The Storey Teller News and commentary on what’s really going on in Storey County.
Republican Senate hopeful Danny Tarkanian came to the Lower Comstock last night as Lyon County Commissioner Bob Hastings and his wife Nadine hosted an hour long meet and greet at the Lyon County Community Center in Dayton last night.
He shared his thoughts and ideas on what his tenure might look like if he was to represent Nevada as a freshman Senator in 2019.
At the outset he hammered incumbent Dean Heller for flip flopping on conservative issues like funding Planned Parenthood, raising taxes and not toeing the company line for by being an ardent “Never-Trump”er . Tarkanian and other Nevada Republicans lost to Democrats in the 2016 elections in part because the Nevada Republican braintrust decided to wave the Never-Trump banner in the 2016 elections.
He contended the Never Trump stance encouraged moderate Republicans to vote Democrat which in turn changed the state from staunchly red to purpley-blue. While this might have been true in his and other Nevada races, no right minded conservative could imagine any part of a day where President Hillary Clinton would make a better commander in chief than President Donald Trump.
After an interesting monologue he took questions from the audience that covered the spectrum from the national debt, the health care trainwreck, the veteran’s personal sidecar on that trainwreck that is the VA, the trainwreck that is the state of the Republican Party and Yucca Mountain.
The meat of the evening was wrapped up in Tarkanian’s answer to the question of what issues he stands for that make him different and unique.
He suggested the United States should give up trying to be the world’s policeman and stop the now long failed notion that we can somehow fashion happy shining Democracies in freedom starved countries at the point of a gun. He suggested that while we should maintain our position of unparalleled strength, unless a country represents a clear and present danger to the sovereignty of the United States we should not meddle with the sovereignty of another nation.
His stance on Yucca Mountain was equally interesting. He thinks that Yucca Mountain represents a serious opportunity for Nevada to become a global leader in “Green Technology” and the 100 Billion construction dollars would be a delight to the Nevada economy. You wouldn’t think that being a landfill for the nation’s nuclear waste could be considered green, but given the success of France’s innovative recycling efforts, Yucca Mountain could provide a positive solution for a dangerous problem across the country. The United States now houses lots of nuclear waste in lots of places that are both costly to maintain and represent a threat to large population centers.
Sharpening the Blade.
All in all, Tarkanian’s answers were mildly interesting and reasonably well delivered. Considering the fact that he has been running for office on some level for quite some time, he seemed a little green in his delivery. It is super easy to hammer on the guy who has the job; both he and his exuberant field manager were great at hammering on Heller.
It’s a different matter when you have to explain how you are the better choice.
Practicing his delivery in front of 30 people in Dayton is a good place to sharpen the blade. In order to be a candidate that can beat both the well heeled incumbent and his heavy heeled and well organized Democrat opponent next November, Tarkanian’s blade needs to be a wee bit sharper.
The Teller will be meeting him again in a couple weeks to see if he has sharpened his blade.
Stay Tuned.
