State Senate in the balance

The multimillion-dollar TV and direct-mail smear campaign waged against Nevada state Sens. Bob Beers and Joe Heck by the state Democratic Party, and now apparently by some local police and fire unions, has been a marvel of distortion.

The state senators say they're set to respond with their own TV ads starting Saturday. Whether it will prove to be enough, time and Tuesday's voter turnout will tell.

Democrats have targeted the two districts with at least 18 mailers apiece in their attempt to take over the state Senate.

The best hope to keep these two upstanding men in office is that the big Obama "voter turnout" drive, operated by professional "community organizers" in cars with California plates, may "run out of voters" by election day.

But it will be tight. Millions of dollars spent spreading misinformation can have an effect, even when the "challengers" are kept carefully hidden away.

One recent scurrilous mailer says Sen. Beers is under investigation by the state Ethics Commission. Is he?

"That was my first question," Sen. Beers replies. "So I called up the commission." Executive Director Patty Cafferata told Sen. Beers that under state law they can neither confirm nor deny whether anyone's under investigation. "But then they told me if even one commissioner thinks it's worth moving forward with a complaint in any manner, at that point they notify the person who's been complained against, and the commission has never notified me they're considering any complaint. So no, I'm not under investigation; they just ... made it up."

The Democratic mailers and TV ads also complain GOP Sens. Heck and Beers want to make it easier for teachers who volunteer to undergo special safety training after earning state concealed-weapon permits to carry firearms in school.

"They're distorting both the bills and the votes," says Sen. Heck, a 46-year-old UMC emergency room physician who has served his country as an Army Reserve colonel on the battlefields of Iraq. "It's already legal to carry guns in the schools if you just have a note from the principal. Bob's bill actually would have made it safer, because it would have required additional training, in addition to the (state weapons permit). ... People have to realize no matter how fast the police response is, there's going to be dead children. We're trying to make it safer" for teachers to defend their young charges here in Nevada.

Weirdly enough, Sen. Beers' Democratic challenger, Allison Copening, answered the National Rifle Association's question on whether college professors should be allowed to carry guns on campus the same way as Sen. Beers, which is why she originally received the same "A" rating from the NRA. The sportsman's group has since revised her score downward, after the Democrat -- apparently caught off guard by the deceptive mailers sent out in her name -- repudiated her earlier, common-sense stance.

Sen. Heck is being criticized for "voting to execute juveniles" who commit capital crimes.

"I never voted to execute juveniles," Sen. Heck replies. "In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel or unusual punishment to subject 16- or 17-year-olds to the death penalty. So states that had those laws on the books had bills to repeal those laws, even though it was only a 5-4 ruling. The vote that I made on that bill was to stand up to the U.S. Supreme Court, because in my view they trampled two other provisions of the Constitution. They're supposed to interpret the laws, not make the laws, and secondly there's the 10th Amendment that says this should be a state issue.

"I never voted to pass a law to execute juveniles, because there wasn't a bill to execute juveniles. But that's the tactic they've adopted during this entire campaign: If you sling enough mud, something may stick."

Meantime, his Democratic challenger, Shirley Breeden, whose main previous claim to fame was a huge frivolous lawsuit the former secretary filed against the school district when she overheard someone saying a bad word, remains AWOL.

"There have been at least eight candidate forums conducted within District 5 that she failed to show up for, that I went to. And at the two quasi-debates that were held outside the district they (Breeden and Copening) forced them to change the format so there'd be no direct questions," Sen. Heck says.

Democrats have every right to "highlight" the incumbents' voting records; there's nothing wrong with "interpreting" what those votes were about. But voters have a right to expect the parties to talk straight about their real goals. And that's where this attack campaign is most deceptive -- in what it avoids mentioning.

The real reason Democrats hope to get rid of Sens. Heck and Beers is that they are stalwart, reliable friends of the taxpayer, standing guard to make sure government growth is kept moderate and affordable -- that taxes aren't jacked through the roof.

Sens. Joe Heck and Bob Beers are major obstacles in the path of the planned Democratic agenda to "give away the store" in dazzling bureaucratic salaries and benefits -- handing the bill to the rest of us.

When Democrats ask, "Don't we have a right to talk about the issues?" ask why they're not talking about that issue -- about their real reason for targeting these two men of principle and good character. Taxes.