Don’t blame third parties for the failures of Nevada Republicans

I wish to congratulate Victor Joecks on the clairvoyant abilities he displayed in his Friday column attacking the Independent American Party. It’s uncanny how he knows that all 32,223 voters who cast their ballots for Joel Hansen would have voted for Wes Duncan if this IAP candidate hadn’t been in the race.

None of those voters must have been aware of Mr. Duncan’s endorsement by accused sexual harasser Sheriff Gerald Antinoro and Mr. Duncan’s long refusal to disavow that endorsement. Nor could they somehow have been aware of the lawsuit against him for raising $190,000 in campaign contributions from the very people he regulated, all while he was working in the AG’s office.

And we’re sure (aren’t we?) that Gov. Brian Sandoval’s refusal to endorse Mr. Duncan had nothing to do with his defeat.

On the other hand, while campaigning, I met a lot of Democrats who were voting for me because Aaron Ford was way too liberal for them, but they couldn’t hold their noses tightly enough to vote Republican.

I am so grateful to Mr. Joecks for solving this great mystery for us with his magical powers. If he had not revealed this great secret to us, we might have thought it was a logical fallacy to just assume that all of the votes for Mr. Hansen would have automatically gone to Mr. Duncan with no way of knowing whether or not that was true.