Unions still mad about losing Hollywood handout

Ways Nevada is different from Maine include but are not limited to... “The answer to rising authoritarianism is not moderate half measures or BandAids on severed limbs,” a progressive state legislator in Maine said yesterday while heralding Gov. Janet Mills ending her U.S. Senate race and effectively handing the Democratic nomination to Graham Platner.

Nevada Democratic U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — all ardent and steadfast advocates of moderate half measures — had backed Mills.

Platner last year had been written off as the guy with a Nazi tattoo. He said he got it as a Marine in 2007 during a drunken leave in Croatia, and had no idea the image in the tattoo was associated with Nazis, and he's since had it covered. (Perhaps unfortunately for Platner, his general election opponent, Republican Sen. Susan Collins, voted against confirmation of white-nationalist-tattoo-adorned Pete Hegseth. But I digress.)

Meanwhile, Platner’s anti-war economic populism connected with Democratic voters.

It’s hard to imagine the same happening to a Nevada Democratic candidate for a high-profile office.

Mills is 78, which is a factor in Platner’s rise in the polls. But another factor, I suspect, is reflected by the existence of Maine's other U.S. senator, Angus King. He caucuses with the Democrats, but is an independent.

Maine doesn't have the equivalent of the oft-touted "Reid machine" and its (literally) powerful dedication to the preservation of Democratic centrist moderation. It's unthinkable that a sitting Democratic governor would lose a U.S. Senate primary to a progressive upstart in Nevada. Similarly, it's hard to imagine a Nevada progressive winning a Democratic primary for U.S. senator or governor, or a Nevada Democratic-leaning independent getting elected senator or governor (King has been elected to that job too).

A recent example of the machine at work happened when Aaron Ford announced his candidacy. He was all but immediately endorsed by every Democrat in Nevada's congressional delegation. Sure, Ford’s a viable candidate for governor. But it’s not as if he’s obviously the only person who should have been considered for the job, especially nearly a whole year before the primary, which is when the congressfolk endorsed him.

Progressive upstarts upsetting Democratic apple carts?

This is Nevada. That’s not allowed.

And (with perhaps a couple exceptions) Cortez Masto, Rosen, and other Democratic politicians and operatives — and the industries for which they stand — would all say that is exactly as it should be.

IN NEVADA CURRENT

They are your retribution! You may recall last year several segments of Nevada organized labor willingly and indeed eagerly enlisted themselves in perhaps the most blatantly egregious attempt from special interests to lead the state by the nose since California mining and banking industries created the state in 1864. They lost. Now they want their pound of flesh — which they aim to extract via a dozen(!) PAC contributions to campaigns and of course oodles of attacks funded by independent expenditures. April Corbin Girnus reports: Laborers union — and its dozen PACs — try to exact retribution for vote against film subsidy bill

This doesn't look good. “Late last week, Hope for Prisoners’ board of directors was informed that the State of Nevada was restricting CEO Jon Ponder’s access to state corrections facilities pending an inquiry regarding alleged misconduct,” HFP Board of Directors Chairman Glenn Martin said in a statement. Dana Gentry reports: Dept. of Corrections investigating Hope for Prisoners founder for alleged misconduct 

From the DC bureau:

Three shutdowns later, Trump signs bill that finishes funding the government. Bring on the next jiggery pokery.

Trump, US House speaker prod GOP states to gerrymander after voting rights ruling. Of course they do.

 Good Luck