In the Dobbs era, Democrats on the campaign trail and their associated media outlets are lying and playing semantics about abortion in Nevada. Abortion has been the main focus for embattled D’s at risk of losing their seats in November, mostly because the destruction of the local economy isn’t a winning talking point in the state that set the historical US record for unemployment during the lockdowns in 2020.
Abortion is codified in Nevada Revised Statutes 442.250, a veto referendum known as Question 7, approved by voters in 1990. This is often erroneously called a constitutional amendment, even though I have made that mistake because it acts similarly in tying the legislature’s hands and forcing the issue to the ballot. In other states, referendum petitions seek to repeal, not support statutes, but in Nevada, citizen-initiated referendum results in statute affirmation if successful and repeals legislation if rejected. An affirmed statute prohibits the legislature from repealing or amending voter-approved legislation without putting the proposed changes on the ballot for voter approval.
Now, none of the Democrat candidates focusing full campaign efforts on this single issue have bothered to admit it’s been decided by voters for over three decades. Just a lot of hot air about something governors and US Senators literally have nothing to do with in our state.
More recently, the talking points and ads have attempted to smear GOP candidates who were asked a trick question. Both the Republican nominees for Governor and Senate, Sheriff Joe Lombardo and former Attorney General Adam Laxalt have signaled they would uphold the voter’s 30-plus year affirmed statute. And, how could they not? There is no role for those offices to change or ignore it, regardless of any perspective. The question they were asked is if they would support voters deciding to change the standard from 24 weeks to 13 weeks.
Both Lombardo and Laxalt said something in line with their previous stance of not violating voter-affirmed statutes, by saying they would once again support what voters decided and support their right to vote on the issue. Of course, this is the right answer, objectively no matter where you land. Any other stance would frankly be illegal and over-reach from offices that have no right or power to do anything except uphold the law. Lombardo and Laxalt both have the experience of understanding, upholding, and enf orcing the state laws through their previously elected positions as incumbent Sheriff and former Attorney General, respectively. It’s almost too stupid to ask the Sheriff or former Attorney General how they feel about state laws, given their careers of actually enforcing them.
But, no behavior is too low-brow for Dems in Nevada, and they don’t bother to address their own logical fallacies, either. Cue the Steve Sisolak (D) for Governor ad. No, not the one where the multi-millionaire Governor acts offended by the price of bacon. The one where they skip the bad acting and just lie instead. If you pause the ad, you can find the only relevant information which says, blah blah blah the voters decide the issue of abortion in Nevada.
Screenshot from Sisolak Campaign ad. Credit: Steve Sisolak Twitter account
For those of us who are not intellectually dishonest, and don’t wish to confuse or lie to the voters the story of candidates supporting the state statutes and rights of the electorate is the biggest nothing burger yet. For Democrats, well, one said the abortion issue was “a call to arms” this week. The Sisolak re-election campaign ran a dishonest ad calling the Sheriff a liar, completely incredulous of the fact his ad claims a change of stance that just didn’t happen. Supporting the voter-approved statute is the same as supporting the voter’s right to further approve the statutes.
It’s also pretty insulting that Sisolak after all the permanent business closures he caused, the record unemployment, his agency failures like pandemic assistance programs, the education system crisis, the student suicide rates due to forced school closures, and so on… he thinks a Supreme Court decision that did not impact our state is his saving grace? That’s desperate.
AP Photo/John Locher, File
Laxalt got similar treatment, being challenged on a bait and switch style question. Except for this time, the local media noted that the asked and answered questions became confusing. Any talk of a federal abortion ban can be another mental gymnast question for the campaigns, since up to this point we have been talking about the issue, needlessly mind you, in regards to our state, not everyone else. The questions the campaigns had already been asked by local media were about the issue going to the voters to ultimately decide. Which, duh, they have to. Now, the goal posts have moved and candidates are being asked something else, which still has the same answer: it’s up to the voters in Nevada.
But let’s take a look since it’s the Dem’s biggest issue this season. They asked Senator Cathrine Cortez Masto (D) about a federal proposal. They reported her answer was a simple, “no.” Then, when Laxalt responds that the bill has “no chance to pass Congress” and says it would have no bearing on current settled Nevada state law, his response is purported by the local media to be in support… of something else entirely… and that the voters can decide, anyway.
Now the months-long, mind-numbing discussions on an issue that just isn’t one for Nevadans in November will neither become more transparent nor intellectually honest toward the public any time soon. Even though it’s literally not on the ballot, that has not stopped the Sisolak from printing abortion merch.
Do those Dems look distressed? They look like the repeal of Roe was the best thing to ever happen to them, the fodder they needed to distract voters from actual issues impacting Nevada, and an excuse to virtue signal for months on end while proposing… nothing but themselves. Not one of those people has a productive thought in their head if between five of them they can’t figure out how to solve for a wrinkled t-shirt.
The Republicans are the only ones telling voters the truth, it has nothing to do with the Governor’s office or a Senator: It legally cannot.
Even Democrat supporters know and admit they are lying on the issue, too:
The only related issue on the ballot is if the voters will tolerate the Democrats’ patent pandering and insults to their intellect. The question being asked is: are Nevadans too stupid to know they are being lied to about abortion in our state? The education system is in shambles, but I don’t believe the voters who approved the law suddenly have amnesia about how it got there.
Cheers to hoping the voters know it’s been their power since 1990 and nobody gets to dangle it around as bait to distract from their glaring policy failures. The top-of-the-ticket Democratic incumbents are banking on you believing that they have more power on the issue than the voters do. To Nevadans, that’s both stupid and insulting.