Steve Marcus
North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee answers questions from students during a virtual leadership meeting at Somerset Academy, a charter school in north Las Vegas on Thursday, February 25, 2021. Lee was the speaker.
Sunday, May 16, 2021 | 2 a.m
CARSON CITY – When North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee isn’t seriously considering running for governor, he’s making a good impression of who it is.
He appeared on Fox and Friends in February to dramatically announce his conversion to the Republican Party. He recently completed a barnstorming-style tour of all 17 Nevada counties. And he has done little to contain speculation.
Lee was asked directly if he intended to remove Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak. He crossed the subject like a fire walker moving over a bed of hot coals. He stepped forward cautiously – not yes, but definitely not no.
“There is a lack of leadership in this state right now and I am being informed of it from many places and I am concerned about it,” Lee said, leaving it at that.
Lee said it was too early to announce plans for future involvement in government issues. The deadline for registering a candidate for governor is still about 10 months away.
In the meantime, Lee set out to travel from democratic strongholds in southern Nevada to the ruby red rural districts of the north.
About two weeks after his appearance on Fox, the former longtime Democrat announced he would visit every county in the state to meet with “Republican leaders and activists.”
“I wanted to meet as many people in these counties as possible to assess the situation,” said Lee, who finished his trip last month.
So what did he learn?
Lee said those outside the Las Vegas and Reno areas expressed a “sense of hopelessness” that they are not considered important.
They “wish they were more involved in understanding what the government is trying to achieve,” Lee said.
One of his goals is to find out what the state can do to work with and help local governments, he said. Some of the topics he heard about included labor and housing shortages, gaps in the automotive services department, and the need for more Nevada Highway Patrol soldiers.
“The other thing I realized is that these counties aren’t looking for the state to save them … they run their governments efficiently,” Lee said. “What they are looking for is a return on their tax dollars and the government services they paid for.”
Las Vegas area political adviser Rory McShane said he expected Lee to announce a run for the governor soon. While Lee’s recent change of party is likely to delight some voters, his Democratic history may not play well with some Republican voters.
Lee has also served as a Democrat in the State Assembly and Senate.
“I think there will be a lot of people who are happy that he is a symbol of worker democrats leaving the party. But I don’t think that will change the fact that as a Democrat he sat in state law and voted for the democratic agenda, ”said McShane.
Lee’s move to the GOP came when rumors of Republican challengers against Sisolak began to buzz. In addition to Lee, the Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, the former Lt. Governor Mark Hutchison and US Representative Mark Amodei from Northern Nevada named as potential competitors.
Sisolak defeated the former attorney general Adam Laxalt in the governor’s race in 2018 with 40,000 votes, which corresponds to a lead of around four percentage points.
Republicans are viewing the governor’s mansion as a potential pickup next year in the first post-Donald Trump election.
Nevada Republican Party leader Michael McDonald said Sisolak’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic left voters unhappy and called the governor race a “major focus” through 2022.
People’s dissatisfaction with high unemployment rates and other economic damage caused by the pandemic makes McDonald’s optimistic about Republicans’ chances.
The question that remains is how many Republicans could get into the race of governors, and whether some step down to avoid a primary battle.
GOP candidates “are going to have a very strong message,” said McDonald. “They will define themselves how they got through the pandemic and what they would have done during the pandemic.”
