Nevada Republican gubernatorial nominee Adam Laxalt on Wednesday portrayed his Democratic opponent Steve Sisolak as corrupt and siding with the radical left in a pair of campaign ads.
Parker Briden — the spokesman for Laxalt, Nevada's attorney general — told TheBlaze Wednesday the pair of 30-second clips "highlight Steve Sisolak's appalling practice of putting the fringe-left over Nevada values and shady behavior as a Clark County Commissioner."
The ad titled, "Dark," shows images of violent Antifa protesters, police in riot gear, and an inverted American flag while a narrator says Sisolak “enabled the radical Occupy Las Vegas, joined the fanatical resistance movement, and addressed an event that desecrated our American flag.”
Regarding the first ad's reference to Occupy Las Vegas, Laxalt’s campaign noted an October 2011 Las Vegas Sun story about Sisolak's interactions with the protesters and assistance he gave them amid the relative ease of establishing the encampments:
County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who helped the group work with Metro to find this place, stopped in around 9:30 p.m. The group treats him as one of them. They all know him. They also know he has a few million dollars to his name. But does he agree with what they are doing, what they stand for? Does he support stronger campaign finance reform?“I do,” he says, adding that he would support moves to prevent corporations and unions from flooding political campaigns with money. “A lot of reform needs to be done. Unfortunately, political campaigns have become increasingly expensive.”
But the Nevada Independent said Sisolak seemed to sour on Occupy Las Vegas a month later after members stopped traffic and clashed with cops. And the paper also referenced a Review-Journal story in which he was quoted as saying, “I was really disappointed at the civil disobedience part. They absolutely told me that wasn’t going to occur, which is why I was supportive of the idea.”
In regard to the first ad's upside-down flag image, the Laxalt campaign noted the moment two weeks ago when Sisolak — with an inverted American flag behind him — blasted Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court, over fears his confirmation could lead to Roe v. Wade being overturned.
"With fewer and fewer safeguards for women’s reproductive rights at the national level, it’s critical that we stand strong here at the state level,” Sisolak said outside Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller’s office in Las Vegas, according to the Review-Journal. “I believe women’s health care decisions are personal ones that should be made with her doctor, not dictated by a political agenda.”
The Laxalt campaign told TheBlaze the upside-down flag was a "desecration" and wondered why Sisolak spoke in front of it. The U.S. Flag Code prohibits such a display except for “dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."
The Independent noted that Sisolak has described himself as a moderate Democrat in the past — but that during his contentious primary battle with the more liberal Chris Giunchigliani, a fellow Clark County Commissioner, Sisolak cast himself as more progressive.
An ad titled, "Friends," features citations of Sisolak called a “political bulldozer” and called out by a judge for acting "corruptly" — both from January 2014 Las Vegas Review-Journal stories — and ending with the narrator saying "that's not our Nevada, Mr. Sisolak."
Sisolak's campaign didn’t comment on the record about the ads, the Independent reported.
And while Laxalt's campaign told the paper the ads will hit TV screens, the Independent said there was no response regarding how much will be spent on airtime and in what markets the ads will run.
