Jon Ralston

Jon Ralston has reported in Ralston's Flash that state Sen. Mark Amodei (R-Carson City) has resigned his post as head of the Nevada Mining Association ahead of the special session set to begin Monday.

The arrangement of Amodei working as a lobbyist while serving as a state senator is legal, but has long been criticized by the media as inappropriate.

National pollster Frank Luntz will be on Face to Face with Jon Ralston tonight.

Ralston mentioned over coffee last week that this show would be very strong with the national insight that Luntz brings. Will Ralston get Luntz to reveal the full landscape in Nevada for 2010?  Will Luntz pronounce the Nevada GOP dead?  Will Ralston find out if those crazy emotion-o-meters that Luntz uses are anything but snake oil for the TV viewer?  Tune in to find out.

"Face to Face with Jon Ralston" airs daily on Las Vegas ONE (COX Cable channel 19) at 5:30, 6:30, 8:00 and 10:30 p.m., and again at 3:00 a.m. the next day.

Jon Ralston's Flash had the early update on early voting today.  The daily margin is narrowing, but Democrats continue to beat Republicans in the early vote.

Turnout so far in key districts:

CD3: 51-33
SD5: 49-35
SD6: 49-37

Ralston also predicts that "if Obama wins Clark County by 10 points, he will be almost impossible to beat in Nevada, especially because Democrats are turning out in large numbers in Washoe, too."

The ubiquitous Jon Ralston has posted a scathing review of the debate performance by Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK).

For the lazy:

"You betcha" politics may remind everyone that Sarah Palin is just like sweet Aunt Lilly from down the street.  Only now are the McCain operatives waking up to the fact that everyone may love Aunt Lilly, but no one in their right mind would want to see her in charge of the country.

And the wink at the debate was bad.  So, so bad.

Jon Ralston maps out why Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-Sparks) should be recalled, and how to to it.

It's brutal. 

In an interview Wednesday morning with "Face to Face" host Jon Ralston, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) refused to back down from comments he made last week to colleague U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) that "I can't stand John McCain."

Instead, he ramped up his criticism of the Arizona U.S. senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

DENVER – Nevada only has five electoral votes. But in what is expected to be a close presidential contest, those five votes could well swing the election.

As of today, the Silver State is widely seen as a tossup, with the Pindell Report ranking the contest as the most competitive battleground in the country.  And Nevada has another dimension of fascination this cycle, with the state’s pledged delegates splitting between Democratic primary rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Moments after the Nevada delegation finished their breakfast meeting at the Marriott here this morning, PolitickerNV.com today spoke with two leading Silver State political observers about the presidential landscape in Nevada.

“It’s the first convention I’ve been to in 20 years,” said Jon Ralston, whose column for the Las Vegas Sun is considered a must-read for the state’s political class. “I mean usually there’s nothing around at these things, it’s just pageantry and spectacle.”

DENVER – One of the Silver State’s noted political observers threw cold water on a surprising poll that showed Democrat Jill Derby running a surprisingly strong challenge to U.S. Rep. Dean Heller (R-Carson City).

“I find that poll hard to believe,” said newspaper columnist Jon Ralston, referring to the survey released last week finding Derby within five points of the first term Heller. The same survey in June found Derby 15 points behind.

“I don’t know whether they oversampled Washoe County, which Jill Derby beat Dean Heller last time but then got crushed in rural Nevada, which is the majority of the district,” Ralston continued. “But that poll doesn’t sound right to me. If that poll is right, though, that is saying something that no one else picked up on.”

Derby to report over $140,000 raised, Ralston scoops CD3 numbers

Clark County Dems vote again, this time 'smoothly'

Daskas pitches middle-class tax relief in first major policy speech

Gerhardt will not seek re-election or run for Senate

A learning curve for Gov. Gibbons

LAS VEGAS-Democratic 2nd District Congressional candidate Jill Derby will release first quarter fundraising numbers tomorrow, reporting over $140,000 raised.  With less than $10,000 spent, she will report over $130,000 cash-on-hand from over 450 donors.

Derby announced her second bid for the seat currently held by Republican Congressman Dean Heller Feb. 20, giving her just under six weeks to fundraise.  At the close of the last quarter, Heller had over $664,000 cash-on-hand with over $380,000 of campaign debt.