Moderate image could haunt Sandoval

Republican has voted for tax hikes, but says now isn’t time for them

Steve Marcus

Brian Sandoval, right, discusses his candidacy for governor with Jon Ralston on Wednesday during an appearance on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston” at the KLAS-TV, Channel 8 studios.

By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Republican Coup?

Meet Brian Sandoval: Candidate for governor? (8-30-2009)
Mayor Oscar Goodman ain't afraid of Brian Sandoval (8-21-2009)
Gibbons sets lofty fundraising goal (8-20-2009)
Political intrigue brewing in the 2010 governor's race (8-16-2009)
Judge nominee Sandoval has smooth hearing in D.C. (9-30-2005)

Sun politics coverage

Carson City — Make no mistake: Democrats fear Brian Sandoval’s entrance into the race for governor.

But before he can face a Democrat, the now former federal judge with an impressive resume must survive a Republican primary — and a base of fired-up conservative voters who aren’t likely to cotton to his talk of consensus building and reaching across the aisle.

Sandoval resigned his lifetime appointment to the federal bench, effective Tuesday, and has officially announced he’s running for governor. Despite having no money in the bank and being out of the public eye since he was appointed to the bench in 2005, polls show Sandoval leading the three other candidates in the Republican field — Gov. Jim Gibbons, former North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon and former state Sen. Joe Heck.

As he reintroduces himself to Nevada voters in a series of interviews this week, Sandoval is trying, with a lot of talk against taxes, to shake the impression in political circles that he’s a moderate.

“Raising taxes during economic times like this is not an option,” Sandoval said in an interview with the Sun on Wednesday. Sandoval added that he likely would have vetoed the Legislature’s tax and spending bills passed last session, as Gibbons did.

But he also said he will refuse to sign a pledge not to raise taxes, which some conservatives are putting forward as a litmus test for Republican candidates.

“Brian Sandoval absolutely has an issue with conservatives,” said conservative activist Chuck Muth, who is behind the no-tax pledge. “He has to make a case. Conservatives are not going to automatically jump behind him.”

(Of the other three candidates, only Gibbons has signed the taxpayer protection pledge, though Muth has said on more than one occasion that the governor has violated it. Heck announced Wednesday that he will sign the pledge this morning.)

“Actions speak louder than words,” Sandoval said. “My record shows that I am very conservative on taxes. Once I meet with individuals, they’ll become aware of that.”

Sandoval said that when he served in the Legislature in the 1990s, he voted once to allow the Washoe County Commission to raise the sales tax. He also said he voted to raise the property tax in Clark County to build new schools.

Sandoval said he would have signed the bill giving same-sex domestic partners many of the same rights as heterosexual married couples — a measure that drew strong Republican opposition during the legislative session.

Those issues could raise red flags among the party’s more conservative elements, which are asserting themselves. With protests against President Barack Obama’s health care reform proposals and a series of demonstrations against taxes, this wing of the party has become the most visible face of the GOP both nationally and in Nevada.

Sandoval would not take any direct shots at Gibbons or the other candidates. He said he thought the governor “did what he felt was right” during the session.

“I bring something different to the table,” he said. “I try to build consensus, bring people together to solve the problems. There are extremes on both sides, and Nevada needs a governor to bring people together.”

When asked about the perception that he’s moderate, he said: “I think I’m fiscally conservative and I have a record to back that up. If moderate means I work with both sides of the aisle, I guess I am.”

Republican political consultant Robert Uithoven, who helped elect Gibbons but is not currently affiliated with a gubernatorial campaign, said Sandoval has work to do selling himself to conservative Republicans.

“ ‘Consensus’ is a general election word,” Uithoven said. “Republican primary voters want to hear about principles. He needs to define the principles that he holds before a difficult tax session in 2011.”

Indeed, the tax question is more than just academic. Legislators met with Gibbons on Wednesday, where they were told that the shortfall for the 2011 session is now projected to be at $2.4 billion to maintain state services.

Both Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, and Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the budget has been cut so that only “essential services” remain.

When asked whether he would oppose extending taxes scheduled to expire in two years, Sandoval said, “My first gut reaction is no, we don’t need more taxes. In this environment, when people are struggling like they are, tax increases aren’t an option.”

Discussion: 16 comments so far…

By WilliamClarke

9/17/09 at 6:05 a.m.

Suggest removal

He is not a Republican.
By mschaffer

9/17/09 at 6:35 a.m.

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And here I thought registering as a Republican made you one. Apparently WilliamClarke needs the race to be pure.
By jerhig

9/17/09 at 7:15 a.m.

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Brian has developed of reputation as a short timer. He never sticks with a position long enough to prove himself. Perhaps he gets bored easily. A governor has to sign up for the long haul and be an administrator. We'll see!
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

9/17/09 at 9 a.m.

