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Quite a nasty GOP primary battle is shaping up for Nevada's new 4th Con gressional District between state Sen. Barbara Cegavske and Danny Tarkanian, which also features at least three other announced Republican candidates.
In a pre-emptive shot at Tark recently, Cegavske tweeted, “I have won 6-straight elections. Danny has an 0-3 record. Enough said. I am in it to win it.”
Sorry, but there is, indeed, more to say on this subject.
Cegavske has won six straight elections; that's true enough. But those races were for comparatively small state legislative seats (state Assembly and Sen ate) in Republican-friendly districts and with the advantage of incumbency.
Danny's first race and loss was in 2004 against Democratic incumbent state Sen. Mike Schnei der in a largely Demo crat ic district and in a race in which Schneider ultimately had to pay Tarkanian $150,000 to settle a defamation of character lawsuit.
It was that ugly; it was that dirty. Still, Tarkanian lost by less than 2,000 votes.
Danny's second race was a statewide race for secretary of state in 2006. But before he got to the general election, Danny first had to defeat a very credible candidate, who was a former Republican Party chairman, in the primary.
And to be fair, if Cegavske is going to count Danny's 2010 loss in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, then she should count this primary victory as a win, as well. That would make his actual record 1-3, not 0-3. But I digress.
Yes, Tarkanian lost to Democrat Ross Miller, son of a former Nevada governor, in the general election.
But in addition to running against Miller, the very conservative and highly respected Janine Hansen also was on the ballot as the IAP candidate, taking votes that otherwise probably would have gone to Danny.
Which brings us back to that 2010 statewide GOP primary race for U.S. Senate. Yes, Danny lost. But he lost in a race with not one, not two, not three … but four credible, viable, well-funded Republican opponents (as well as some others).
It was an extremely tough race in which Danny came in a close third to Sharron Angle and Sue Lowden.
And in case anyone reading this thinks I'm just a big Tarkanian fan who's shilling for Danny, you obviously aren't aware of our relationship during that 2010 Senate race (I was a Lowden supporter).
Let's just say relations be tween the two of us back then would have to warm up just to be considered frozen. It was that bad.
But the notion that you can just look at Tarkanian and Cegavske's win-loss records without context and declare that the candidate with the better record is the stronger candidate in the CD4 race is simply not true. Enough said.
• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach. He may be reached at chuck@citizenoutreach.com
In a pre-emptive shot at Tark recently, Cegavske tweeted, “I have won 6-straight elections. Danny has an 0-3 record. Enough said. I am in it to win it.”
Sorry, but there is, indeed, more to say on this subject.
Cegavske has won six straight elections; that's true enough. But those races were for comparatively small state legislative seats (state Assembly and Sen ate) in Republican-friendly districts and with the advantage of incumbency.
Danny's first race and loss was in 2004 against Democratic incumbent state Sen. Mike Schnei der in a largely Demo crat ic district and in a race in which Schneider ultimately had to pay Tarkanian $150,000 to settle a defamation of character lawsuit.
It was that ugly; it was that dirty. Still, Tarkanian lost by less than 2,000 votes.
Danny's second race was a statewide race for secretary of state in 2006. But before he got to the general election, Danny first had to defeat a very credible candidate, who was a former Republican Party chairman, in the primary.
And to be fair, if Cegavske is going to count Danny's 2010 loss in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, then she should count this primary victory as a win, as well. That would make his actual record 1-3, not 0-3. But I digress.
Yes, Tarkanian lost to Democrat Ross Miller, son of a former Nevada governor, in the general election.
But in addition to running against Miller, the very conservative and highly respected Janine Hansen also was on the ballot as the IAP candidate, taking votes that otherwise probably would have gone to Danny.
Which brings us back to that 2010 statewide GOP primary race for U.S. Senate. Yes, Danny lost. But he lost in a race with not one, not two, not three … but four credible, viable, well-funded Republican opponents (as well as some others).
It was an extremely tough race in which Danny came in a close third to Sharron Angle and Sue Lowden.
And in case anyone reading this thinks I'm just a big Tarkanian fan who's shilling for Danny, you obviously aren't aware of our relationship during that 2010 Senate race (I was a Lowden supporter).
Let's just say relations be tween the two of us back then would have to warm up just to be considered frozen. It was that bad.
But the notion that you can just look at Tarkanian and Cegavske's win-loss records without context and declare that the candidate with the better record is the stronger candidate in the CD4 race is simply not true. Enough said.
• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach. He may be reached at chuck@citizenoutreach.com
