Pahrump resident selected as Nye County leader of effort to recall Governor Sisolak

Just one year into his term, Democratic Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak is facing a statewide recall effort to remove him from office, an effort being manned by an organization calling itself Fight For Nevada.

A Pahrump resident, Savannah Zimmerman, is now taking on a major role in the recall effort, telling the Pahrump Valley Times, “I was recently asked to become Nye County leader for the group that is recalling Governor Sisolak. We are recalling him because he is passing or wanting to pass rules that are unconstitutional, taking parental rights away and are anti-gun. This a statewide movement.”

Zimmerman’s name may be familiar to those who have been paying attention to the situation at the Pahrump Community Library, where a proposal to prohibit guns in the library’s story room stirred a huge amount of controversy in the local community.

Zimmerman was actually the launch point for the proposal, with the 18-year-old gun-rights advocate explaining that her carrying a sidearm while taking her little sister to the library’s Baby Time program prompted a library official to complain about the presence of a gun in the story room. Over the course of the following four months, several Pahrump Community Library Board of Trustees meetings saw large turnouts as those for and against the ban voiced their piece, each side speaking vociferously during the meetings’ public comment periods, including Zimmerman and many other members of her family.

It was finally revealed that the library’s longstanding rules of conduct policy already banned weapons from the library as a whole, but just how the contentious issue will ultimately turn out is still yet to be seen. Meantime, Zimmerman is adding the recall effort to her focus.

Rural Nevada resident Barney Wadley, the recall secretary for Fight For Nevada, said Zimmerman’s job as leader of the movement in Nye County is to first and foremost get the word out about what Fight For Nevada is striving to accomplish.

“We have had very little support from the media so the majority of our efforts have been holding rallies in the major areas, handing out flyers noting why we need to recall Governor Sisolak and by word of mouth to everyone Savannah sees,” Wadley explained. “So far, in the past 12 months, we have grown from six people grumbling on Facebook about how the governor was destroying the way of life in Nevada, to, ‘Let’s get this done,’ and now having over 28,000 followers.”

Despite the sharp increase in social media followers, Wadley said Fight For Nevada has still not reached all of Nye County, which is why Zimmerman’s role in the movement is imperative.

“The best way for people who want to get involved with our effort is to find us on Facebook at Stand Up Nevada and Recall Governor Sisolak,” Wadley stated. “Our webpage is www.fightfornevada.com. Any one of the three will put people in contact with our mission, facts about our governor and how to volunteer to help. Collection of signatures will be starting within the next week or two, depending on the secretary of state finalizing the 2020 recall guide. That guide has changed three times within the past year and is still not finalized. We have been in contact with the secretary of state and are overcoming the small roadblocks that are being put in front of us by the changes.”

Wadley went on to detail a laundry list of criticisms against the actions taken by Sisolak since he took office, stating, “Our governor, in a nutshell, is trying to change our Nevada into eastern California.”

The Fight For Nevada movement was started by Elko resident Angela Blass, who gives an overview of the reasons behind the recall effort in a press release available on the Fight For Nevada website. Blass states that as a former California resident who moved to Nevada just two years ago, she is concerned that Nevada is following down the same path as California, a path she said she believes will lead to reductions in freedom and a decrease in safety and security.

Blass highlights her ire regarding bills passed in the 2019 legislative session such as the well-known and contentious Assembly Bill 291, which contains “red flag” laws that Second Amendment rights advocates feel infringe upon their rights and circumvent due process, as well as Senate Bill 450, aimed at changing the recall process as delineated in the Nevada Constitution, among many others.

As for the recall process itself, the Fight For Nevada website states that the organization needs to obtain at least 242,950 signatures of registered voters who took part in the gubernatorial election in 2018.

Requests for comment from Sisolak were not returned as of deadline.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com