Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website.
SOUTHWEST: Political Note #389 Inc Tom O’Halleran AZ 01 (now AZ 02), Political Note #444 Inc Dina Titus NV 01, Political Note #356 Inc Susie Lee NV 03, Political Note #375 Inc Steven Horsford NV 04, Political Note #382 Inc Melanie Stansbury NM 01, Political Note #423 Gabe Vasquez NM 02, Political Note #417 Abby Broyles OK 05, Political Note #377 Inc Lizzie Fletcher TX 07, Political Note #362 Inc Vicente Gonzalez TX 15 (now TX 34), Political Note #424 John Lira TX 23, Political Note #399 Inc Colin Allred TX 32
MIDWEST: Political Note #445 Liz Mathis Iowa 01, Political Note #411 Christina Bohannan IA 02, Political Note #428 Inc Cynthia Axne IA 03, Political Note #376 Inc Lauren Underwood IL 14, Political Note #412 Inc Sharice Davids KS 03, Political Note #446 Hilary Scholten MI 03, Political Note #378 Inc Elissa Slotkin MI 08, Political Note #357 Inc Haley Stevens MI 11, Political Note #355 Inc Angie Craig MN 02, Political Note #430 Inc Marcy Kaptur OH 09, Political Note #393 Allison Russo OH 15, Political Note #418 Brad Pfaff WI 03
NORTHEAST: Political Note #406 Inc Jared Golden ME 02, Political Note #385 Inc Chris Pappas NH 01, Political Note #363 Inc Tom Malinowski NJ 07, Political Note #394 Inc Susan Wild PA 07, Political Note #397 Eugene DePasquale PA 10
SOUTHEAST: Political Note #410 Charles Evans NC 08, Political Note #416 Stewart Navarre VA 01, Political Note #388 Inc Elaine Luria VA 02
WEST: Political Note #422 Christy Smith CA 25 (now CA 27), Political Note #405 Jay Chen CA 39 (now CA 45), Political Note #390 Inc Kim Schrier WA 08
Note links: Political Note links are to Lenspoliticalnotes. Links with names are to candidates’ websites.
021422 Political Note #446 Dina Titus Nevada 01
2022 Primary and General Election
Dina Titus https://www.dinatitus.com faces a new challenge. Because of redistricting, she has a tough district again. Nevada 01 will extend south east of Las Vegas and has a D+4 Lean. Before redistricting Nevada 01 was entirely urban and had a D+22 Lean. Dina Titus has not been on a list of endangered members of Congress for a long time.
Dina Titus was first elected to Congress in 2008 by defeating an incumbent Republican in Nevada 03. That is now currently Democrat Susie Lee’s seat. In 2010, Dina Titus lost to Republican Joe Heck by less than a point. In 2012, she found an easier spot and was elected overwhelmingly to Congress from NV 01. She has continued to win by substantial margins. 2022 will be close.
At 71 years old, Dina Titus has to get herself up for a tough primary and a tough election in a reconfigured district 18 points less Democratic than it used to be. She seems prepared. Her opponents do not. At the end of 2021, Dina Titus could report to the FEC that she had just under $850,000 available at the beginning of 2022 to spend on the rest of her campaign. That is substantial, but not a huge amount for a Congressional campaign. What makes her fundraising intimidating is that her opponents have not raised much.
Amy Vilela is running to Dina Titus’s left in the Democratic primary. At one time a homeless teenage mother, Vilela had a terrible experience with the medical system. She reports that her 22 year old daughter was turned away from Centennial Hills Hospital because she had no health insurance and subsequently died from a pulmonary embolism. Vilela became an advocate of Medicare for All, ran once before in a Congressional primary, and has had support from Bernie Sanders. She had slightly more than $35,000 available for her campaign at the start of 2022.
The Republicans are only slightly better prepared for a now vulnerable Dina Titus. Both Republicans competing in the Republican primary were slow in reporting their financials. The Nevada Independent found their information.
Mark Robertson, a retired US Army Colonel and the lead partner of a financial management firm with which he has been associated for twenty years, had just under $175,000 to begin 2022. Carolina Serrano, who led Hispanic outreach in Nevada for Donald Trump, reports she entered 2022 with less than $60,000 available. Her largest donor, Richard Solomon, is listed as a poker player in Las Vegas.
Should we be worried about Dina Titus? She was originally identified is a moderate Democrat. Ten years, ago she supported the Affordable Care Act reluctantly. At the same time, she supported off shore drilling. Five years ago, on cultural issues, she was identified as a progressive. She supported gay rights and the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. Think of her as an eclectic Democrat. She has been her own person and, particularly unusual for a successful Democrat in Nevada, got on the bad side of Harry Reid.
Dina Titus has been eclectic in her life. She never graduated from her high school in Georgia where she was born and grew up. She attended a summer program at William and Mary, figured out a way to stay there as a student, and continued on to get her BA. She got a Master’s degree at the University of Georgia and a PhD from Florida State before coming to Nevada as an academic. She began teaching US and Nevada history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and became a politician after that.
Dina Titus’s signature research is a book titled Bombs in the Backyard: Atomic Testing and American Politics. This work was about the impact of nuclear testing in Nevada. Her advocacy has in opposition to nuclear waste storage in the Yucca Flats of Nevada. She describes herself as an environmentalist and includes her opposition to plans for nuclear waste as part of her environmentalism.
Dina Titus is Greek (that is, her family was.) and is an advocate for Greece in Congress. Among the many Congressional caucuses she belongs to is the American Hellenic Israeli Alliance.
Like just about everyone else in Nevada, she is from somewhere else. Dina Titus is a southerner. She is conscious of that personal history and notes, in her website, an ancestor who left the US Congress in 1859 to serve in the Georgia legislature. Dina Titus is not on the same side as her ancestor. Her husband’s father was an historian of the Civil War. Her husband’s academic specialty is Latin America. Consider the title of one of his books — State Terrorism in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and International Human Rights.
Because Dina Titus is leading so comprehensively in the money race, she seems to have managed the transition to a Congressional District where she should be vulnerable. A D+4 lean is, by definition, a toss-up district. A sudden commitment of big Republican money could change the circumstances of this election. Help seal off that possibility by putting Dina Titus https://www.dinatitus.com in a position where she cannot be challenged. Donate to her campaign.
Donate elsewhere as well:
Organizations to support that are not part of the Democratic establishment
Fair Fight https://fairfight.com Stacey Abrams organization to support fair elections
The New Georgia Project https://newgeorgiaproject.org A non-profit registering voters.
The New North Carolina Project https://newnorthcarolinaproject.org A non-profit registering voters. I had a great conversation with their Executive Director
The New Pennsylvania Project https://www.newpaproject.org A non-profit registering voters.
The Lincoln Project https://lincolnproject.us. Ex Republicans with tough messaging.
Organizations to support that make up the Democratic establishment
Democratic Party Establishment Organizations to support
The Democratic National Committee (DNC). https://democrats.org
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) https://www.dscc.org
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) https://dccc.org
The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) https://democraticgovernors.org
The Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) https://dems.ag
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS) https://demsofstate.org
The Democratic (State) Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) https://dlcc.org
National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NRDC) https://democraticredistricting.com Led by Eric Holder
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