GOP sets up two more PACs to help take the state Senate

I have been saying for some time that the amount of money spent in the three state Senate districts that will determine the majority in 2015 will be astronomical.

And at the end of August, the Senate Republicans ensured it will be even larger by setting up two new political action committees on the same day.

Actually, both were set up on Aug. 28 by Jodi Stephens, the crack operative who runs the caucus. Stephens jokingly called herself an "interested citizen" in confirming she registered the PACs and explaining why she set up the Nevada Women's Alliance and the Senate Republican Majority PAC.

The former lists Stephens as an officer and is a project ("To support candidates who are committed to strengthening Nevada's economy and education system") that she said she and her husband, Chad, have been considering for some time. But Stephens candidly said it will be used this cycle mostly to help her boss, state Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson, change his title. The other entity lists two northern senators, Greg Brower and Ben Kieckhefer, as officers.

Add Roberson's pair of PACs, the Nevada Jobs Coalition, Gov. Brian Sandoval's campaign and his PAC and: The Senate GOP is going to have plenty of resources beyond what candidates Roberson, Becky Harris and Patricia Farley can raise on their own. And the Democrats, whose leaders have their own PACs and who have a well-oiled, legalized money laundering machine called a state party (the GOP is jealous!), will have plenty of money, too, for Assemblywoman Marilyn Dondero Loop, state Sen. Justin Jones and Teresa Lowry.

I set the over/under in total spending in those three races at an aggregate $3 million. Yes, you heard me.

Of course, with this state's ridiculously opaque disclosure laws, we won't know any fundraising totals for these PACs until Oct. 14.

 

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