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Tag: nevada
Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Who Paid For Gov. Sanders' $200K Superbowl Junket? She Won't Tell

Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders took her whole family to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this month — one of the most expensive sporting events of all time. And now the GOP darling is being cagey about how she managed to snag luxury VIP box seats and get exclusive access to some of the biggest stars at the game.

Talking Points Memo (TPM) did a deep dive to estimate how much Sanders' Super Bowl trip would have cost, when accounting for suite passes for herself, her husband, and her three children combined with other perks, like field-level access to Usher's halftime show and access to Chiefs star tight end (and Taylor Swift's boyfriend) Travis Kelce. Ken Solky — a highly regarded ticket broker in Las Vegas — estimated that the face value of tickets for a high-level box like the kind in which Sanders was seen partying on Instagram was in the neighborhood of $37,500 per person.

"It definitely looks like a suite," Solky told TPM when viewing the images Sanders posted. "[N]ot just a suite but a pretty damn good suite."

Each additional pass the Sanders family had to access special events came with a price tag of anywhere between $3,000 and $10,000 per person. TPM estimated that on the low end, Sanders' excursion cost more than $202,000. It's unlikely that she paid for the trip out of her own pocket, as that amount is far above her gubernatorial salary of $160,000, and more than her $165,000 annual salary as former President Donald Trump's White House press secretary. But whether she was gifted the passes or used taxpayer resources is still shrouded in mystery.

The Arkansas governor's 2023 ethics disclosure form — in which Arkansas public officials have to disclose any gift of more than $100 — didn't disclose that she received any six-figure gifts. And expenses relating to her travel and security are exempted from the state's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guidelines, after Sanders convened a special legislative session last year specifically to change FOIA laws. That special session was notably convened in the wake of public reporting surrounding her office's purchase of a $19,000 lectern.

One big clue TPM found was a photo of Sanders in a VIP box with Tavia Hunt — a prominent GOP donor who is also the wife of Kansas City Chiefs co-owner Clark Hunt — which would been among the most expensive seats at Allegiant Stadium. Such gifts would necessitate reporting as it could be constituted as an out-of-state special interest attempting to curry favor with Arkansas' governor.

"If you’re in a luxury suite, it would be the highest face price ticket to the event," Graham Sloan, the director of the Arkansas Ethics Commission, told TPM.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
Sam Brown

Hilarious Republican Mud Bath In Nevada Senate Primary

A new ad in Nevada’s GOP senate primary features a photoshopped image of Republican Sam Brown dancing on a stripper pole while Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) throws money at him. It is the latest example of how Republican in-fighting is consuming a crucial 2024 race.

Brown launched his campaign in July. He is an election denier and anti-abortion extremist, but support from McConnell and other Washington, D.C. insiders has made him a target for his competitors in the Republican primary. Brown and his opponents are hoping to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in the 2024 election.

The ad is from the campaign of Dr. Jeff Gunter, a dermatologist who served as former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Iceland from 2019 to 2021. In the spot, Gunter boasts that he is “110% pro-Trump.” For months, Gunter has been hitting Brown for not endorsing Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Gunter posted the following on the social media platform X: “Nevada Republicans take notice: nowhere on Scam Brown’s website does he endorse President Trump or even mention the America First movement. This McConnell-backed puppet can’t even say who he’s supporting for president in 2024.”

On Jan. 12, Brown seemingly caved to this pressure and endorsed Trump’s White House bid. A spokesperson for Brown’s campaign did not immediately respond to questions for this story.

Trump is extremely popular amongst Nevada Republicans. A recent Emerson College poll found 73% of likey Nevada GOP caucus voters support Trump. In recent weeks, Gunter has teased that Trump may soon endorse his campaign.

Brown previously ran for senate in 2022 but failed to advance past the Republican primary. At that time, Brown attacked his opponent Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt for having McConnell’s support.

