Pete Livermore

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Campus closures, consolidations and mergers are back on the table after the Board of Regents today undid a vote from last month to not consider campus closures, which itself followed a February vote to consider campus closures.
Many of the smaller colleges are in districts represented by Republicans.

CARSON CITY – Campus closures, consolidations and mergers are back on the table after the Board of Regents today undid a vote from last month to not consider campus closures, which itself followed a February vote to consider campus closures.
Many of the smaller colleges are in districts represented by Republicans.

Featured speaker is Assemblyman Pete Livermore. Lunch may be ordered from 11:30 Am until noon. There will be a business meeting following our speaker where the plans for the May 14th Fashion Show and other activities will be discussed.

Newly elected Nevada Assemblyman Pete Livermore talks about the upcoming legislative session.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDnbSVWfNpA

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting today at noon to approve the canvas of results from last week's election.

At the board's next regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 16, it will vote to appoint John McKenna to fill the remaining term of Supervisor Pete Livermore, who resigned last week after winning his election for Nevada Assembly District 40.

The board will also tackle funding for the downtown ice rink and holiday events, and the approval of a grant application for federal funds to support the proposed City Center/Nugget Project.

"You see, in our two-party system, the Democrats are the party of no ideas and the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. It usually goes something like this. A Republican will stand up in Congress and say, "I've got a really bad idea." And a Democrat will immediately jump to his feet and declare, "And I can make it sh---ier." — comedian Lewis Black

I'm not sure I've seen a better close-up example of a campaign attack backfiring than I did last night in the Assembly District 40 race.

Robin Williamson seemed to be doing everything right to fill the seat held by fellow Democrat Bonnie Parnell. She was working very hard, walking the neighborhoods, working with both Democrats and Republicans to gather the coalition she needed to win in this GOP-leaning district.

And then the Nevada Democratic Party stepped in and screwed it up.

I turned off the TV late last night, unable to withstand another minute of talking head after talking head trying to come up with a narrative for this election.

For some reason, it seems they think that their audience is comprised of 6-year-olds who can't comprehend anything that isn't force-fed to them in tiny, single-concept bites.

Was it the NObama election? Was the the fiery phoenix of the Tea Party? Was it creeping socialism, or simple arrogance? What about government spending? Or was it just time to throw the bums out?

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – There will be no supermajorities for Democrats in either the state Senate or Assembly in the 2011 session, meaning the parties will have to work together and with Republican Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval on issues from taxes to redistricting.
Republicans in the 42-member state Assembly, who had been outnumbered 28-14, retained their seats and picked up two held by Democrats, enough to take away a veto-proof majority held by Democrats in the 2009 session.

Carson City Republican Pete Livermore has won the Nevada Assembly District 40 race against Democrat Robin Williamson, costing the party a crucial seat against Republican Governor-elect Brian Sandoval.

Livermore received 51.42 percent of the vote in Carson City and within a sliver of Washoe Valley. Williamson had 48.58 percent of the vote.

"I'm humbled and grateful that so many have shown trust for me," Livermore said. "I'm eager to get started so we can get people back to work."

With all precincts, early voting and absentee ballots counted, here is the still yet unofficial percentage breakdown for Carson City elected positions.

Sheriff:
Kenny Furlong 60.75
Bob Guimont 39.25

Supervisors Ward 1:
Karen Abowd 54.14
Rob Joiner 45.85

Supervisor Ward 3
John McKenna 63.65
Day Williams 36.35

School Board District 1
Ron Swirczek 50.53
Julie Bushner 49.48

School Board District 6
Barbara Myers 54.52
Randy Carlson 45.50

Assessor
Dave Dawley 76.65
Ian Mindling 23.35

Carson City School Bond Passes 55.44

State questions
1: no 65.25
2: no 61
3: no 68
4: no 71

State Senate
James Arnold Settelmeyer 65.88
Kevin Ranft: 29.14

Assembly District 40
Pete Livermore: 51.42
Robin Williamson: 48.58

Before you head to the polls tomorrow (if you haven't voted early), you might want to check out the candidate expense forms to see who is backing our local candidates. The Secretary of State's website doesn't have all the latest forms online yet, but here are the links to the ones they do have:

Nevada Assembly District 40
Pete Livermore
Robin Williamson

Back in August, I wrote about a conversation I had with DA Neil Rombardo about how the election could change the composition of the Carson City Board of Supervisors.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors today approved $106,255 plus a 5 percent contingency to fund the Arlington Square ice rink for the coming season.

Parks and Recreation Director Roger Moellendorf said they are looking at leasing to own the ice rink equipment this year, thus reducing the cost for future years, and the contingency was requested to account for the additional costs.

The item was originally discussed two weeks ago and postponed because the supervisors preferred the ice rink be funded through redevelopment funds rather than the general fund.

Dear Editor,

Several negative mailers featuring Assembly candidate Pete Livermore were sent out recently to Carson City homes.

