Jon Ralston Profile picture
CEO/Editor, The Nevada Independent. Your State. Your News. Your Voice. ralston@thenvindy.com #WeMatter
Mar 25 4 tweets 1 min read
I know this could end up being a mistake, but I feel compelled to weigh in on the McDaniel/NBC kerfuffle:
1. Full disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor and have a lot of fondness for a lot of people over there.
2. Yes, the network has some contributors I wouldn't have hired..
1/4
...and that provides easy fodder for Republicans and I don't really blame them for mocking the pearl-clutching on the Left. I wish MSNBC had more thoughtful conservatives. But. But, and I can't stress this enough, this hire is different, and I'll tell you why:
2/4
Jan 27 20 tweets 3 min read
Kicking off the Trump rally in vegas: One of the worst conspiracy theorists: Wayne Allyn Root, who once said Barack Obama was a foreign exchange student and said the vegas mass shooting was done by ISIS.

Immediately calls 2020 election "rigged."

WAR, what is he good for? This is the guy speaking first at the Trump rally who just said "they rigged and stole the election from Donald J. Trump." He was ousted from the Las Vegas Review-Journal as a featured columnist after hawking phony COVID cures. Image
Jun 30, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
This an only-in-Nevada story:
Cryptocreep conspiracy theorist and election denier tries to overturn unanimously passed new law to protect election workers and uses unhinged Republican national committeewoman, who once said Black AG should be "hanging from a crane," to file it. News of this lawsuit first appeared on a GOP bulletin board/dark money site masquerading as a real news site and one that has posted stuff favoring the cryptocreep conspiracist. For some reason, this site's "story" did not point out that he was one of the plaintiffs.

Nevada!
May 10, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
I've seen a lot of smart people commenting on whether CNN should let Trump be on tonight, and I see where many of the dissenters are coming from, based on history. But they're wrong. I interviewed people live for many years, and I know you have been dying for my opinion. So:
1/
Don't talk to me about "normalizing" Trump or "giving him a platform." He is the GOP frontrunner for president. Of course CNN should put him on. Yes, there are dangers of live TV -- he will try to filibuster -- but there are also benefits -- he can't complain he was edited.
2/
Feb 15, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
Permit me a thread on something I have first-hand knowledge of. My child transitioned when he was 20. This is a good letter Chris links to. What is most disturbing to me about the treatment of trans issues even by the mainstream media is how facile it can be, lacking nuance.
1/5 I have come to find that while there is a lot of hateful rhetoric, covered without context too often, most people who are not exploiting trans folks for political purposes just don't know enough. Just as they didn't know enough, as the letter says, about gays at one time.
2/5
Jan 15, 2023 4 tweets 3 min read
Good news for NV Dems: Republicans just elected worst-performing statewide GOP candidate to be on the RNC. She recently attacked the RNC for "collaborating with Democrats." She also said her Black opponent "should be hanging from a fucking crane."

Not. Sending. Their. Best. The new governor, @GovLombardoNV, and other elected GOP leaders had endorsed another candidate, Pauline Lee, to be the national committeewoman. Instead, the state GOP chose a friend of the outgoing committeewoman, @votefiore, who is an election denier and much more (less).
Dec 13, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
I have obtained some unofficial, almost complete final turnout figures in NV, and they are eye-opening.
Permit me a thread that unfurls just how bad the GOP losses were considering the party's large turnout relative to Dems. Candidates, indies and ticket-splitters mattered.
1/7
1. Republican turnout (about 69 percent) far outdistanced Dem turnout (about 60 percent). It was a 10-point GOP edge in the Dem stronghold of Clark!

2. Mail ballots were about 50 percent of the total, and Dems won those 43-28, or about 75,000 votes. (Dems won by 20% in '20.)
2/7
Dec 1, 2022 4 tweets 3 min read
Good morning from The #WeMatter State.

Many of you know there is no bigger Michigan fan than I -- U-M, that is. But the notion that the state of MI should go first in the Dem presidential nominating process is laughable for many reasons. NV remains the obvious first choice.
1/ Image First, why would the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee give a nod to a state that doesn't even meet its criteria? Michigan is not only not as diverse as NV, but check out the requirements below: "the cost and logistical requirements of campaigning in state" must be considered.
2/ Image
Nov 16, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Let me tell you about the NV GOP leaders and who these people really are:
Last night, the party chair and GOP national committeewoman, who also lost for state treasurer, appeared at a GOP rally in Vegas and played the blame game when plenty of mirrors are available.
1/4 Image Chairman @McDonaldNV yelled about "backstabbers" who endorsed against @VoteFiore and @Chattah4Nevada, two of the worst candidates ever to be nominated by the party and who were defeated. McDonald has presided over the worst GOP cycles and has never taken any responsibility.
2/4
Nov 14, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Generally I have ignored most of the election week trolls (or not seen them), but since so many socialists are taking credit for the Dem victories here, I need to clarify:

The state party had as little to do with the Dem victories as the state GOP did with the gov's race.
1/ The amateurs running the state party were an impediment every step of the way and if the pros here had not played nice with them when they had to but set up parallel orgs to actually raise $ and, you know, turn out voters, Georgia might still be important.
2/
Nov 12, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
Good morning from The #WeMatter State.

