Letter: Democracy is in danger
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sat, 02/26/2022 - 2:52pm
Should censorship of Nevadas possible gubernatorial candidates be allowed? If one believes in our democracy then the answer is a clear NO. The beauty of our voting system is WE THE PEOPLE have the opportunity to hear out potential candidates, and thier positions before we choose who we want to represent us in the primaries later this year.
But what if certain groups, or certain "elites" want to take that right away from us? We would no longer have control over who we want to choose as the best suited candidate for the most important job in Nevada, the governor. That is apparently what is happening to gubernatorial candidate and one of the front runners Joey Gilbert.
It has happened on multiple occasions this year. More than once he has been "mistakenly forgot" or not invited to certain events around nevada. Claims that they "didn't receive the entry money" when the campaign manager is holding a receipt to show otherwise. The most recent is the Keystone Corporations annual breakfast. It is being held March 23rd at 7:30 a.m. at the Orleans hotel and casino. On the front page it showcases 5 candidates and thier pictures. Dean Heller, Michelle Fiora, Joe Lombardo, Tom Heck and Guy Nohra. The title states 'Gubernatorial candidate forum' just above the pictures. But they are missing someone. Joey Gilbert, who clearly has momentum at this point. Depending on which poll you read, he is neck and neck with Joe Lombardo. So why wasn't Joey Gilbert invited? Well we reached out to Keystone Corporations for comment and we have yet to receive an answer.
Keystone Corporations motto clearly states at the bottom of the add that Keystone Corporation is "a Nevada political action organization for civic-minded and business individuals". If this is true, why wouldn't Mr Gilbert be involved? After all he does own his own practice as a successful attorney. He is very intertwined with his community and has done more pro-bono work during the pandemic then any other attorney on record. So what is the real reason for this? Well, one can only conclude the obvious, to keep him out of the spotlight. But is that really democracy? Aren't WE THE PEOPLE supposed to be able to make the decisions based off the candidates running platform? If this was the case then they should have invited ALL the candidates to this breakfast. That shows transparency, and fairness to the prospective candidates and the people. As mentioned earlier, this also happened in Fallon and Las Vegas earlier this year. Similar situations. Different scenarios. If we want free and fair elections, then transparency should be the key component here. It's not a secret that folks have doubts about election integrity from previous years. If they were looking to change that reputation one can argue this is not the way to do it.
