Republican Candidate and Many Progressives Feel Abandoned Locally
A recap of our recent reporting plus bonus content.
In an op-ed widely circulated including to us, losing Republican County Commissioner candidate Marsha Berkbigler (in bottom right) wrote “The aftermath of the 2024 election has left many Republicans in Washoe County questioning the future of their party. With little to no support from party leaders and a lack of resources, Republican candidates faced an uphill battle against their Democratic opponents.”
She goes on to lament the lack of support from the Republican Governor Joe Lombardo and potential financial backers, with many of the more prominent Republican leaning candidates, other than Clara Andriola and the initially selected councilwoman and more centrist Kathleen Taylor relying mostly on self-funding, and the less affluent candidates having little to run on.
Andriola, also more centrist than many local vocal Republicans, as displayed on social media and in public comments, was well funded even though she faced no November opponent after winning her primary to continue as commissioner. She was initially selected as a replacement as well, gaining the power of incumbency not through voters but through high level political mechanisms.
On the other side of the political spectrum, many progressives have felt abandoned as well, disheartened by the razor-thin primary loss of their people’s champion Lily Baran, in the Ward 1 downtown primary, and of several candidates who divided votes in the race to defeat initially selected turned perennial councilman Devon Reese in a redrawn Ward 5.
While Reese and Berkbliger’s victorious opponent Alexis Hill are nominally Democrats, for progressives their support for and from deep-pocketed developers, construction magnates, attorneys, real estate agents and casinos as well as their policy approach on a range of issues is problematic to say the least.
Much like at the national level they now come across as elitist, favored overwhelmingly by professors, lawyers, union leaders, doctors plus contractors who rely on government to have cushy lives but not by the working class and small business entrepreneurs.
At the national level, Bernie Sanders has lamented that Kamala Harris did not amplify economic issues more such as Medicare for All and higher minimum wages, but instead reached out to the war mongering Cheney clan.
Thinking further through an international scope, even as Jacky Rosen retained her seat in the Senate, her staunch support for Israel’s current conduct is inadmissible for many local progressives.
Palpable in post election video interviews we conducted throughout Reno, there is a sense of a very centrist pro-growth clique looking out for each other, while occasionally virtue signaling, but leaving a swath of progressives and many Republicans, as echoed by Berkbigler, disheartened on the prevailing misguided social character now increasingly defining our biggest little city. Yet again, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and do our own hyperlocal direct actions to really try to help the most vulnerable among us, and lift each other up as best we can through positive human interactions.
Our Recent Reporting
Mothers and Other Residents from Abruptly Closed Lakemill Lodge Are Running Out of Money and Options to Be Housed
Did a local pastor violate IRS law with his pre-election voter guide?
Security Guard At Cares Campus Reaches Out, Seeking to Improve Conditions at Massive Shelter
Lowrider Car Culture Keeps Rising and Gaining Respect in Northern Nevada
New Petition to Preserve Funding for Libraries after WC-1 Fails