By the end of the day we may know if NV has rendered Georgia irrelevant or if everyone still has Georgia on their minds.

Adam Laxalt is ahead by 862 votes, or .09%, closer than when his grandfather beat Harry Reid in 1974 for this seat. There are 23,000 or so votes to count in Clark County. If Catherine Cortez Masto can win just 55 percent of those, under what she has done since Tuesday, she will be ahead. That would leave about 8,000 or so in Washoe, where she won by 10% Friday, and a few thousand rural votes.
Nov 11, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
Thread on NV ballot-counting:
I know the "NV takes too long" memes have started (again), and we deserve it. But let's go over what is happening and what is not:

1. This is only the second mail-dominant election we have had. And the process required by law is laborious.
1/6
It would be a fruitful discussion for lawmakers to have if this is the best way to run a railroad. Changing deadlines, providing more resources, etc. Sure, the Dems changed the law to help them. But guiding principle should be maximizing accessibility to voting.
2/6
Nov 11, 2022 7 tweets 3 min read
Good morning from The #WeMatter State, and Happy Veterans Day, especially to those who served.

Here's where we are:

Laxalt leads by 9K statewide over CCM.

The news of this early AM is below, and let me tell you what it means.

1/ This is part of the 57K mail ballots (there are actually more but wait) to be counted in Clark.

Those first 35K will put a huge dent in Laxalt's lead, and CCM, if indies are breaking to Ds as they have been, will pick up more than 6K.

2/
Nov 11, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
The latest on Washoe from Sean. As he said, we are trying to sort through the confusion about Clark ballots, but with mail, it is fluid because of ballots that need to be cured. In Clark, there are more than 7,100 ballots taken out of the mix and still eligible for curing.
1/ Not all of those ballots will be cured , but many will be. There are also more than 5,000 provisional ballots that will be counted, but we will not know all the cured ballots and provisionals until next week.

You with me so far?

So here is what we know about Clark:
2/
Nov 10, 2022 5 tweets 3 min read
New NV numbers, via @s_golonka:

In Senate race, combined results from Lyon, Nye and Washoe have reduced Laxalt's lead to under 16,000.

Washoe mail was huge for CCM, as she turned a 5K deficit there to a 400-vote lead. The urban mail is coming in with large margins for Dems. @s_golonka As @JohnRSamuelsen found, too, the Clark mail looks as if it will continue to help CCM cut into the deficit:

11/9/2022
Added 26,392
Dem 10,547 (40.0%) +4,117
Rep 6,376 (24.2%)
Other 9,469 (35.9%)

These will likely be tabulated tomorrow.
Nov 10, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
56,900.

That's the drop box number, lower than the Ds had hoped for.

Add to 27K Gloria announced today and it's about 84K in mail we know have yet to be counted in Clark and 57K in Washoe for a total of 141,000 mail ballots in urban Nevada that will decide the U.S. Senate race. There will also be mail to count from now until Saturday. But this is the biggest batch. CCM will need to crush it with this to survive.
Nov 8, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Early #s:
--GOP up 2 to 1 in urban NV, not inc. drop boxes. #s do not signal huge turnout.
-- If you just count those, Rs now have statewide lead.
--Of first 20K who voted in Clark, overall male-female was 48-44., 800 voters were 18-24,
Still early, still ignoring mentions. Image Even adding the 40K votes cast so far in Clark still leaves the biggest county under 40 percent overall, with 800,000 eligible voters who have not cast ballots.

Meanwhile all the state websites are down, so the Italian satellites are doing their thing.

But my numbers are fine!
Nov 4, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Many of you know I don't care much about polls now that I have actual ballots cast and can analyze the matrix, but this one released today by Kellyanne Conway for David Bossie intrigues me:

politico.com/f/?id=00000184…

Permit me a thread:

1/5
First, this confirms, whatever the survey's worth, that the Repubs do not think, despite private boasting, that they have NV gov and Senate locked. She found dead heats in both. And despite the usual poll memo spinning -- WE ARE POISED TO WIN! -- the poll is quite revealing.
2/5
Oct 9, 2022 26 tweets 5 min read
Trump has arrived on stage in Minden. Trump ticks off Nevada candidates, says CCM "not respected at all" in DC.
Oct 9, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Tuberville introduces Laxalt, can barely pronounce his name or what his previous job was.

"Lexalt"

"Lexalt"

(Must be the drawl.)

Laxalt to campaign team: Have Tuberville speak right before me. I'll sound like a God. Laxalt decries the "false lies."
Oct 9, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Now, @McDonaldNV, the state GOP chair, who has had more ethics scandals than can be listed in 280 characters, was a fake elector and election denier and said Las Vegas was the capital of Nevada at the national GOP convention. @McDonaldNV McDonald is now screaming about the unfairness of the Trump raid and now claims 122,000 "anomalies" happened in 2020 election and was "whitewashed." This, of course, is utter nonsense and was vetted and dismissed by a GOP SOS.