesday, Rory claimed "he has ideas that would result in immediate job creation."

Really? Well, if that's true then why hasn't he put those ideas into action in the Las Vegas area where he's the CHAIRMAN of the Clark County Commission and where unemployment right now is worse than anywhere in the United States other than Detroit?

Vision Dejà Vu

Rory Reid also said he has an economic vision that "calls for a comprehensive performance review of state government to find savings."

Problem is, you'll never find enough savings by reviewing the government's performance. It's been tried before. By both Gov. Guinn and Gov. Gibbons. You'll only find enough savings by actually shrinking government. Starting with layoffs of large numbers of non-essential state workers - such as "diversity officers" on our college campuses.

• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy grassroots advocacy organization. He may be reached at chuck@citizen

outreach.com.