Waiting for Our Mail to Be Counted, with a few important undetermined races
On a Friday morning Veterans Day, three days after Election Day for the midterms, we wince as our state name is mispronounced time and time again on national broadcasts. The spotlight remains as the Catherine Cortez Masto, Adam Laxalt race could determine the balance of the U.S. Senate, unless the Democratic incumbent inches back to safeguard her seat and Arizona is even slower than we are at determining winners and losers.
Governor Steve Sisolak has an even steeper climb, but a victory for his Republican challenger Joe Lombardo has yet to be called, given the thousands and thousands of votes left to be counted from Democratic-leaning areas.
Ballots mailed on Election Day can still arrive until Saturday, and curing (verifying questionable signatures) can take place until Monday, so it’s not even a question of speed, but of rules, as multiple races, including for the House of Representatives, remain tight.
Locally, for Reno’s Ward 4, Meghan Ebert trails Bonnie Weber by just 103 votes at this point, so an upset win in that race, which could seat a more careful planner and potential Jenny Brekhus ally on our City Council, is well within the realm of possibilities.
Other Council races will return Mayor Hillary Schieve to her leadership post, as challenger Eddie Lorton says he won’t contest election results, even if he writes that “strange things are happening” on his Facebook, such as the courtesy livestream of vote counting above going dark one night, with the County saying security footage of those hours will be provided as a replacement. Naomi Duerr appears headed to keep her Ward 2 seat. She’s been accepting congratulations on her own Facebook, saying thank you and using the #bettertogether hashtag.
It’s still early to predict how Miguel Martinez, the freshly selected Ward 3 representative, will vote on local issues, but since the little known TMCC inclusion coordinator was picked by the current Council it will probably be in line with saying yes to most developers and the current Doug Thornley, cozy with the Downtown Reno Partnership, city team.
On our school board, one of the “Save our Schools” candidates Colleen Westlake appears headed to victory in District B, giving Jeff Church an acolyte there, while a fill-in procedure is being prepared for District E, as incumbent Angie Taylor will now be headed to the state assembly with her victory in that body’s District 27.
Highlights of our recent reporting and social media
Our recommended read is girlchild by Tupelo Hassman who grew up in Sun Valley: https://www.ourtownreno.com/recommended-reads/2022/10/10/girlchild-by-tupelo-hassman
Our TikTok has videos of voters, a recent Iran protest below the arch and where roller bladers like to eat in Reno, which can also be viewed by scrolling through our Instagram.