I know you’re shocked:
Citing Nevada’s need for “an experienced voice in Washington, D.C.,” Gov. Brian Sandoval announced Wednesday that he will appoint Rep. Dean Heller to fill the vacancy of retiring Sen. John Ensign, whose resignation becomes official May 3.
“Dean is an experienced representative who is ready for the responsibilities of this office, and who will work hard, not just for Nevada, but for the entire nation,” Sandoval said in a statement.
“Just as Senator John Ensign fought for states’ rights and sound economic policies, Dean will speak out for the concerns of everyday Nevadans,” he said. “I am confident he will help get Nevada working again.”
The only surprising thing to me is that Sandoval actually mentioned Ensign by name, but Dave Catanese has the governor’s full statement, which ever-so-subtly jabs the resigning senator by calling Heller a man of “deep personal integrity.”
Anyhow, now that this is all but over with, we can move on to the craziness that will ensue in the special election to fill Heller’s 2nd CD seat. Should be some good times.
at voting on the Republican budget, per Reid.
That’s good politics for us.
I can only imagine this hurting Heller and Sandy.
Reid is mulling bringing that up for a vote again later this year (probably as an amendment).
Reid can bring up for a Senate vote every batshit crazy action the House takes to put GOP Senators on record.
Democrats are notoriously bad at doing this historically; they just don’t use the rules to manufacture wedges like Republicans do.
But Reid doing this with the budget resolution increases the chances he’ll do it on other things, too.
I think all through this Congress if the House passes something that is politically toxic, Reid will give serious consideration to giving it a Senate vote. It’s a win-win, since GOP Senators don’t have an argument against it; he’s bringing up what the Senate GOP Caucus’ own House counterparts already passed.
Again, Democrats as a rule have been poor at using rules to their advantage, so it’s possible Heller will, indeed, get a voting record easier to defend than his House record. But it’s far from guaranteed, it all depends on how Harry plays it.
Now that Harry is all in for Shelley. He won’t go along with Sandoval’s plan to clear the path for Heller. That’s why he’s bringing a floor vote on the Ryan Budget, why he intends to push for immigration votes, and why he’ll get more floor votes on big Nevada issues that will force Heller to choose either to side with the majority of Nevada voters or with the teabaggers foaming at the mouth for “purity”.
Heller is the obvious appontment. If Ensign was promised something to resign, that would be a shady deal.
If the situation were reversed… Wait, it has been and Republicans have used this before against Democrats! Look at Michael Bennet in Colorado, and look at the massive fiasco in Illinois last year. They use it all the time against Dems. Why shouldn’t we give them a taste of their own medicine, especially when anyone being honest here would tell you this was a craven attempt by Sandoval to boost Heller’s election prospects for next year?
And clearly, PPP found something controversial about it when they polled Nevada last weekend. Why on earth should NV Dems let Sandoval and Heller get away with this?
Thank you Sharon Angle.
I expected a righty like Sandoval to pick one of his own(Angle) over Heller, whom many consider to be a Moderate. This is as out of left field as it comes. Our chances of victory precipitously drop because of this move. I’m confident we’ll have no trouble winning NV-2, however, by a pretty large margin.
I see no reason to have waited this long. He had already endorsed Heller for this seat so there is no reason to expect him not to appoint Heller to finish the term, delaying only gave time for people to talk about using a placeholder instead.
If I was Sandoval’s CoS or press secretary I’d have had him make an informal (but public) announcement that “of course I’ll appoint Heller” within minutes of Ensign’s annoucnement going public.
http://publicpolicypolling.blo…