Sisolak’s attack on Chris G.’s liberal record fizzles
Steve Sisolak and Chris Giunchigliani have both decided that they need to veer left to win the Democrat gubernatorial nomination. When it comes to being hyperliberal, Giunchigliani has a 30-year head start on Sisolak. He’s hoping a few million dollars in advertisements can close the gap.
But he’ll have to do better than his current attack ad.
Sisolak’s ad starts by blasting Giunchigliani as a career politician. She’s held elected office for almost 30 years. Sisolak’s been in elected office for 20 years. If you want a governor who’s not a career politician, GOP front-runner and Attorney General Adam Laxalt has been in office for only four years. Just saying.
The next attack is that Giunchigliani “voted herself a pay raise.” One of the bills used to support the charge is Giunchigliani’s 2003 vote as a member of the Assembly for annual legislative sessions. The constitutional amendment, which died in the state Senate, would have created a 45-day session in even years and paid legislators for their additional time. Technically, that is voting yourself a pay raise, but it overlooks that annual sessions have long been a liberal priority.
Last session, the entire Senate Democratic caucus voted for annual sessions, in a bill that removed the strict cap on legislative pay. In 2013, most Democrats in both houses voted for a similar measure. According to Sisolak, this is now a valid attack on folks such as Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford, the presumptive Democrat attorney general candidate. Well played.
Then Sisolak hits her for putting her husband on her political payroll. Giunchigliani had been married to well-respected Democratic consultant Gary Gray before he died in a car accident in 2015. Gray wasn’t some third cousin relying on nepotism to earn rent money. After his passing, former Sen. Harry Reid praised Gray as “one of the great political minds in Nevada history.” Sisolak thought so highly of him that Gray worked on “several” of Sisolak’s own races.
Sisolak’s ad concludes, “Giunchigliani isn’t progressive.” That’s a laughable charge, especially coming from the guy who less than a year ago talked about people wanting “moderate, centrist leadership.”
That isn’t to say Giunchigliani doesn’t have weaknesses on her left flank. She released her education plan on Wednesday, and from a liberal perspective, it was underwhelming. She promised to implement weighted student funding — eventually. She promised to increase per-pupil funding by some undefined amount. Even Republican governors do that. She proposed an education rainy day fund, which involves taking money that could have been spent immediately and promising it’ll be spent in the future. That’s exactly what unions don’t want.
Her plans to pay for this new spending are embarrassingly inadequate. If Sisolak wants to move further to the left than Giunchigliani, he should propose a business tax hike to fund his education plan.
Another opportunity is on guns. Both candidates have essentially the same plan — ban assault rifles but don’t define the term. What better way for Sisolak to disavow his A-minus grade from the NRA than by calling for banning handguns, gun confiscation or both?
The takeaway for Nevada’s general election voters is obvious. Sisolak and Giunchigliani have moved so far to the left, they should be claiming residency in California.
Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Listen to him discuss his columns each Monday at 9 a.m. with Kevin Wall on 790 Talk Now. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.
