Political Note #553 Susie Lee Nevada 03

Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com  Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website: 

April 13th, 2023        Political Note #553 Susie Lee Nevada 03

2024            General Election

Nevada is as purple as purple gets.  Nevertheless, Nevadans have two Democratic Senators. Three of the state’s four Members of Congress and most of the constitutional officers are Democrats.  However, Democrats lost the governorship in 2022.

That three of the four Members of Congress are Democrats is a kind of amazing; a product of the risks Nevada’s Democratic leadership was willing to take.  Of the Democrats 20 closest wins in 2022 House races, three of them were in Nevada. Democratic Congressional candidates in Nevada won by 10,003 votes, 10,747 votes, and 12,585 votes.  A total of 33,335 votes – a number which would be a respectable and a thorough win for a single District.  As the sum of three Congressional wins, it is scary. The enterprise of keeping three Democratic Members of Congress required risking the possibility that Nevada could have no Democratic Representatives in the House.

Susie Lee’s win was the closest of the three – the win by 10,003 votes.  During the campaign, she was attacked for a conflict of interest.  That conflict is worth examining.  She also has a personal story – not exactly rags to riches, but a little like that – that is worth a look.

Susie Lee grew up in Canton, Ohio – one of Ohio’s many old, former industrial cities.  Nowadays, Canton attracts tourists because it is the home of the football hall of fame. Even without the hall of fame, like in many old industrial cities throughout the country, sports appear to be the way out.  Susie Kelly Lee swam her way out.

Susie Kelly Lee was one of eight children. Her dad was a steelworker laid off at age 57.  Her mother was at home.  Smart and athletic, Susie Kelly Lee was a swimmer in high school – a good enough swimmer and good enough student to make her attractive to an excellent college not that far from home.  She went to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh and joined the swim team.

Susie Kelly Lee was not an All Star; not an Olympian.  When she was recognized by Carnegie-Mellon as a Distinguished Alumna, the bio did not refer to her swimming at all.  The bio noted she graduated the Department of Social and Decision Science with a policy and management major.  Her policy interest was water.

With a degree in hand, she moved to Massachusetts to work for a consulting firm.  Presumably, as a consequence of her consulting, she was offered a job in the mayor’s office.  The Las Vegas mayor’s office.  Water issues in Las Vegas’s desert are central to the community.  Not as central as gambling, but important enough so that Susie Kelly slipped right into the life of the city.

Active in the city’s social life she met and married and had two children with Dan Lee, who is now the CEO of Full House Resorts.  The wife of a leading figure in Nevada’s biggest city, she was a leading volunteer. Personally aware of the connection between athletics and keeping kids in school, she founded and became the executive director of the After-School All-Stars, a sports and enrichment program for Title I students.  She was also the founding director of Mobilized Assistance and Shelter for the Homeless (MASH) and the president of Communities In Schools (CIS) intended to prevent kids from dropping out of school.  She also became a kind of official.  She was a member of the School Superintendent’s Educational Opportunity Advisory Committee.  She became a member of UNLV’s Lincy Institute Education Committee Advisory Board.  She was on the Clark County School Board’s English Language Learners Program Task Force and served on the Board of Directors of the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities to Support a Thriving Nevada.

Good works all.  Good enough so that she thought she might parlay her efforts into politics.  She did not initially persuade Senator Harry Reid, the most powerful political figure in the state. Well-enough connected, Susie Lee raised $1.5 million, almost as much as the $2 million raised by the Democrat who won the open Congressional seat.  She came in third in the primary.  He left Congress after a sexual harassment scandal.

2018 was different.  She had Harry Reid’s support.  Using her own connections and with his crucial support, she raised $5 million and defeated perpetual Republican candidate Danny Tarkanian, son of the legendary UNLV basketball coach.

In Congress, she was able to secure a seat on the Education and Labor Committee – exactly consistent with her volunteer interests.  She joined the largest caucus for Democrats – the center-leftish New Democratic Coalition.  And she joined the Problem Solvers Caucus, composed of Republicans and Democrats; Members of Congress from swing districts who believe (or act as if they believe) that there is a middle, bipartisan ground on which compromise solutions to public policy issues can be found.

The Covid pandemic created ethical problems for Susie Lee.  She overcame those problems, but not without difficulty.

