Nevada’s Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki caught a huge break today:
Charges against Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and his chief of staff tied to his alleged mismanagement of a college savings program were dismissed this morning in Clark County District Court.
Judge Valerie Adair issued a written ruling on arguments she heard Nov. 24 from attorneys for Krolicki and his chief of staff, Kathryn Besser, dismissing counts that stemmed from what prosecutors called mismanagement of a multi-billion dollar college savings program while Krolicki served as state treasurer. …
Adair’s ruling indicated she found the grand jury indictment to be overly vague – a point that defense attorneys had argued in their hearing on the matter two weeks ago.
In the ruling, Adair wrote, “Defendants contend that the indictment does not provide sufficient notice of the charges against them. The court agrees.”
At this point, the prosecution can either appeal or simply seek a new indictment – or do neither. The case is being handled by the state Attorney General’s office, and there’s been some unseemly political intrigue in that regard as well:
State Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto came under fire after it was learned last month that her husband had planned a fundraiser for one of Krolicki’s Democratic opponents for the lieutenant governor’s seat. At the last court date, her office offered to remove itself from the prosecution, which the defense declined.
Masto, first elected in 2006, is a Democrat herself, unsurprisingly. Her husband Paul had been helping out businessman Robert Randazzo. In any event, the big electoral news seems to be this:
A spokesman for Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki (R) says Krolicki has no plans to run for Senate even though a judge dismissed felony charges against him Monday.
Krolicki opened an exploratory committee to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) shortly after the 2008 election, but soon after he was charged with misappropriating millions of dollars in state money stemming from his time as state treasurer.
He was cleared of those charges Monday, but spokesman McKay Daniels said Krolicki won’t be entering the Senate race. Krolicki annnounced in August that he would instead seek reelection, and he’s sticking with that.
Then again, it’s not like things could get much worse for Harry Reid.
otherwise this could turn ugly very quickly. She’s a good candidate could have a bright future but something like this could ruin her career.
I just don’t understand how a milquetoast guy like Harry Reid (really the Milhouse Van Houten of Senate majority leaders) has managed to rule Nevada politics for almost three decades.
Has he just become so vehemently disliked by the people of Nevada that they’ll toss him out of office in favor of the fourth-tier opposition? I think the only thing that gives me hope that he’ll win re-election is the low caliber of opposition he’s drawn. If Dean Heller or Brian Sandoval had jumped into this, I think we’d be looking at a sure loss.
Hell, if the majority leader of the United States Senate can’t beat back a former college basketball player who has already lost a statewide race (Tarkanian) or a former one-term state senator who led her party into near oblivion as the state chairperson (Lowden), then he probably deserves to lose.