“Guess who else has endorsed Adam? Mitch McConnell,” Brown said in a campaign event with the Republican Men’s Club of Northern Nevada on Nov. 21, 2021. “So it’s, you know, if we trust Mitch McConnell, well then, well I’m sorry for you but I don’t.”

In Dec. 2023, McConnell appeared at a campaign fundraiser for Brown. Gunter says this about face makes Brown a hypocrite.

Nevada’s Republican primary for senate is scheduled for June 11, 2024. According to personal finance disclosures, Gunter’s net worth exceeds $25 million, more than enough to self-finance his campaign.
Also competing is Jim Marchant, a former member of the Nevada Assembly who is aligned with QAnon conspiracy theorists.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News.

Heidi Kasama

Republican Contender Drops Out Of Crucial Nevada House Race

Nevada Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama unexpectedly announced Thursday that she would run for reelection rather than continue her campaign against Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, a move that deprives Republicans of their only serious candidate for the 3rd Congressional District.

But Kasama, who picked up endorsements last year from Gov. Joe Lombardo and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, may not have been serious enough for the GOP establishment. An unnamed source tells the Nevada Independent that the assemblywoman, who self-funded more than half of the $337,000 she brought in during the third quarter of 2023, struggled to raise money.

Republicans have until the March 15 filing deadline to find a new contender, and they'll almost certainly need one if they want to unseat Lee in a seat that Joe Biden carried 52-46. The current GOP field includes former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien, who resigned in 2012 after spending only 15 months in office, and conservative columnist Drew Johnson. Both candidates have also proven to be weak fundraisers, and neither has attracted much attention in this seat in the southwestern Las Vegas area. The primary will take place on June 11.

Kasama, for her part, argued she had to bail to defend her Assembly seat, which favored Donald Trump 50-49 in 2020, with Democrats just inches away from being able to override Lombardo's vetoes. Democrats hold a 28-14 supermajority in the lower chamber―exactly the proportion required to override the governor―but they need to net one more seat to hit that threshold in the state Senate.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Michael J. McDonald

Nevada Attorney General Probes GOP Effort To Overturn 2020 Vote

In December 2020, six Nevada Republicans made efforts to overturn the presidential election results in the state.

According to an exclusive Politico report, the group of "Republican activists and operatives," at ex-President Donald Trump's request, "signed fake certificates on December 14, 2020, falsely declaring themselves to be the state's duly appointed Electoral College representatives."

The state's Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford has been "quietly" probing the efforts of Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald, Jim DeGraffenreid, "Jesse Law, the head of the Clark County Republican Party; Durward James Hindle III; Eileen Rice; and Shawn Meehan," Politico reports.

Per the report, recently, "Investigators have questioned witnesses about the attempts of the so-called alternate electors to present themselves as viable representatives of the states' voters, according to three people familiar with the probe. Investigators have also asked about documents those people prepared as part of the effort."

Politico notes DeGraffenreid "was in touch with Kenneth Chesebro — a lawyer working with the Trump campaign and a chief architect of the fake elector scheme — in the days before the activists signed the fake certificates, according to the House Jan. 6 select committee report."

Chesebro was indicted alongside Trump and 17 others by a Fulton Country grand jury in August on criminal charges related to their plan to overturn the election.

According to Politico, the attorney general "has previously sent mixed messages about the potential for a state investigation into the false electors' actions," suggesting in May that criminal charges were unlikely.

"As you all know, I have been silent on Nevada's fake electors, except to say that the matter was on our radar," he said days later during June testimony to the Nevada state legislature. "With it on our radar, we ascertained that current state statutes did not directly address the conduct in question — to the dismay of some, and I’m sure, to the delight of others."

However, Politico reports Ford then said during a September interview, "I've never said that we're not going to prosecute. It is not that I've said that I can do nothing. What I have said, and I've been precise with my wording on purpose, is we don't have statutes in this state that directly address the issue."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.