FALLON — Republicans will do very well in the Nov. 4 Nevada and national elections, predict the state’s top GOP office holders who attended Fallon’s annual Kiwanis Labor Day Pancake Breakfast and rode in the Lions Clubs downtown parade.
Gov. Brian Sandoval, who says he will have no trouble defeating Robert Goodman, his Democratic opponent, said that there is an “excellent” chance that Republicans will take the State Senate and Las Vegas State Sen. Mark Hutchison will win the lieutenant governorship.
And GOP U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, of Carson City, who rode a horse in the parade, said there is a “good 50-50 chance” that the Republicans will become the majority party in the Senate when the votes are counted following the national elections 63 days from today.
Political campaigning at Labor Day celebrations is an annual ritual across Nevada, and politicians galore who said they and their parties would be victorious in the upcoming elections worked the crowds at the Pancake Breakfast and along the parade route Monday.
Among them were Sen. Hutchison and his Democratic opponent, Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, whose race has captured both statewide and national interest because if Sandoval is re-elected and decides to run against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid in 2016 — the lieutenant governor would move into the governor’s mansion in Carson City to fill out Sandoval’s remaining years in office.
When questioned if he plans to run against Reid in two years, Sandoval told the Lahontan Valley News that at this time, “It’s not on my radar.”
Although rumors persist that he in fact is interested in running against Senate Majority Leader Reid, who has said he will run for a sixth term in 2016, Sandoval stated, “I love my job as governor.
“I’m focusing on the upcoming legislative session and the three areas that are particularly critical to the state of Nevada: improving K-12 education, economic development and bringing more jobs to Nevada,” he said.
When questioned about the possibility that Congress may reconvene a committee to consider closing or downsizing U.S. military bases in Nevada, across the nation and overseas, Sandoval said that he has appointed a committee to prepare arguments for preserving Nevada’s bases should they be threatened.
Nevada’s military installations at the Reno Air National Guard base, Naval Air Station Fallon, the Hawthorne Army Depot and the Nellis and Creech Air Force bases are “critically important to the nation’s defense, and we will strongly defend them” if a BRAC (base closing) committee is reconstituted by congressional mandate.
Although Reid did not attend the Fallon Labor Day festivities on Monday and has not attended in year’s past, he disagrees with the GOP’s predictions that the Republicans will capture the U.S. Senate, the lieutenant governorship and several State Legislature and statewide offices.
The Republicans need to pick up six seats if they are to win a majority in the Senate and unseat him as majority leader, and at this time they don’t have enough votes in these six states to win that majority, he predicted recently.
Reid also believes Flores will win the lieutenant governorship, Kim Wallin will be elected state treasurer, and Andrew Martin, Kate Marshall and Ross Miller will be elected, respectively, state controller, secretary of state and attorney general.
Miller attended the pancake breakfast and appeared in the parade with his father, Bob Miller, a former lieutenant governor and governor.
Now a Las Vegas international business consultant, honorary consul of Bulgaria and dean of the Nevada Consular Corps, Bob Miller handed out literature endorsing his son’s candidacy, chatted up prospective voters and marched in the downtown parade.
“I’ve always loved Fallon. It’s the essence of rural Nevada. And I also love your cantaloupes,” he said.