The Storey Teller News and commentary on what’s really going on in Storey County.
Lacy J Dalton Pulls Nicole Barde (Guitar) Strings, Jay Carmona Takes The Bait From Switch.
The above data came from Storey County Candidate Contribution Reports contained in the latest Financial Reports filed with the Secretary of State on October 16th, 2018. The Reports can be accessed at the Nevada Secretary of State’s website. Jay Carmona’s report can be found here. Nicole Barde’s report can be found here.
Each candidate raised roughly equal contributions with Carmona raising the most in cash contributions. Barde’s in-kind contributions were $3371 of her total contributions and Carmona’s was $650. In-kind contributions are ones made by entities or individuals who are not contributing money but rather donate goods or services in lieu of cash.
Show Me The Money
The largest contributor to Carmona’s campaign was TRIC’s Switch for $2500 cash contribution. Barde’s largest contributor was Lacy J Dalton’s $1500 in-kind contribution for her performance at a fundraiser in August.
Battle Born Digital, the parent company of The Teller, contributed $921.50 in in-kind work for Barde’s campaign. Additionally, Barde’s campaign spent 1046.40 on advertising on The Teller and in print brochures.
An analysis of the contributions reveals some interesting facts. First, all Barde’s money comes from donations from individuals residing in Storey County.
Jay Carmona has taken nearly a third of his money from Las Vegas and California donors. Most telling is the single largest contribution for either candidate; $2500 from Switch. One could argue that because Switch has a facility in Storey County, they are a Storey County company. However, the vast majority of Switch’s business interests lie outside Storey County and their corporate office is in Las Vegas.
Change Of Pipeline Heart?
This may explain why Carmona opposed the use of taxes for the TRIC pipeline in 2017 but no longer does. During 2017, Carmona held townhall style meetings with Storey Teller Editor Sam Toll in the Highlands and in Lockwood. At the August 7th meeting, two weeks after receiving $2500 from Switch, he reversed his opposition to the TRIC Pipeline deal. When asked why he changed his mind, he replied “No Comment”.
Perhaps this explains his change of position.
We have included the reports below from the Secretary of State for your perusal.
Barde’s Report
Carmona’s Report
Article Update:
After posting this article, Mr. Carmona reached out to The Teller requesting a correction. He directed me to his recently updated website where the following quote can be read about the pipeline:
Question: What’s your take on the effluent pipeline?
Answer: The effluent pipeline is needed to grow the business park to its full potential and has been in negotiations for almost 2 years now with the terms ever changing. It appears that the leadership in Storey County has made every effort to minimize the liability to the County which is obviously a good thing. We must always put Storey County first when it comes to negotiating deals. The ideal situation for the pipeline would be for those who directly benefit to be the ones paying for the project.
Sam Toll, 10/31/18
More excellent sleuthing!
It’s the under-the-table money that is often more insidious and treacherous
that needs to be exposed.
I DON’T KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT STOREY COUNTY CAMPAIGN MONEY, BUT..
Over in Reno there are massive amounts of campaign funds being funneled
to some of the also-ran candidates who TRIC and their cronies want to
get in positions in order to make them their puppets. Why? So that Reno will continue
to have to pay the $$bills for TRIC and their ilk over in the Citizens-Funded Complex
in Storey County.
There’s this one guy over in Reno who is flooding the town with billboard-itus propaganda
pablum. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that somebody is sneaking $100s
of thousands of dollars into the campaign. Because he does not have that kind of
money. But then the C&E do not show that much money going into his campaign.
What’s going on?
Shouldn’t the authorities and media (who nick pick about Hillary getting a measly
$1500 too much from the El Dorado) be looking at the real OBVIOUS MANIPULATION?!?
Egregious manipulation of the C&E funding.
Shouldn’t authorities specifically investigate TRIC and renoelections dot com
poaching carpetbaggers for potentially illegal and possibly criminal money laundering
and the funneling hoards of duplicitous funds to the campaign(s)?
