Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo making remarks during his State of the State Address in the Assembly Chambers in Janaury, 2025. (Photo by Richard Bednarski for Nevada Current)
Sounding more like Rodney Dangerfield than the chief executive of Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo complained last weekend to a Republican gathering that he’s getting no respect in the Democratically-controlled Nevada Legislature, which he says has left him impotent to chart a course for the state.
“Unless you have that majority, you can’t make this difference. Can’t make a difference,” Lombardo lamented while addressing the crowd at the Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Pahrump.
The governor told the crowd he “had a discussion” with Majority Leader Nicole Canizzarro. “And I said, ‘Hey, what the hell is going on? My bills haven’t been heard. And the response was, ‘just because you’re the governor doesn’t mean you get a hearing.’”
The speech was an illustration of Lombardo’s fleeting efforts at bipartisanship.
“As governor, I am filled with hope and optimism [in] what we can accomplish if we simply summon the will to work together,” Lombardo said in his inauguration address in 2023. “This is the central covenant of my administration.”
He went on to veto a record 75 bills.
In January, during his State of the State speech, he urged state lawmakers to “set aside partisan politics.”
But on Saturday, common ground was beyond the governor’s grasp as he maligned Democratic voters as well as elected officials.
“I think it’s important for people to realize that the strategy associated with the Democratic Party is stay at home. ‘What can the government do to give handouts to us in order to ensure that we continue to support the government’ and re-elect people that represent them in that manner?”
The governor complained that he’s stifled by the Legislature’s Democratic majority.
“People are freaking tired, and the Democratic Party has not seen the election results of November as a mandate,” he said. “They see it as an obstacle of what they’re trying to achieve.”
“Every day on social media, I get a submissive (sic) that says, ‘Why isn’t Governor Lombardo doing what Governor DeSantis is doing? Why isn’t Governor Lombardo doing what Governor Youngkin is doing? Why isn’t Governor Lombardo doing what Governor Abbott is doing?’ Because I don’t have that luxury of a majority of the Legislature that is of the Republican Party.”
Lombardo had a message for the “individuals on social media – that are talking bad about all of us, in particular me. And a little bit on [Lt. Gov.] Stavros Anthony,” he joked. “Who cares? Stavros said the line is ‘f**k you.’ He actually didn’t say that. I said that.”
Lombardo suggested “those stupid protests that occur in the state capital” are paid for by the Democratic Party, adding momentum among Democrats “isn’t because they’re pissed because they want to make a difference, it’s because they’re being paid.”
The governor observed that two months into the 120-day legislative session, only two bills have landed on his desk. “One is to pay for the Legislature, and two is whether they let chickens roam,” Lombardo said of legislation that, in light of high egg prices and scarcity resulting from bird flu, suspended the law for 120 days that requires that egg-bearing hens have the ability to roam.
Among Lombardo’s legislative priorities, he told the Republicans, is economic development, adding that “under the two years of my tenure as your governor, we have brought $5 billion in economic development into the state.”
Yet, he observed, Nevada leads the nation in unemployment and job availability.
“You know why? Because they’re not quality jobs,” he said. “People would rather manipulate the government process and receive unemployment or to sit at home versus occupying a job that’s available that doesn’t see their family moving forward.”
Lombardo announced he endorsed Nevada Republican Party chairman Michael McDonald for re-election.
“Everybody complains about like, ‘Why is he still the chair? Why is he still the chair? One, he wants to do it, which is very important,” the governor said. “Two, he has the fire in his stomach to do it. And three is he’s made a difference.”
McDonald, who like Lombardo, is a former Las Vegas Metro cop, was one of five fake electors who cast Nevada’s electoral votes in 2020 for Donald Trump.
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Author: Dana Gentry
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