The local political establishment is sinking lower and lower in what they are willing to do to reclaim full political power—to the detriment of a vast majority of Clark County citizens. They disrespect you and your ideas and desires every time that they override what you want and choose the “establishment” way. We start with some background.
2012 was a very active political season as grassroots conservatives all over the country got heavily involved, mostly because of anger directed at the presidential race. While the anger was on a national level, the results were felt in local elections, as citizens who had never been involved with politics realized that they had a way for their voices to be heard.
Here in Clark County newly activated conservatives began promoting small government and an anti-corruption agenda throughout the county. They developed communication skills and tools while fighting the bipartisan CRC Bridge and light rail debacle. The deconstruction of the CRC project helped segregate the political players between those who look out for the best interest of their constituents and community, and those driven by self-interested ideology. The local Republican Party felt the political weather change and replaced the country club cabal of party establishment types with principled grassroots conservatives. This new organization resulted in record fund-raising, a record number of Republicans elected to local public office, and a huge increase in the use of modern technology. Many of these new Republicans sought to reform local government by reducing its size and making it more responsive to the citizens.
This local lurch to the right dis-empowered many people who form the legacy establishment. They’ve actively resisted the new political realities in Clark County and continue to seek to regain control of local politics and silence the voice of the grassroots citizens. This establishment is composed of many longtime county and city politicians, nearly all county and city government senior bureaucrats, leadership of local business associations, well-financed special interest liberals, all aided by an aggressively liberal local newspaper that runs constant negative stories about local reformers. Together, they form a formidable group impervious to original thinking, and committed to the big government model and the perks and power generated by typical systemic corruption.
The most publicly prominent reformer is David Madore. Because of his position on the 2013 to 2015 county commission and his aggressive implementation of small government reforms during his time in office, he has become the lightning rod for the anti-reform establishment. Led by the Columbian’s incessant shrill dishonest attacks and the election of two big-government Republicans last November, the establishment senses blood in the water and has begun a concerted campaign to defeat David Madore and undo all his small government and business-friendly reforms. There’s apparently no depth to which the establishment will not stoop to smear David Madore’s reputation. For example:
♦ When the county faced dramatic cost increases by the Humane Society to enforce animal control laws, David Madore questioned the basis of these increases and explored possible alternatives. For this the establishment accused him of hating animals and wanting to kill kittens.
♦ The establishment accuses David Madore of lacking transparency, when in reality he’s led a comprehensive transparency campaign, including the initiative to make County government operations records easily available to all citizens. It’s called ‘The Grid’
♦ The establishment has accused David Madore of wasting taxpayer dollars, even though Madore implemented cost-cutting programs. Many of the expenses Madore has been accused of were incurred by the establishment’s attempts to resist and fight the reforms proposed by Madore.
♦ In a classic “Have you stopped beating your wife yet” tactic, when the county planning director filed proven false claims against Madore, the establishment accused Madore of filing false claims when he reacted to the planning director’s politically motivated actions.
Politics makes strange bedfellows! United in a common cause to defeat common-sense small-government reformers, local establishment Republicans find themselves politically aligning with liberal Democrats to defeat these uppity conservative citizens who have crashed their political country club. You can no longer tell the players without a program, as government-knows-best progressives like Jennifer McDaniel and John Blom campaign as Republicans with empty right-of-center platitudes. The establishment, special interests, and progressives have united their efforts in a political action committee (PAC) called Connecting Clark County, as shown by the juvenile smear sites ConnectingClarkCounty.com and www.nomoremadore.com. Malicious lies from these websites should embarrass the donors to this PAC. They should demand a refund as it’s presumed most were not aware of the despicable people who would execute the plan.
The establishment and progressives seek to unseat David Madore and also claim the conservative seat being vacated by councilor Tom Mielke. Jennifer McDaniel has been recruited by establishment operatives to run against conservative Eileen Quiring for Tom Mielke’s seat. McDaniel has a three-year track record of bowing to the will and corruption of the local political establishment, has a bevy of establishment donors, and is chummy with the caustic and liberal Columbian editor Lou Brancaccio.
John Blom is running as a Republican against David Madore. Blom has no known association or history with the local Republican Party. Blom has close associations with the corrupt county planning bureaucracy, appears to be fully committed to the local political establishment, complicit to the lies and despicable actions taken against David Madore, and his role on the Council is expected to be that of a lapdog to Marc Boldt who himself is a puppet for the legacy establishment. Blom’s campaign is run by local establishment liberals and his campaign donations are the typical establishment players, many of whom are liberals. So you can see why Blom’s credentials as a reasonable Republican are in question.
How did Clark County get to this sorry state? Over the last twenty years Clark County has been increasingly taken over by government-knows-best politicians and professional bureaucrats who tend to only grow government and arrogance. Except for state legislators in the 18th and 17th districts, most other county politicians have been left of center, and frequently very liberal. The business community has had to work with these politicians, and a left-of-center groupthink culture evolved. The result today is self-righteous people who execute smear and lie campaigns against their political adversaries to increase their power. When they are more successful, a vast majority of citizens have their rights and prosperity reduced. This is the disrespect in this article’s title.
We wrote this article to defend truth, right, and ethical behavior. We aren’t special pleaders for David Madore, but since the anti-reform establishment has chosen him as their main target, his name keeps coming up. Clark County citizens are at a precipice. If the reformers David Madore and Eileen Quiring lose this primary election, the establishment candidates will probably win the general election. Then they will hold all five County Council positions and double-down on hard-line, big government policies. It will set back good government for many years, as these politicians focus on establishment power and special interest, while only giving lip service to the citizens. How do we know? Because the current establishment majority on the county council has a six month unbroken record of this and is the basis for dozens of articles exposing this mess on ClarkCounty.info.
Regardless of the results of the August 2nd primary election, the concerned citizens who have risen to their feet in Clark County, and all over America, are not going away. You see, the problem has not gone away, so the push-back will increase as more and more citizens hear about the lies, corruption, and incompetence of this local ruling class.
The long view shows beating self-serving political establishments is an achievable battle for citizens, mainly because of the mass communication tools we have today. When the citizens are shown the facts about the such ruling class establishments, they become disgusted, except for the extremely small group who feed off this situation. The team at ClarkCounty.info will do its part in exposing our version of these people in Clark County.