LETTERS: Question 3 loss hardly overwhelming

To the editor:

In past articles leading up to the election, Review-Journal columnist Glenn Cook was very meticulous with his math to prove points that putting more money into schools doesn’t improve grades or test scores, and how ruinous and job-killing Question 3 would be to businesses — big and small — if it passed. But his last column included the statement, “… voters’ overwhelming opposition to Question 3 — the proposed 2 percent margins tax on businesses to boost K-12 education funding lost, with 79 percent of Nevadans voting no …” (“An irrelevant caucus no more,” Sunday Review-Journal).

Overwhelming? Really? I don’t think so.

Mr. Cook conveniently forgets there was only a 45.48 percent turnout of active registered Nevada voters in this election. With 429,531 “no” votes for Question 3, and 1.2 million active registered voters, less than 36 percent of active registered voters voted no. If you go through the trouble to do the math on Mr. Cook’s statement, with a state population of more than 2.7 million, that means a whopping 15.9 percent of Nevadans actually voted no on the margins tax.

Maybe if we put more money into the schools, Nevadans could do the math.

BRAD ZUCROFF

LAS VEGAS

Horsford’s voter tour

To the editor:

Regarding Steve Tetreault’s article on Rep. Steven Horsford’s tour to speak to voters in his district (“Horsford weighing comeback,” Tuesday Review-Journal), let me save the congressman gas money and time. Rep. Horsford, you lost your seat in the midterm elections because of your blind allegiance to Sen. Harry Reid, President Barack Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and the party line. You did not and are not listening.

You did not answer an inquiry about a 30 percent increase in health insurance costs. You took advice from a 5-year-old girl in Mesquite regarding the Cliven Bundy affair. Perhaps you should have listened to the people who do not live in Las Vegas on how they felt about government overreach and First Amendment Areas. It was never all about Cliven Bundy.

There is a Nevada outside of Las Vegas. It was not the outside spending of political action committees that caused your defeat. People are sick to death of being ruled by your party, rather than being governed. The election did have a consequence, and no matter what you hear from Sen. Reid, the president and other talking heads, this was a mandate.

Good luck, Rep. Horsford, as you travel the district. I hope you stop in Bunkerville. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts about professor Jonathan Gruber.

JIM OLSON

BUNKERVILLE

Feds in Ferguson

To the editor:

The issues in Ferguson, Mo., should have remained entirely a local law enforcement matter. The inclination of President Barack Obama and his underlings to inject themselves into local law enforcement incidents — which they believe fit their model to be exploited to advance a political agenda — is a criminal act, period. It is called “incitement to riot,” and not only has the president and his administration engaged in this activity, but a sycophantic media helped to promote it.

The local district attorney’s office for Ferguson, the state attorney general’s office for Missouri and a governor who isn’t afraid of his shadow should bring criminal charges against the public officials and the media for their conduct. That should include the president, Attorney General Eric Holder and his Rent-a-Riot followers.

Only when state and local law enforcement stand up for state’s rights by criminalizing the bullying tactics of the federal government will this Rent-a-Riot crowd be stopped.

DAVID BAKER

LAS VEGAS