Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, shown at left on Sept. 1, is taking an opponent to task in the race for the state's second congressional district. She said candidate Dean Heller is going negative. Photo by The Associated Press.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., shown Wednesday during her campaign kickoff party for a fifth term in Congress, received some words of support from Joan Rivers regarding cosmetic surgery. Photo by John Locher.
Comedian Joan Rivers says Nevada's Shelley Berkley would win her vote for being honest about having cosmetic surgery. Photo by The Associated Press.
Barbara Lee Woollen, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has been all over the airwaves with television commercials describing her as a businesswoman determined to stop illegal immigration.
Recently, she also took a potshot at the presumed front-runner for the Republican nomination, state Treasurer Brian Krolicki. She accused him of spending taxpayer dollars on a mailer promoting his office's partnership with a college savings fund, called him "dishonest" and called on him to give back the money.
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But Krolicki says Woollen has it wrong. The flier is paid for out of fees collected by the program, not taxes, he said.
"No monies were requested from the Legislature for the college savings plan," he said. "It's not taxpayer dollars."
People who enroll their children in the Upromise college savings fund pay a small percentage in fees, and part of that money goes to the state, where it is used to pay for the program's overhead, including marketing, Krolicki said.
Krolicki said it was Upromise's idea, not his, to plaster his face all over the flier.
"They feel the Nevada state treasurer is a major asset in selling that plan in Nevada," he said. "That's the local credibility they're promoting."
Woollen's campaign manager, Kristen Hainen, stood by the claim that the money came from taxpayers. She pointed to an annual report that stated Upromise marketing came from part of the state's prepaid tuition program, which she said is funded by taxpayers.
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Assemblywoman Sharron Angle recently blasted one of her Republican primary opponents for taking the campaign for the second congressional district in a negative direction. But Secretary of State Dean Heller wasn't the first to start calling people names in that campaign.
The Washington, D.C.-based Club for Growth, which supports fiscally conservative candidates, went on the air in late June with television ads bashing Heller and another Republican candidate for the Northern Nevada seat, former Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons. The ads use images reminiscent of a police drama to examine the "liberal case files" of Gibbons and Heller, calling each "a big-taxing liberal."
Heller's radio ad turns the same accusation in the other direction. "There's only one real conservative in this race for Congress ... Dean Heller was fighting for us while his opponents taxed and spent," the ad states.
Angle issued a statement blasting Heller for using negative tactics. "I am saddened that Dean is so willing to attack Republicans," she said.
But it's hardly a secret that the Club for Growth is on Angle's side, making her accusation that Heller is the one being negative a bit disingenuous, Heller campaign manager Mike Slanker said.
"Sharron Angle is bought and paid for by an East Coast group with absolutely no interest in Nevada," Slanker said. "They are running and funding her campaign completely and now have the nerve to run an 'independent expenditure' campaign against us."
Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy said the "case files" attack ads were done by the Club for Growth independently and the campaign had no control over them. "As far as the Angle campaign goes, we're going to stay positive," he said.
PORTER BILL STYMIED
The House voted 415-1 in June for a bill by Rep. Jon Porter to allow school districts easier access to national criminal databases for teacher background checks. But some supporters don't expect swift action in the Senate and at least one of them is blaming Sen. Harry Reid.
Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told Roll Call columnist Morton Kondracke that Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, is bottling up the bill, suggesting it is to deprive Porter, a Republican, of an election year achievement. Porter's re-election challenger is former Reid press secretary Tessa Hafen. Asked in a follow-up call for his evidence, Kirk declined through his staff to expand on his comment, although spokesman Matt Towson said he was sticking to it.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., tried to get the bill "hotlined" for quick passage in late June but there was an objection from the Democratic side, two Republican sources said. Officials differed on Reid's role, or even whether he had one.
Reid was insistent he was not working against the measure. "I spoke to the boss and he has never heard of this bill nor is he holding it up," aide Sharyn Stein said. "That is flat out wrong, and is purely Kirk's opinion."
Porter was aware that Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wants to amend the bill to add provisions benefiting Boys and Girls Clubs and was involved in the Senate holdup, spokesman T.J. Crawford said. Porter did not know of any Reid involvement to delay the bill, Crawford said.
REVOLVING DOOR
Working as a press aide to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., widely regarded as one of the tougher jobs on Capitol Hill, just got a little tougher.
Andrew Fois, who was hired less than five months ago as staff director for the Senate Democrats' media "war room," which Reid established after becoming leader in 2005, abruptly resigned on June 29.
Fois, a former associate attorney general in the Clinton administration, left with a parting shot for Susan McCue, Reid's chief of staff who once served as the senator's press secretary.
"It is not possible to do this extremely demanding job without the full support and confidence of the chief of staff," Fois stated in an e-mail to Reid's staff that was made public.
Gary Myrick, Reid's deputy chief of staff, fired back with his own e-mail, calling Fois' comments "inaccurate and unprofessional."
"Andy and I had a conversation earlier this evening regarding a range of communications and personnel issues," Myrick wrote. "Susan had no role in the meeting."
McCue sang Fois' praises when he was hired in February.
"He is seasoned," McCue at the time told Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. "We have a lot of moving pieces right now, and we want to bring in someone with about two decades of experience to keep everything running on time -- not just for Leader Reid but for the (Democratic) caucus."
Since McCue was named chief of staff in 1999, at least eight people who have served as media liaisons for Reid have come and gone.
STAR SUPPORT
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., got an unexpected endorsement recently.
Joan Rivers was interviewed for The Strip Podcast by local freelance writer Steve Friess for the show he co-hosts with KVBC-TV producer Miles Smith. Friess noted that Rivers talks very openly about her plastic surgery, an unusual quality she shares with a certain Nevada congresswoman. Rivers said the stigma on cosmetic surgery is silly.
"Everybody is having this done, and it's such a common occurrence," Rivers said. "Good for her. Whoever she was, I would vote for her because it means she's honest. What's her name?"
