The establishment strikes back

Early on primary night, it wasn’t looking good for establishment Republicans.

Eric Cantor, majority leader of the House of Representatives, lost his Virginia seat to a tea party Republican, college professor Dave Brat. It looked like an anti-establishment wave was forming in the East. Would it crash here in Nevada? Would the civil war rending the GOP see more insurgent victories here?

As it turns out, no. In fact, in almost all of the contested races, the tea party and libertarian challengers up or down Nevada’s ballot lost their races.

Yes, incumbents and their endorsed candidates had to spend money like mad to fend off the challenges. Yes, they may have adopted more conservative positions on the campaign trail, or at the very least stopped talking about their voting records. (State Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, who would not shut up about a mining tax during the 2013 Legislature, suddenly wouldn’t even return an email about the subject.)

But in the end, with money advantages and incumbency, the establishment won.

State Sen. Mark Hutchison, R-Las Vegas, defeated hotelier Sue Lowden in the lieutenant governor primary. Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, R-Mesquite, beat TV personality Niger Innis in the 4th Congressional District. Patricia Farley defeated Clayton Hurst in Las Vegas’ Senate District 8, Becky Harris put down a challenge from three other Republicans in Las Vegas’ Senate District 9, and Roberson held off former Ron Paul organizer Carl Bunce in Senate District 20. And Assembly Minority Whip Lynn Stewart, R-Henderson, turned away Carl Bunce’s brother, Richard, in Assembly District 22.

Up north, state Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, easily defeated challenger Gary Schmidt, who accused Kieckhefer of supporting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010. Kieckhefer vigorously denied the allegation — deadly in a GOP primary! — and even sued to get a restraining order requiring Schmidt to take down the ad containing the Reid allegation.

Meanwhile, Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno, defeated challenger Rick Fineberg, and Assemblyman Randy Kirner, R-Reno, beat back two Republican challengers, both of whom were endorsed by the Nevada Republican Party, which adopted new rules this year so as to openly endorse more conservative candidates before the primary.

Fat lot of good it did: In nearly every high-profile contested contest, the state party-endorsed candidate or candidates lost, and the establishment Republican won. But not before those challengers forced the eventual Republican nominee to spend money, time and energy in a primary while allowing the Democratic candidate to raise money and avoid controversy.

The damage to Republican general-election hopes was an argument mounted against the idea of pre-primary endorsements, but one that party regulars rejected. The challenged incumbents voted for taxes, wouldn’t sign a pledge promising not to vote for taxes, or were otherwise deemed to be too willing to compromise. (Some, such as Roberson, Hickey, Farley and Harris, declined to participate in the party’s endorsement process. So did Gov. Brian Sandoval, but he got the endorsement anyway because, well, everybody knows he’s going to win.)

About the only exception conservatives could point to on election night was the victory of Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, R-Minden, over challenger Robin Reedy, a former official in the Gov. Jim Gibbons administration.

Wheeler distinguished himself by telling a friendly audience that he’d reluctantly vote to bring back slavery if his constituents commanded him to do so. In the end, Wheeler got the endorsement of the state Republican Party and a courage under fire award from Citizen Outreach, a group that strongly backed the idea of pre-primary endorsements.

And while helping to rescue a candidate with so severe a self-inflicted wound is no inconsiderable feat, Tuesday’s election results ought to give conservative Nevada Republicans pause. There were Eric Cantors all over the ballot, but our versions of Brat failed to defeat them. And it wasn’t Harry Reid, the Democrats, or the liberal media who did it. It was Republican voters. Why is that? And shouldn’t there be a message in that for the party going forward?

Steve Sebelius is a Las Vegas Review-Journal political columnist who blogs at SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.