VICTOR JOECKS: Lombardo’s session of lost opportunities

Losing slowly is not winning. It isn’t much of a campaign pitch either.

Gov. Joe Lombardo has set another Nevada record for vetoes. He has surpassed the 75 bills he vetoed last session and may not be done. Many of his vetoes were excellent. For instance, he vetoed bills that would have undermined parental rights. He stopped an effort to undermine Columbus Day. He protected Nevada businesses from California-like regulations. He rejected a Voter ID bill that didn’t enhance the security of mail ballots. It was amusing to see Democrats tacitly acknowledge Voter ID isn’t racist.

Those are good moves. But there weren’t many wins to celebrate. Perhaps his biggest one was securing $38 million for charter school teacher pay raises. That brings them to parity with teachers in traditional public schools.

Lombardo and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro’s education bill won’t do much to fix education. Instead, Lombardo gave the Clark County Education Association and its executive director, John Vellardita, both more power and new scapegoats. Former Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak signed off on more tax credits for Opportunity Scholarships than Lombardo did. Giving away money for affordable housing won’t make housing more affordable overall, even if it will sound nice in campaign commercials.

Lombardo will blame his lack of accomplishments on the Democratic majority in the Legislature. That’s obviously true. But it’s also true that Lombardo has repeatedly downplayed popular conservative issues.

The most obvious is keeping boys out of girls’ sports. When asked, Lombardo will say the right thing about this issue in a carefully worded statement. But he appears loath to talk about it. Fortunately, Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, and many female athletes aren’t. This spring, they helped push the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association to adopt a new regulation protecting female high school sports.

Another is keeping sexually explicit books out of schools. Lombardo could have worked with parental rights groups to expose the smut Democrats want in school. Instead, those groups worked hard to successfully ensure he vetoed a bill aimed at keeping inappropriate material in schools.

He retreated on tax cuts and Opportunity Scholarships. Deporting illegal immigrants who’ve committed another crime is another obvious winner that Lombardo has shied away from. Perhaps the left’s anti-ICE riots will push him into action on this one.

These aren’t just strong issues theoretically. Last November, President Donald Trump won the most votes in Nevada history running on this platform. As a major bonus, these are the issues — not child care facility tax credits — that are drawing Hispanic voters into the GOP coalition. Just look at Miami-Dade County in Florida, which went from a deep blue to red in just a few years. Clark County could one day do the same, especially if Lombardo would imitate the example of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

This session was full of lost opportunities for Lombardo. But these remain winning issues for Lombardo — if only he would lead on them.

Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.