Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels: Where’s that ‘respectable’ Democratic candidate?

The Nevada Appeal’s Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels feature recognizes achievements from the capital region and, then warranted, points out other acts that missed the mark.

SILVER DOLLAR: Ross Dress for Less was set to open Saturday in Carson City, marking one of many positive retail developments set for the capital in the coming year. In fact, some of them are detailed in today’s Nevada Appeal. The twin shopping complexes at Topsy Lane and Jacks Valley Road are within sight of Carson City but generate a boatload of money for Douglas County. We’re pleased to see some of that tax money land here.

WOODEN NICKEL: We’re a week into the state’s filing period for elected office, and we’re still waiting for the “respectable” Democrat who can mount any sort of challenge incumbent Gov. Brian Sandoval to emerge. When U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said in an interview with the Nevada Appeal last month that his party would field such a candidate, it was tough to take him seriously. In addition to having big advantages as an incumbent with a large campaign chest, Sandoval gets to unofficially campaign by shaking hands at this year’s sesquicentennial events. Reid wouldn’t identify any potential Democratic candidates, saying, “You’ll find out.” It had better happen soon; Nevada’s candidate-filing period ends Friday.

SILVER DOLLAR: State Budget Director Jeff Mohlenkamp had some encouraging words for representatives of state agencies Thursday: “We’re not going to ask you to slash your budgets.” He said Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget for the next biennium will be focused on information technology upgrades, building maintenance and, most notably, restoring pay cuts for state workers. While he urged agencies not to “create a huge wish list of things that can’t be funded,” the tone of his comments was a nice change from the continuous discouraging economic news of the past few years.

WOODEN NICKEL: What’s more egregious: the fact that a man got blackout drunk on Super Bowl Sunday and lost $500,000 at a Las Vegas Casino, or his lawsuit against that casino, the Downtown Grand, for lending him money? State law bars casinos from giving visibly drunken people comped drinks and allowing them to gamble, but “I was too intoxicated to know what I was doing” is a poor excuse for wrongdoing and/or bad decisionmaking.