Shots Fired from Twitter over Contributions in Hard to Predict Reno Mayoral Race
Social media is getting tense as official election ballots are being received ahead of the June 14th primary.
In the Reno mayor’s race, 11 candidates are vying for the top two showdown spots. Operation Sunlight-backed candidate Eddie Lorton has expressed confidence he’s a lock for November, but is he? Speaking to different people who follow elections closely, and gaging the mood on social media, it seems he’s in the consensus top three, with incumbent Mayor Hillary Schieve, he lost against in the runoff in 2018, and court cleared councilwoman Jenny Brekhus, being the other two. There are a few underdog underfunded candidates with innovative ideas trying to step into that upper tier of broader name recognition beyond their own circles.
Which brings us to today’s topic. Last week’s Our Town Reno Substack looked into some of the details of contributions and financial forms for the competitive Democratic Washoe County Commission District 3 race. That prompted councilman Devon Reese to reply asking why we weren’t looking closer at recent contributions in the Mayoral race.
We had pointed out in previous Substacks that Brekhus had received $10,000 from the White family in 2021, as well as $2,500 this year from Answerwest, the Reno-based answering service. We hadn’t connected those dots, which Reese did for us. Turns out the Whites had a project next to their property in Verdi they were angry about being considered before the City Council (see below). Also Answerwest was founded by Cherie Humphreys, who donates to Joey Gilbert. Answerwest has also given money to the Battle Born Patriots, behind recall efforts against Governor Steve Sisolak. So this money is associated with far-right causes.
Pointing this out drew the ire of Brekhus supporters. Another politician running for office also wondered why Reese was going up so aggressively against a fellow council member in a race he’s not even running in.
Contacted by Our Town Reno, Brekhus had a lengthy response, which she prefaced saying that “while Reese is a frequent social media user and uses that platform to lodge attacks to me, I don’t engage with him.”
She also called Reese “not the most credible to raise such issues” given he has received large donations from developers behind the Daybreak project before city council, since rebranded Talus Valley, which local media including Our Town Reno have reported about. “This circumstance in and of itself in my mind, would prevent me from exploring claims made by him on this topic. But then again, I am not a media outlet,” she wrote, making five other rebuttals to our query, which we’ve reprinted below:
“*I’ve run 3 winning campaigns for City Council (two city-wide) with less money than my opponents. This is highly atypical particularly at the local level and an accomplishment worth noting. I am prepared to do this again as Reno Mayor.
*It is not a clear picture to take one or two contributions out of context. A clearer picture is that of how many maxed out contributions one receives, the sectors of this reported, and then the total by percentage of under $100.
*As Reese is a vocal supporter of the incumbent a responsible a[nd] fair report may be to look at how many of her contributions came from those represented by her lobbyist friend. These are all public record at the time she reads disclosure and on the lobbyist registration form.
*All I know about Humphries is that she has a business in Ward 1. White is an unincorporated resident who has never made a request for a land use entitlement or a vending opportunity with the city as far as I know.
*Also, please know that as a city planner for over 25 years a theme of this field is that land use policies that embrace a development driven sprawl model results in inequitable outcomes. As a growing city that still has an outlying land supply, a careful outward expansion must be achieved. Otherwise disinvestment in core urban areas that most often are home to minority and economic disadvantage people results. There are other outcomes as well that are regressive. These include degraded air quality and auto reliance to jobs. If you need to read some urban literature on this topic, I could point you in some directions.”
Our own reporting this week featured a lesser-known candidate with bold ideas, who recently slept at the Cares Campus, Joaquin Roces.
Our podcast is with yet another dark horse candidate Judi Rought, whose ideas include better wi-fi.
Our #keeprenorad section had a rundown of current favorite bars in Reno.