These ads were sponsored by the Nevada State Democratic Party, which hired an outside firm to produce the pieces. They claim Livermore got a "sweetheart deal" from the city when it purchased land he owned in order to widen Clearview Drive.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The neighborhoods of this capital city and the Washoe Valley just to the north are ground zero for one of the most fiercely contested state legislative races in Nevada this year.
Potentially at stake is the makeup of the 42-member Assembly and whether Democrats can sustain their dominance of the lower house with a 28-member, veto-proof majority.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors voted to delay a decision on funding the downtown ice rink to give staff the time to work out details for having the funding come from redevelopment funds instead of the general fund.

At today's Board meeting, Supervisor Shelly Aldean made the motion to send the issue back to staff, commenting earlier that, "It gives me heartburn to fund this out of the general fund."

This should be an interesting candidate forum tonight at the community center. We will have the live video right here.

Up first will be the candidates for sheriff, which after the postings they made here, should be must-watch TV.

There is a unique situation on the Carson City Board of Supervisors this year, with two of its members facing each other in the race for the District 40 Assembly seat.

Since either Democrat Robin Williamson or Republican Pete Livermore is almost guaranteed to win (there is always the extremely remote possibility of a third-party or write-in candidate winning), one of them will likely be leaving the board early.

Carson City leaders agreed this morning to apply for a $240,000 HUD grant that would help in preliminary design work for narrowing Carson Street between John and Stewart streets from four to two lanes.

If the city were to get the grant, it would have to kick down about $60,000 in matching grants which would come from the city's redevelopment agency and the regional transportation commission. Money for the matching grants would be available because it has already been set aside in their budgets.

CARSON CITY – Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, today criticized a fund-raising “pay to play� letter sent out recently by Majority Leader Steven Horsford, saying it borders on an ethics violation.
“I have always avoided that kind of a fundraiser,� he said. “I think it is inappropriate. The perception is that to have access to a leader or chairman you have to pay. I think that sends a terrible message.�

If you have taken part in the events going on in downtown Carson City this summer — such as the Friday night concerts on 3rd Street or the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings — then you have witnessed the Curry Street Promenade in action.

Though most would agree that the events are a great benefit for our downtown, the process by which this project came about is a strange one, tainted with managerial missteps, missing budgets and political indifference.

Supervisors meeting as Redevelopment Authority approved resolution to suspend program to offer financial incentives to small businesses, which would allow the Office of Business Development to focus on infrastructure and larger projects.

The agenda is here. See transcript of live blog below:

The Carson City Board of Supervisors turned down a request by Supervisor Pete Livermore to put a question tied to the Nugget Project on November's ballot.

All of Livermore's fellow supervisors voted against putting an advisory question on the ballot concerning the 1/8th cent sales tax increase that would be needed to fund the yet-to-be-approved Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

Supervisor Molly Walt called the question premature since they will not know if the project is feasible until the project developer comes back with a proposal this summer.

Ok, so we know who won. But did yesterday's vote tell us anything?

I wrote earlier about how the outcome of the supervisors races could give us a clue on how the public views the Nugget Project, AKA the Carson City Center Project.

Karen Abowd, the only candidate to openly support the project, did come in first in her primary with 31 percent of the vote in a six-way race.

Supervisor Ward 1
Karen Abowd vs. Rob Joiner

Supervisor Ward 3
John McKenna vs. Day Williams

Carson City Sheriff
Kenny Furlong vs. Robert Guimont

School Board District 1
Ron Swirczek vs. Julie Bushner

School Board District 6
Barbara Myers vs. Randy Carlson

State Senate Capitol District
James Settelmeyer (R) vs. Kevin Ranft (D)

State Assembly District 40
Robin Williamson (D) vs. Pete Livermore (R)

State Assembly District 38
Tom Grady (R) vs. Dennis Gomez (IAP)

Pete Livermore will face off with fellow Carson City Supervisor Robin Williamson in November:

Assembly District 40 Republican
Livermore, Pete: 2,639; 50%
Clemens, Amy: 1,309; 24.8%
Upton, Lynda: 1,330; 25:20%

I sent an email to all of the members of the Carson City Board of Supervisors for their reaction to the initiative petition filed on Friday to put the Nugget Project to a vote in 2012.

We now have responses from the four supervisors, and I just added Mayor Bob Crowell's comment below.

An initiative petition has been filed with the city clerk to put the Carson City Center Project, AKA Nugget Project, on the ballot in 2012.

The petition asks, "The proposed 1/8 cent sales tax increase for the proposed Carson City Center Project (formerly known as the Nugget Project) shall be placed on the 2012 general election ballot for a vote of the people." Copies of the paperwork are attached below.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors agreed to move forward with planning for the Carson City Center Project, AKA Nugget Project, allocating $75,000 to the effort.

The vote was 4-1, with Pete Livermore casting the no vote.

The agreement gives P3 Development the funds to come up with a plan over the next 90 days to see if the project is feasible, and what the final outcome would look like. The trust that owns the Carson Nugget is throwing in $75,000, with another $16,000 coming from the Carson City Library.

The Secretary of State's website is busy getting all the campaign contribution and expense reports up online. Below are some of the one they have down, as well as a couple of PDF files attached. The rest should be up online soon.