Sam DNA Dehne
I found some clever “cartoons” countering the prostituted perfidiousness:
http://www.renocitizen.com/liars.htm
It is interesting to see how hard some people are trying to use their cash to influence our elections. Very disappointing…
These $billionaires want control… of bureaucrat govt officials..
to be their puppets.
And they are buying them on the really cheap.
Even the massive amount of money they are hiding their campaign
scamming behind is peanuts compared to the $billions they would
(will?) be able to rob from the ignorant apathetic voters.
IF they are successful with their traitorous acts.
Who is there to stop them?
Sam, is anybody brave enough to even try?
Besides the Sam’s….
http://www.renocitizen.com/liars.htm
I was really surprised to find this article in the “News” section of the website… must have gotten hijacked on it’s way to the “Editorial” section, where it belongs.
Sam Toll and I line up shoulder to shoulder on a lot of issues (and I imagine we’ll continue to do so), but I’ve got a real issue with his editorializing on this one.
Let me remind you, Sam, of a couple things that you have changed and reported as fact. Ironically, I called you out for EXACTLY this behavior when you did it more subtly in your previous pipeline article, and you protested mightily. And then you went full bore.
In this article, you state: “At the August 7th meeting, two weeks after receiving $2500 from Switch, he reversed his opposition to the TRIC Pipeline deal. When asked why he changed his mind, he replied “No Comment”.”
Yet that is not how it went down, is it? Jay has been consistent in his position, which is both to oppose government doing things that private industry can do for themselves, and support for users paying for improvements instead of taxpayer funds. He chose not to comment due to your clear conflict of interest, and told you as much.
In fact, you even reported on the interaction in your article from August 9th, you reported it more accurately: “I reached out to Mr. Carmona via email after the meeting requesting his perspective and he replied with “no comment”.”
What you asked for was a comment or specific position statement, not as you claim in this article, an explanation of why he changed his position. Because he didn’t change his position… he simply didn’t feel comfortable discussing with a member of his opponents campaign committee claiming to be acting as a journalist.
You report this mythical “position change” as fact in this article… yet ignore the position statement that has been continuously and publicly available on Jay’s website that indicates opposition to public financing.
Either that is shoddy journalism, or it’s willful ignorance for the purpose of scoring political points. Either way, it’s not great, my friend. Disappointing, to be sure. Seems nobody is immune from the collateral caused by the desire for political influence.
I also noticed that in your examination of the financial statements, you failed to point out Nicole’s fundraiser… that appears to have cost more to put on than it raised. For a candidate running on her financial acumen, this is a concerning development for Storey County voters, and warrants at least a mention. That is… IF this is a news piece. If it’s an opinion piece, then pick and choose at will. Just label it properly as such.
I’ll remind you of your comment to me when I complained about your reporting in August:
“As far as the subtle narrative is concerned, I will not lower myself to dirty politics.
I will, however, report the facts.
Similarly, I will not compromise on the facts. If either candidate makes a misstep or has an issue people should know about, I will hold them to account. Both candidates actions or inactions are subject to scrutiny; it is not smearing or attacking them by reporting them.”
So consider this doing what you asked me to do – “I strongly encourage you to contact me immediately anytime facts that I report on are inaccurate.” If this is true, then a correction is called for. In the above article, you misreported the exchange you had with Jay, stating as fact that he changed his position. He has not, and you never asked him why he changed his position. You assumed, drew unsupported conclusions, and reported it as fact.
Clay,
My fundraiser cost me nothing…..Lacy and Dale performed for free and it is listed as an in kind contribution of $1500 from Lacy’s production company, her typical fee for the duo. The Red Dog also kicked in the venue for free and I reported it as a $500 in kind contribution…also their typical fee.
My business and financial acumen remains intact since I raised $800 with no out of pocket cash expenses.
Nicole Barde
Hi Nicole… thank you for pointing that out. I just scanned the documents and missed that those showed up as in-kind contributions as opposed to campaign expenses.
My mistake… please accept my apology.
No problem…those reports aren’t the most user friendly to fill out or read!
Nicole
Hi Nicole… thank you for pointing that out. I just scanned the documents and missed that those showed up as in-kind contributions as opposed to campaign expenses.
My mistake… please accept my apology.