Innis, Hardy square off ahead of primary vote

Congressional Tea Party candidate Niger Innis said he wasn’t a “go along to get along” politician, while his opponent in the June 10 Republican primary, Crescent Hardy, R-Mesquite, emphasized his accomplishments working within the system.

Both candidates squared off during a debate sponsored by the Nye County Republican Party Central Committee at the Wine Ridge RV Resort Friday night.

Hardy said he could represent the urban and rural areas, having served on hospital boards in Boulder City and Mesquite, the Las Vegas Valley Water District, the Clark County Regional Transportation Commission, Regional Flood Control District, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Mesquite city council and as a two-term state legislator.

Innis said he had two decades of public activism with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and was the only person on the stage who was a consistent, constitutional conservative.

At the end of his closing remarks, Innis attacked Hardy for votes in the state Legislature on Obamacare, tax increases and a study on implementing common core educational standards. Hardy, who admitted he wasn’t good at public speaking, didn’t have the last word but in remarks published after a Las Vegas debate, said he wouldn’t take back any of those votes. Hardy said he voted to allow the state to have its own health insurance exchange, another bill allowed Clark County commissioners to decide whether to raise their sales tax for police, and the Legislature approved a study that looked at the Common Core standards already implemented in the Clark County School District but decided not to implement them statewide.

The case of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy quickly came up.

“I was asked to come up there by many residents of Bunkerville who felt the elected legislators representing them were not doing their job and not ringing the bell of the danger in that community,” Innis said. “I was disturbed when I went to introduce myself to a BLM officer and just say hello I may want to be your congressman, that he unstrapped his holster as if I was a threat. It was at that moment that I knew we had a potential crisis on our hand, a potential Ruby Ridge.”

Hardy, who lives very close to Bunkerville, said he was involved with Bundy before the U.S. Bureau of Land Management showed up and discussed it with the Legislature.

“If I’m elected by this constituency, Congressional District No. 4, I will be elected by Republicans, the grass roots of the Republican Party. Actually the state party endorsed me over my opponent so I’m proud to have Republican support. But I’m also going to unify conservatives of all parts, disaffected Republicans who have joined the Independent American Party, Libertarians who believe the Republican party has abandoned to big government, even some Democrats,” Innis said. “He (Hardy) got endorsed by Senator Heller and Representative Amodei and a variety of the Republican establishment. I got endorsed by the people of the Republican Party, the state party itself, the people who actually do the work, roll up their sleeves, do the volunteer work, not the consultant class.”

Hardy admitted Innis was endorsed by the state party. But he added, “it’s also said the reason he got endorsed was because people were there and had the time to speak and press the skin. The day we had the party, had the state convention, I was working on the Cliven Bundy issue, working with Steve Horsford, working with the BLM, working with county commissioners, working with the governor’s offices and working with Senator Heller to make sure that we try to defuse this in the best way possible.”

Innis criticized Sen. Harry Reid for classifying the people who showed up to protest as “domestic terrorists.” He said the armed bureaucracies are more dangerous.

“People are not aware of this overreaching government. In fact, when Republicans talk about it or conservatives talk about it, they try to say we’re loonies, we’re conspiracy theorists, that we’re far right wing. You need officials that have access to the media, that have access to the people who can talk about this overreach by the federal government,” Innis said.

Hardy, referring to Innis, said some people believe in getting their name and face in the media while he worked behind the scenes to get things done.

“I’ve had a great session this last go-round. We accomplished a lot of stuff for the State of Nevada. They said it was the least divisive session in the last 30 years. I worked with the other sides to come up with those things we come together on without violating or compromising my morals and values. Consensus building is what it’s all about. We have that gridlock in Washington D.C., right now we’re playing that two-party system to the max, both sides are at fault here. So we need to make sure that we’re working on what’s good for the citizens of this nation,” Hardy said. He referred to President Ronald Reagan’s three-legged stool: a strong defense, strong economy and strong families.

Hardy attacked “the phony capitalism” with President Obama’s economic stimulus package, that created solar projects in Tonopah for the benefit of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s in-laws and Senator Reid’s sons in Laughlin.

Innis said President Obama signed less executive orders than President Bush, but they were more meaningful, like trying to make immigration law. He called Obama “a political coward and fake, phony fraud” for promising to fix immigration when he had Democratic majorities in Congress his first two years.

Hardy didn’t like presidential orders, like when President Clinton set aside millions of acres for energy development by creating the Escalante and Parschant national monuments in southern Utah in the late 1990s. But he went farther: “It didn’t start with Obama. It started years ago. I actually believe Teddy Roosevelt stepped way out of his bounds. Yeah we all appreciate Yellowstone. But you know what? They didn’t have authority in my belief. That should’ve come before the people to be decided by the people in that state what they wanted to do.”

When asked about legislation in Indiana that allows citizens to use force against agents entering a home without a warrant, Hardy said the Fourth Amendment prohibits that.

Innis reminded the audience the Bill of Rights was enacted during the Revolutionary War against the British. “It’s not just the Fifth Amendment, it’s the Second Amendment, upon which this all rests, which is the right to keep and bear arms, a God-given right to defend one’s self, one’s family, one’s property from criminals, from Indians and yes, against a potential tyrannical government as well.” He boasted being a lifetime National Rifle Association member which he said is the ultimate guarantor of constitutional rights.

On the national debt, Innis said Americans have to be educated why the $17.5 trillion is an anchor around their necks.

“What is needed for that is an articulate voice that will push back against the progressive-era policies that have dominated this nation since Woodrow Wilson. I will be that voice,” he said

Hardy said the federal government needs a balanced budget amendment, like the states. He said the national debt, combined with unfunded mandates added up to $60 trillion, or $93,000 per individual.