2022 Primary Ballots Taking Shape
Our local ballots will have plenty of interesting races, and even though the end of the filing period for most seats is still weeks away, on March 18th, and the primaries will be ending June 14th, we are now talking less than half a year before impactful electoral decisions are made.
Will we be having an uncrowded (both possibly termed out but probably not pursued) Mayor Hillary Schieve vs. challenger Councilwoman Jenny Brekhus showdown as a Jacobs Entertainment referendum on our collective downtown Reno future?
Other interesting races for us include Washoe County Commission District 3, with Kyle Isacksen, throwing his green hat into the ring, already busy with meetings and social media. Who will be up against him in that winner probably takes all Democratic primary for Kitty Jung’s position?
Community activist Nnedi Stephens has got our attention as another declared candidate, in this case against ex-Assemblyman Skip Daly to fill the vacant state Senate District 13 seat, held until last year by Democrat Julia Ratti.
Will other new forward thinking candidates step up?
As far as fundraising is concerned, it seems incumbent Republican Mark Amodei is a shoo-in to win come November for our Congressional 2nd District. His current GOP opponents and possible future Democratic challengers don’t seem to have raised any money yet. Perhaps a new surprise candidate will emerge, but time is ticking.
Catherine Cortez Masto’s Senate seat is being predicted battleground Democratic come November, but she also seems to have no competition in terms of fundraising, which can be a sometimes determinative indicator. She has more than four times as much money as the combined opposition GOP field of candidates, including Adam Laxalt.
For the governor’s race, incumbent Democrat Steve Sisolak is doing well with fundraising and early overall polling, as is Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, on the opposing Republican side. Lombardo faces a plethora of primary opposition, most notably Dean Heller, John Lee, Joey Gilbert, Michelle Fiore and Guy Nohra.
Local Reno-based developer Republican Jesse Haw, using mostly his own money, is trying to “go toe to toe with the Democrat machine” at the state level and replace termed-out Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, in what’s becoming an important position to guarantee the sanctity of our elections.
Logistically, Washoe County needs hundreds more election workers, for same day voter registrations and to count all the mail-in ballots that will pouring in, now that Nevada has become an all mail-in ballot state, where every active registered voter will be sent a mail-in ballot.
The Instagram post above, about a recent garage concert from our new local music correspondent, got over 100 comments, mostly COVID related.
Our #keeprenorad cultural section has an article about entering the world of local spoken word.
Our podcast episode this week is with RoMar Tolliver, with Black Wall Street Reno, explaining that group’s growth and his own, giving back so much to the community, and to our youth especially.
Our weekly recommended read is Evicted.
We had a feature showcase with a challenged case manager at the Washoe County safe camp, where the ModPods are finally being installed (video here by Lucia Starbuck, a former Our Town Reno student reporter now with KUNR.)
