Early voting in NV shows strong GOP lead

By Carlo Maffatt | Watchdog.org

LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Secretary of State reported Wednesday that early voting shows Republicans beating Democrats by 16,441 votes, despite a 14 percent disadvantage in voter registration. This 24 percent lead in statewide early voting could translate to a sea change over earlier predictions.

As of Wednesday, 67,216 Democrats and 83,657 Republicans voted early.

In 2010, during the midterm election, the GOP gained 60 House seats, six Senate seats and seven governorships. That gave the GOP control of the House. Now, Republicans hope to capture a majority on the Senate.

“This Republican surge is unprecedented. I have been following politics for the last 20 years and have never seen Republicans ahead by this much, and we are now looking at the possibility of picking up to 12 assembly seats,” said Nathan Emmens, owner of Campaign Data Solutions, a campaign management and consulting firm.

Jesus Marquez, a Republican Latino running for Assembly District 3 in Las Vegas, says, “Democrat voters are just not motivated.”

“All the euphoria of hope and change has met reality. It was all rhetoric and nice propaganda, but they are not feeling better off.

“Most Democratic candidates are now running away from President Obama. They proposed the margin tax, and now they are backpedaling.”

Minorities, particularly Hispanics, appear to be voting in fewer numbers. A search for the most common Latino surnames in the early voting reports shows the numbers are down 11 percent compared to 2012.

Last week, the research firm Latino Decisions asked 600 Latinos about their motives for coming out to vote. Their data suggest that the Latino community’s support for Democrats down from 39 percent to 28 percent, while Republican support is 16 percent. The poll has a margin of data of plus or minus 4 percent.

Fernado Romero, president of Hispanics in Politics, created 34 years ago to empower Latino involvement in politics, says, “Latinos are disappointed at the Democrats. They have been promised much and very little has been delivered.”

John Aguilar of the Denver Post reports a similar Republican Surge in Colorado, which has seen 40,000 more Republican votes than Democrat. “In 2010, during the country’s last midterm election, Republicans held a 10,000-count edge over Democrats — 81,000 to 71,000 returned ballots — as of Oct. 20 of that year,” he writes.