Chuck Muth: Laxalt last, best hope for Nevada conservatives

The vice president of the United States and the GOP’s first runner-up for president of the United States are huge “gets” for the unannounced Republican candidate for governor in 2018.

Indeed, Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt recently announced that both Veep Mike Pence and Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz will be headlining his Morning in Nevada PAC’s annual Basque Fry fundraising event in northern Nevada on Aug. 26.

And if that’s not enough to demonstrate Laxalt’s deep connections to the conservative power players in D.C., Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, will also be speaking at the event that has already pre-sold more than 1,000 tickets.

Alliance with Pence, Cruz and Schlapp is an unmistakable signal to movement conservatives that Laxalt’s the horse they should hitch their wagon to in next year’s gubernatorial race. Not just because he’s a conservative, but because he’s the best - probably only - chance conservatives have to win.

And that race is for all the marbles. Do or die. Here’s why …

Incumbent RINO Gov. Brian Sandoval has been a philosophical disaster. He’s destroyed the GOP’s limited government brand – first by stupidly expanding Medicaid, then shoving the largest tax hike in state history down our throats, and finally killing Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), the most innovative school choice program in the nation.

And because conservatives gained control of the Nevada Republican Central Committee shortly after his bait-and-switch election in 2010, Sandoval and his inner circle of political hacks have done everything in their power to emasculate the party and bleed it dry by strong-arming donors into withholding their financial support.

Sandoval has also littered his administration with mushy establishment moderates who react to conservative policies the way vampires react to sunlight. Indeed, the only significant conservative appointed to the Sandoval administration, School Superintendent Jim Guthrie, lasted less than a year on the job before being forced out.

Lastly, Sandoval has supported mushy moderate GOP candidates and has actively worked to defeat conservative candidates, including incumbents. As a result, there are only two or three reliable conservatives in the state Senate and just a half-dozen or so in the state Assembly.

The end of the Sandoval Error can’t come soon enough for conservatives.

With Laxalt, conservatives will get a true conservative in the chief executive’s office. Who will appoint conservatives in his administration. Who will appoint conservative judges. Who will work with conservative members of the Nevada Republican Party.

Who will support and help raise money for conservative legislative candidates. Who will fund ESAs. Who will restrain government spending. Who will oppose tax hikes. Who will block sanctuary cities. Who will fight for state’s rights.

But maybe most importantly: Will make sure legislative Democrats don’t wipe Republicans permanently off the legislative electoral map when redistricting raises its ugly head once again in the 2021 session.

That’s not been talked about much … yet. But it better be. Because if Laxalt doesn’t win the governor’s race in 2018, Nevada conservatives might want to start packing up and looking for an escape route to Idaho!

Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach and publisher of NevadaNewsandViews.com