Getting up to speed on Nevada before the campaign

Nationally, Republicans are pushing the Big Lie about voting fraud and trying to get rid of non-partisan election officials who won't play along. And this attack seems to have taken one scalp in Washoe County -- that's Reno and surroundings, where Erudite Partner and I will be working this fall.

John L. Smith explains in the Nevada Independent:

You may have missed the recent story on the resignation of Washoe County Registrar of Voters Deanna Spikula, who departed after 15 years on the job.

Prior to her announcement, Spikula had taken a leave of absence after receiving threats at her office from promoters of baseless claims of voter fraud. The pressure faced by Spikula and other county registrars and clerks responsible for election security in Nevada has been intense and continues even as Donald Trump’s big lie continues to collapse in scandal.

In a week that saw a former White House insider calmly tell the House Jan. 6 committee that former President Trump knew many of his supporters were armed on the day they stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, the departure of a respected protector of one Nevada county’s election didn’t rate as a top-line news event. ...

I've worked with Registrar's offices all over the country. In 2018, Washoe was probably the best organized, most informative, most responsive one I've ever encountered. That's what Nevada Republicans can't stand. Washoe has been run so as to encourage eligible Nevadans to vote. Working in Reno, we'll see whether this professionalism survives Spikula's exit.

Meanwhile, Nevada's Democratic governor who is running for re-election is out with an early ad.

This might seem pedestrian, but Sisolak is addressing what will probably be a central difficulty for Democrats this fall: the economy really is doing well, people have jobs if they want them, but rising prices and the residue of the pandemic leave us all in a lousy mood. And there's real hurt out there. We all easily can ask reflexively, what have you done for me lately? Sisolak toots his administration's horn and recognizes people's pain. Will this work? Probably not easily. But it's worth getting started.