Nevada Court Delivers Blow to Shameful Republican Recall Effort

 

 

LAS VEGAS — As the Nevada Independent has reported, today a Nevada District Court judge upheld the constitutionality of a state law that could remove hundreds of signatures from petitions in the politically-charged effort to recall two Democratic state senators while ordering a “complete validation” of signatures for both petitions. Democrats believe they have enough signatures to invalidate the recall efforts and end this drawn out and completely unnecessary Republican-fueled saga.

“Despite the Republican State Leadership Committee sinking more than $1 million into this underhanded partisan attack on democracy, the Nevada District Court has ruled in favor of election integrity,” said DLCC Executive Director, Jessica Post. “By ruling the signed strike forms constitutional, the Court returned the rightful power to the voters and saved taxpayers money and restored faith in the state’s electoral system. We’re proud of the efforts of Our Votes, Our Voice and our work to educate and mobilize Nevadans against these shameful and baseless recall attempts. This is a proud day for Nevada and a proud day for democracy.”

In 2016, the DLCC and Nevada Democrats successfully flipped control of both chambers in the state legislature – the only state to do so in the nation. Republicans, desperate to turn back the clock and reclaim control, filed three recall petitions against State Senators Joyce Woodhouse (SD5), Nicole Cannizzaro (SD6), and Patricia Farley (SD8) – all members of the Democratic caucus.

State Democrats have flipped 39 state legislative seats from red to blue, while Republicans have only flipped 3 when a Democratic candidate has been in the race. That’s why they resorted to a new and desperate tactic in Nevada: recalls.”

The Republican recall petitions caused statewide outrage, with Nevada journalist and political commentator Jon Ralston calling the recalls “an outrageous abuse” and a “subversion of democracy.” Republican Governor Brian Sandoval expressed his opposition to this effort from state Republicans and special interests, recognizing that there was no legitimate reason for the recalls and stating it sets “a dangerous precedent.” In November 2017, Republicans failed to submit enough signatures to recall Senator Patricia Farley.

The DLCC created a recall committee called Our Votes, Our Voice to run a “decline to sign” campaign to educate and ask voters to not sign a recall petition through mail, field, and digital ads. By working with national and in-state partners to raise more than $1 million to go toward anti-recall efforts, including a field program to talk with voters about what Republicans are trying to do and closely monitoring the signature verification process, today the DLCC learned that all the work paid off now that the Nevada District Court has ruled in favor of election integrity.

During the most recent legislative session, Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford, DLCC Board member and Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, and Nevada Democrats led the way on progressive policy reforms, passing legislation to expand health care access, protect public education, and more.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is the only organization exclusively committed to electing Democrats to state legislatures all over the country and winning Democratic control of chambers. For over two decades, the DLCC has been working with state legislative leaders to invest strategically in state programs, which has led to Democrats flipping 39 seats since Trump’s inauguration. The DLCC is building on Democrats’ winning momentum and continues to lay the groundwork for substantial gains in 2018 in statehouses nationwide. State Democrats recently scored critical victories in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington, Virginia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, and elsewhere, while also leading the resistance against the Trump administration’s extremist policies. You can learn more about critical upcoming elections and follow DLCC’s Spotlight Races at races.dlcc.org.

 

For more information or to schedule an interview with the DLCC, please contact Mara Sloan at [email protected].