PARTY LINES: No ‘re-election,’ no convention and no to travel mask mandates!

It’s been a busy week in Nevada politics, as the second week of filing winds to a close. Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore surprised everybody by abandoning the race for governor (15 Republican candidates, at last count) and switching to the much cozier race for state treasurer (two Republican candidates, including Fiore).

But what about that wonderful ad showing Fiore driving her pickup into the desert to shoot beer bottles labeled with liberal slogans? Is that destined for the scrapheap? Or maybe they could use a little CGI to re-label those bottles with “high interest rates” and “unclaimed property”? It would be a shame to let that footage go to waste.

Breaking the law? Already?: Appointed Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead stumbled a bit out of the gate, issuing a news release that announced her intention to file for “re-election” on Tuesday. But there’s only one problem: She was never “elected” in the first place. Gov. Steve Sisolak appointed her to the post on Dec. 16.

So, technically, she’s running for “election,” not “re-election.” And while some might quibble that it’s a technical point, eagle-eyed former Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Lorne Malkiewich pointed out it’s also the law.

And he’s right: NRS 294A.330 clearly says candidates can’t say “re-elect” in any material, statement or publication unless they’ve previously been elected to that office and have served continuously in that office since the start of the term. Clearly, Burkhead has not, so “re-elect” is both technically and legally incorrect.

Who says bipartisanship is dead?: At least not in an election year. Republican Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is not the kind of guy you’d expect to be on the same side as Nevada’s Democratic Senate dynamic duo, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen. But Politico caught on to a largely symbolic vote that has outsize importance in this election year.

Cortez Masto and Rosen voted for a Paul-sponsored bill that repeals federal travel mask mandates. They were joined by Democrats including Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; and Jon Tester, D-Mont. On the GOP side, every senator voting said “aye” with the exception of Mitt Romney of Utah, according to Politico.

The vote was symbolic, inasmuch as the mask mandate was already ending in the middle of next month. But with a general election just more than seven months away, it’s never too early to start taking attack lines off the table.

What even is time anyway?: When is the last time the U.S. Senate agreed unanimously about anything (except maybe adjournment)? Yet there they were, voting aye (by voice vote) to end the biannual clock switching that is daylight saving time. Under a bill quickly approved by the Senate, we’d simply use daylight saving time year-round, and leave the clocks alone.

No word about how we’ll remind people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors, but don’t worry, they’ll alert you themselves and almost always at 4 a.m.

The bill now goes to the House, where there’s some debate about whether to keep standard time or daylight saving time as the nation’s default. (The bill will be debated in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.) Given the bipartisan support in the Senate — and the twice-annual complaining that comes from pretty much everybody at this time of year about needing to switch every clock, watch or other timepiece not connected to an automatic server — the chances are good that public sentiment is with passage.

Meanwhile, those lazy folks who never bother to change their clocks at all are thinking, “What’s the big deal? I did this years ago!”

We wuz robbed!: The Republican National Committee has eliminated Salt Lake City from its potential 2024 convention sites, and narrowed the field down to two. The lucky two: Nashville or Milwaukee.

Seriously, Republicans?

Perhaps we can’t really blame them, since Las Vegas was not really in the running. Even though Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman invited the party to take a look, the RNC never got an application from our fair city. Back in January, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokeswoman Lori Kraft said, “We had discussions with venues of scale and scope that would be in the position to host the convention and the commitment needed to host the convention does not work for Las Vegas.”

Boo.

Las Vegas is the perfect city for the conventions. We have more hotel rooms on a single intersection than most cities have in total, and delegations would not have to travel from far-distant suburbs just to get to the convention site. We now have multiple venues, too: Allegiant Stadium, T-Mobile Arena and the newly expanded convention center.

The problem, as Kraft indicated, is that whichever venue is selected — and its environs — would have to be secured for at least a couple of weeks before the event, which means those spots would be dark. And there’s nothing modern Las Vegas hates more than usable, moneymaking space going dark, as all of us who now pay for casino parking know full well.

It’s too bad, too. Las Vegas has never hosted a political convention, and this city could do it better than any other. Certainly better than — no offense — Nashville or Milwaukee!

Quote of the week: “I think we are at a time in U.S. history and world history of losing any ability as a civilization to distinguish between truth and falsity.” — Rodney Smolla, a lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems, suing Fox News and others for promoting conspiracy theories about a stolen election, quoted in The New York Times.

Even better quote of the week: “I’ve known (Sheriff) Joe (Lombardo) for a long time. I’ve known a lot of these candidates. I’ve known (former U.S. Sen.) Dean (Heller) and (North Las Vegas Mayor) John Lee. Joe was a contributor in my campaign. He was an early supporter. Raised money for me. We worked together on the (immigration related) 287(g) program, where he advised me when it came to common sense background checks. So he was on my transition committee to become governor. So Joe knows me well. He’s cooperated and helped me along my political campaigns, and I’ve appreciated that.” — Gov. Steve Sisolak, responding to Lombardo’s criticism that the governor lacks leadership, vision or direction.

Contact Steve Sebelius at SSebelius@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SteveSebelius on Twitter.