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Nevada Tries DeCaf — Why Now?
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Nevada Tries DeCaf

by Bryan

The gaming interests and good ol’ boys of the Nevada Republican party are trying to take all of the fun out of the resignation of John Ensign according to The Hill.

The Republican governor of Nevada could appoint Sue “Chicken Lady” Lowden, or Harry Reid’s opponent in the 2010 Senate race who makes Genghis Khan look like Chairman Mao, Sharron Angle, but he seems to be ready to appoint current Congresscritter, Dean Heller.

There will be a special election to replace Heller, but it would seem that the GOP establishment gets to appoint their candidate without a primary, so they can again avoid Sharron Angle, who is very much the leading Tea Party candidate in the state.

The word on Ensign’s resignation, based on rumor mostly, is that the funding for his reelection campaign just wasn’t there, and if he wanted a job after the Senate he had better play along and get out now to help the GOP retain the seat in 2012.

It is possible that the corporate interests have decided that the Tea Party is getting out of hand.

4 comments

1 Badtux { 04.22.11 at 8:42 pm }

One wonders what kind of pressure was put upon Ensign to get him to resign early. He had already stated he wasn’t running for re-election, someone had to pay him off to get out early so that Heller can get appointed and run as an incumbent. The teabaggers definitely have the gaming interests annoyed, the whole point of Nevada is to be fun crazy, not scary crazy like Angle and Lowden.

2 Bryan { 04.22.11 at 9:02 pm }

I wonder if his parents’ gaming license is up for renewal? They are part of the gaming interests, and I assume that everything went through them. The latest reports/rumors are that the cash flow to his campaign was cut off, which prompted his decision not to run again, so they may have indicated that he would be unemployed unless he left early.

I assume he will get some sort of meaningless, but well-compensated job when he goes home.

If they don’t hold a primary and block Angle, I think a primary battle for the 2012 Senate election is almost guaranteed.

3 Kryten42 { 04.23.11 at 3:30 am }

I was reading FDL earlier, and they had this posted:

Ensign Resigned to Avoid Testimony to Senate Ethics Committee

John Ensign’s resignation was two-fold: a favor to Rep. Dean Heller, who will probably get his seat and also a leg up in the 2012 Senate race from being the incumbent; and a way to avoid a budding Senate Ethics Committee investigation. The Justice Department and the FEC closed their investigations against Ensign, but the Ethics Committee had an ongoing probe. And, the New York Times has learned that Ensign was scheduled for testimony:

4 Bryan { 04.23.11 at 10:15 pm }

Senate Ethics investigations are all closed door and glacial, so that wasn’t much of a real concern. Someone in Nevada either promised or threatened something for this to happen, because it has been dragging on for years.