PARTY LINES: Google as a weapon: Sisolak buys anti-Lombardo ads

Call it the worldwide web wars.

Gov. Steve Sisolak’s campaign has been hammering rival Joe Lombardo for his stance on abortion, and operatives have come up with yet another way to keep those attacks in front of voters. They’ve purchased Google ads keyed to specific search terms that will show users an ad slamming Lombardo when they Google terms related to abortion.

The ad — dubbed “Joe Lombardo’s plans” — says, “Joe would be an anti-choice governor. Joe supported the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, calling it ‘rightfully’ decided.” Below, it maintains Lombardo wants to restrict birth control, supports a strict ban on abortion and will overturn a Sisolak executive order that bans the state from assisting in the prosecution of anyone who travels to Nevada to seek an abortion.

For the record, the Lombardo campaign says it will not restrict birth control, which would raise serious constitutional questions. He also has said he would support voters being allowed to vote on a referendum that would restrict abortion after 13 weeks of pregnancy. And he did say he’d overturn Sisolak’s executive order.

But consider this your regular reminder that abortion laws are enshrined in state law after being ratified by a 1990 voter referendum and can’t be changed except by another vote of the people. And because it’s highly unlikely that Nevada voters have become more conservative on abortion than they were in 1990, that probably isn’t going to happen. In the same interview in which Lombardo said he would overturn Sisolak’s order, he also said, “but more important, the position the people feel, the majority of voters that passed a referendum, I support that.”

Something tells us that you will see this material again.

Don’t panic!

The fundraising missive was dire: U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, down by just 1 percentage point over her Republican rival, Adam Laxalt!

“This is incredible, friend! Polling in our race that will decide Senate control finally has me gaining momentum,” Cortez Masto (allegedly) wrote in the email. “After months of trailing my Trump-endorsed opponent, Adam Laxalt (R), I’m now within just 1 point.”

Cheer up, Cortez Masto campaign! Things are not that bad! In fact, you’re actually ahead!

According to Real Clear Politics as of Friday, the polling average in the Nevada Senate race has Cortez Masto up by 1.7 percentage points, 45 percent for the incumbent and 44 percent for Laxalt. According to the site — which keeps track of most polls done in the race — Cortez Masto has been up by as much as 8 or 9 percentage points over Laxalt in some polls; in three of them, Laxalt is up by 3 percentage points over Cortez Masto.

It is true, however, that Cortez Masto was found to be down by 1 percentage point, in a poll by McLaughlin and Associates and shared exclusively with Breitbart back in May. Since then, however, Real Clear Politics shows Cortez Masto up in three polls and Laxalt up in one.

So why use it? Because it’s perfect for a fundraising email: It shows her down, but just a little, which will motivate those folks closely following the race to write checks, especially because “a group of generous Democratic donors are TRIPLING every dollar up to $100,000 to help me reach my end-of-month goal.”

Moving on up

Megan Jones is well-known to Nevada politicos because of her work with the late Sen. Harry Reid, for whom she worked while he was in office and after his retirement. She’s a key part of the vaunted “Reid machine,” headed by Rebecca Lambe, that has had much success in electing Democrats to office in Nevada.

That talent has been recognized yet again, by the No. 2 politician in the nation: Vice President Kamala Harris has tapped Jones ahead of the midterms in a temporary job as a special government employee, Politico reported. Jones will help Harris with political planning, outreach and coordination, Politico says.

Jones worked as an adviser to Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign in Nevada, so the two were already acquainted. Harris’ staff — both during her campaign and her tenure as vice president — has had to endure news stories about turmoil and tumult, which was the opposite of Reid’s tight-knit, smooth-running operation when he served in the U.S. Senate until retiring in 2016. Reid passed away in December after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Endorsements update

Laxalt has been endorsed by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump (who has also endorsed Laxalt, by the way). In a fundraising missive sent on Tuesday, Haley told potential donors “Adam knows that our freedom is at stake, socialism is on the rise, (President Joe) Biden’s open-border policies are putting our country at extreme risk, and that our children’s education is being replaced with liberal indoctrination.” Haley is on the short list of Republicans who may run for president in 2024, depending on what Trump decides to do. … The Vegas Chamber has released another tranche of endorsements, backing Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones for re-election (he’s the husband of the aforementioned Megan Jones); fellow Commissioner Jim Gibson for re-election; Pamela Goynes-Brown for mayor of North Las Vegas; Trish Nash for Henderson City Council; and former assemblyman, state senator and former Las Vegas Councilman Bob Beers for a return to the council. In education races, the chamber supports incumbent Clark County School District Trustee Irene Cepeda for re-election and former Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams to replace incumbent Danielle Ford. In legislative endorsements, the chamber has been bipartisan, backing 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats. … The conservative group Americans for Prosperity Action has backed Joey Paulos and Tina Brown for Nevada state Senate, with Rhonda Knightly and Tiffany Jones for Assembly.

Democrats for Fiore?

Speaking of endorsements, Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore has been on a roll recently, announcing several Democratic endorsements. This comes after former Republican Party chair Amy Tarkanian publicly backed incumbent Democratic Treasurer Zach Conine for re-election.

On Fiore’s list: former Las Vegas Councilman Frank Hawkins, who was defeated for re-election amid ethics questions in 1995 but has since become a developer of affordable housing; fellow former Councilman Ricki Barlow, who admitted to campaign finance violations after an FBI investigation in 2018; former assemblyman and Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins, who ran unsuccessfully for governor this year in the Democratic primary; and former Assemblyman Harvey Munford, whom Fiore once infamously identified as “the first colored man to graduate from his college.” (Things have changed, however! In her news release, Fiore says, “He was the first black man to graduate from Eastern Montana College.”)

Munford, for his part, never took offense to Fiore’s comments.

Contact Steve Sebelius at SSebelius@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253. Follow @SteveSebelius on Twitter.