Democrats attack Cresent Hardy’s comment on disabled

A recording of Republican Rep. Cresent Hardy making an inartful reference to the disabled during a speech in Las Vegas was seized by Nevada Democrats last week as fodder for an attack on the freshman congressman who’s their No. 1 target in the 2016 elections.

Speaking May 30 at a Libertarian Party Expo at the Tropicana, Hardy was bragging on his three kids, according to an excerpt posted online.

“They all work hard. They’re raising their own families. They’re doing their own thing. They will not be a drain on society, the best they can,” Hardy said.

The speech, recorded by a Democratic tracker in the audience, showed Hardy stumbled through the next sentence saying, “Hopefully they never have some disability that causes them to have to utilize that.”

The Nevada Democratic Party posted the audio and went into attack mode charging Hardy with being insensitive to disabled people. The accusation further ping-ponged around the Internet.

State Sen. Ruben Kihuen of Las Vegas said the comments were “shameful” and called on Hardy to apologize to Nevadans, “particularly those struggling with disabilities.”

Kihuen is one of three Democrats who have announced their candidacy to take on Hardy in the 4th Congressional District.

Hardy, asked about the speech after a House vote Thursday in Washington, said he did not remember making the comment and suggested it was altered or taken out of context.

“I would like to have it analyzed,” he said. “People try to manipulate things. I’ve seen that happen early on.” Hardy was referring to the flap during the 2014 campaign when video surfaced in which he agreed with Mitt Romney’s infamous comment about 47 percent of people living off the government.

Hardy disputed how he was being portrayed.

“My nature is to defend those who can’t take care of themselves, that’s what I believe,” he said. “I’ve always been a strong supporter of people to be able to get help when needed.”

“People get paid to distort the truth and try to manipulate things,” Hardy said. “That kind of conversation never went on. I think the Democrats ought to be embarrassed.”

If anything, he said, people with disability should be angry at being used by Democrats “to sell their game.”

“People get paid to distort things,” he said. “I’m the No. 1 target, folks.”

— Steve Tetreault

CANDOR FROM WYNN RESORTS

If anyone was wondering why Wynn Resorts wants to leave Nevada Power and secure its own energy supply on the wholesale market, wonder no more.

In public testimony before the Public Utilities Commission last week during a vote on an application by Switch to leave the utility, Wynn Resorts President Matt Maddox provided a blistering criticism of the company, part of NV Energy.

Maddox said he had been in conversations with NV Energy officials for the past couple of weeks and noted that the company made $713 million in operating profit in 2014, a 27.7 percent increase over 2013.

He said Berkshire Hathaway, owner of NV Energy, put out a presentation in 2015 talking about how the company is going to grow its revenues by spending more money because “Paul Caudill, CEO of Nevada Energy, tells me the only way we make money is we spend money and we get a guaranteed return from the state.”

Maddox said that as a result, the company plans to spend $2 billion over the next two years compared with $1.553 billion.

“Nevada Energy made more net income than the Las Vegas Strip last year,” he said. “You know where all that money went? Omaha.”

The company’s financial report shows more net income than Wynn Las Vegas, Encore Las Vegas, The Venetian, Palazzo, Mandalay Bay and Delano combined, Maddox said.

“You can’t have a 27.7 percent increase in operating profit from 2013 to 2014 with no break on ratepayers, and then try to claim ratepayers will be harmed when your net income is more than the Las Vegas Strip,” he said.

Maddox said NV Energy is considering cutting $400 million out of its capital budget because consumption is not growing as fast, which will help ratepayers. The company said consumption might grow at 1 percent per year, which is what Wynn’s load is, he said.

Wynn’s load consumes about 200,000 megawatt hours compared with Nevada Power’s total of 22 million megawatt hours, Maddox said.

“We are very focused on this, and we are going to continue to make that point that the vast amounts of money that are being made and growing every single year are going to Omaha,” he said. “That’s what is happening, and it’s right in their public financials.”

The PUC denied Switch’s application to exit Nevada Power, but regulators have not closed the door on the request.

Exit applications from Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Resorts International, Caesars and the Las Vegas Sands Corp. are pending with state regulators.

— Sean Whaley

Contact Review-Journal Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Follow @STetreaultDC. Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.