Suggest removal

Spending has NOT been cut to essential services, the legislature still spends more money per person than it did in the year 2000. We were not at some stone age government level then.

These "Shortfalls" are all about maintaining government spending. Nothing more http://npri.org/publications/legislature...

If the legislature wants help in finding where to cut they should put the checks online and let the public help. We all should be able to know where the money is going. http://npri.org/publications/taxes-trump...
By texexnv

9/17/09 at 9:09 a.m.

Suggest removal

I just hope the author here has a designated driver BEFORE he leaves the office.

If you're going to endorse Ichabod Reid, why not just come out and do it? It won't help him any but it might restore some legitimacy and objectivity for the author here.
By NLV-Indep13

9/17/09 at 9:23 a.m.

Suggest removal

We need a hard nosed executive type with a bit of an IRS auditor mentality in the Governor's seat. Someone who's willing to flip over rocks, crunch numbers, and make hard decisions. These waffling, indecisive, used car salesmen we keep electing to executive positions are just NOT getting the job done.
By DouglasDemocrat

9/17/09 at 10 a.m.

Suggest removal

"Spending has NOT been cut to essential services, the legislature still spends more money per person than it did in the year 2000."

What would you suggest? More pay cuts for state workers? More furloughs?

We already have the lowest Medicaid matching contribution in the nation, and every dollar you cut out of health and human services is actually a $3 cut due to loss of matching federal funds. Should we cut more there?

Should we hike tuition, even though students now are having trouble getting student loans to make the ends meet?

Where should we cut, Patrick?
By mikegino

9/17/09 at 10:01 a.m.

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I'm to the right of Ghenghis Khan and I wholeheartedly endorse and support Brian Sandoval for Governor. This is not something the Sun wants to hear.
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

9/17/09 at 10:43 a.m.

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A fair question Doug, lets get the government to put the checks online so we can all see how they're spending the money.

Once we all can see how the money is spent we can start finding the waste.

And though I haven't looked at the federal matching funds, I do know that for the most part federal funds rarely exceed half the state's contribution let alone 3 times higher.
By DouglasDemocrat

9/17/09 at 11:59 a.m.

Suggest removal

"I do know that for the most part federal funds rarely exceed half the state's contribution let alone 3 times higher."

Not 3 times higher. Current Medicaid allocation is for every $1 the state government pays, the federal government provides $2 in matching funds.

So for every dollar you take out of that budget, you lose that $2 match. $1 + $2 = $3.
By RandyC

9/17/09 at noon

Suggest removal

A Nevada State Lottery might be an answer to the failing Nevada economy.
By That_Anonymous_Guy

9/17/09 at 12:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

Not sure a rightward shift is necessary for Sandoval to win the GOP primary.

The conservative and ultra-conservative blocs will split up between Gibbons, Montandon and Heck, letting Sandoval cruise to a win on the votes of the moderates and pragmatists. Granted, not a lot of them left in the state GOP, but enough to win if your three opponents are splitting up the majority. 40% will be more than enough for victory in a four-way race.
By OpenRange

9/17/09 at 12:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

The only take-away from this article is that Muth and his "just say no" lemmings are attempting to hijack the term "conservatives" for their own cause.

This "no tax pledge" is an irrelevant smoke-screen to the issue of changing the current tax structure to address a changing economy in Nevada.

A first-grader can sign a pledge, but who can lead us out of a tax structure designed for the 1970's?
By mred

9/17/09 at 12:51 p.m.

Suggest removal

On the lottery, a bit off topic, but there are high stakes keno games that have million dollar jackpots, "Nevada Numbers" --check out their website.

Sandopeval has yet to post his birth certificate, a Republican requirement apparently, especially for someone that has a tan that did not come from a tanning booth (Enswigne).

He has given speeches to radical "pro-Mexican" (sic) groups, so the insannitized dittoheads, dingbats, birthers, birchers, bigots and talk-radio blowhards and their ilk will no doubt vote for a dough-boy like baby-tark.
By lipton

9/17/09 at 7:16 p.m.

Suggest removal

mred, A birth certificate is a federal requirement ,not a republican requirement. It specifically states a person running for president MUST be american born, has nothing to do with being Governor, why do you think Arnold can't run for president? He was honest enough to say he was not born in America. Theres that racist card brought on by a democrat again.
By mikegino

9/18/09 at 8:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

Redm: why are you democrats always insinuating race into everything? Do you really think this is a winning strategy with anyone other than Acorn and their phantom voters? My wife is a Yaqui-Mexican and she probably costs you 20 votes every day because you democrats operate exactly as the PRI did in Mexico for 60 years.

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