The lesser problem was personal.  In November, 2020, the country was in lock down.  Susie Lee’s mother was in hospice back in Canton, Ohio.  Notwithstanding the lock down, she got herself tested for covid, and, with a negative result in hand, left for Ohio to see her dying mother.  Notwithstanding mask wearing precautions, she returned to Las Vegas with covid.  She received some criticisms for traveling, but not many. Would you criticize her for visiting her dying mother?

The greater problem was financial.  In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act — $2 Trillion to moderate the economic consequences of the pandemic. Almost half of the CARES Act was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  The PPP provided refundable loans that would allow businesses and other organizations (churches and synagogues, non-profits, and more) to maintain their payrolls despite business coming to a standstill.

President Trump took an executive action to exclude gambling establishments from the PPP.  In 2018, gambling represented 25% of Nevada’s economy.  By May, 2022 Nevada was reporting that casinos were prospering and had their 14th straight month with at least one billion dollars in revenue.  In between, Nevada had a very bad time – with unemployment rates at or near 10%.

If you were a Member of Congress from Nevada, how would you have reacted to the exclusion of gambling businesses from the benefits of the PPP program?  Susie Lee worked extremely hard as she and others successfully got Nevada’s biggest industry into the PPP program.

And what would you do if your spouse owned a business that ran and developed casinos – a business that operated in Nevada and also in Colorado, Indiana, and Mississippi?  Would you worry that in pressing for the PPP program to include gambling, you had a conflict of interest?  Would you send a colleague from Hawaii or Utah (the two states with no legal gambling) to argue on your behalf?  Maybe you would leave the heavy lifting to members of the Congressional delegation who would not benefit personally from gambling firms’ access to the PPP program?  Not unreasonably, Susie Lee joined the effort on behalf of Nevada, her district, and, as opponents point out, on behalf of her husband’s business.

Criticisms of Susie Lee’s ethics played a big part in her 2020 campaign against a former professional wrestler She won that race – by 12,446 votes. Those criticisms played a smaller part in 2022.   Her 2022 opponent — an anti-abortion, NRA endorsed, and election challenging (her own 2020 lost state senate race) real estate attorney was a little closer. As noted above, Susie Lee won the race by 10,003 votes.

NV 03 is Nevada’s south.  South of Las Vegas, the state is a triangle that is, at its tip, scrunched between California and Arizona.  The district is 70% white, 15% Hispanic, and 12% Asian.  Median household income is just under $80,000 — $25,000 higher than the figure for the state as a whole.  This desert is not infertile ground for Republicans.

NV 03 will be close in 2024 whether Susie Lee faces a Republican wrestler or a Republican attorney.  Help her prepare for the upcoming election.  She needs resources to continue to win.  Contribute to her campaign.

 

Readers ask about priorities for donating.  Consider the following three priorities.

First Priority

Let’s get a start on flipping the House of Representatives back to the Democrats in 2024.  Here are the Democratic incumbents I have written about so far – beginning with the closest win.  Every one of these races below were close – Gabe Vasquez’s 1,350 vote win or Susie Lee’s 10,003 win.  I count a 30,000 margin as the measure of a Congressional race that is not so close.

  1. Gabe Vasquez NM 02 1st term                                Political Note #536
  2. Yadira Caraveo CO 08 1st term                               Political Note #537
  3. Jahana Hayes CT 05 3rd term                                 Political Note #542
  4. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez WA 03 1st term          Political Note #543
  5. Pat Ryan NY 18 1st term                                            Political Note #545
  6. Susan Wild PA 07 3rd term                                      Political Note #546
  7. Matt Cartwright PA 08 6th term                             Political Note #547
  8. Andrea Salinas OR 06 1st term                                Political Note #548
  9. Wiley Nickel NC 13 1st term                                     Political Note #551
  10. Eric Sorensen IL 17 1st term                                     Political Note #552
  11. Susie Lee NV 03 3rd term                                         Political Note #553

Adam Frisch CO 03 lost to Lauren Boebert in 2022 by 546 votes and is running again.  Len’s Political Note #523

Second Priority

Get a start on preserving the Democratic majority in the US Senate in 2024.  There are a lot of vulnerable Democrats and very few vulnerable Republicans.

Jon Tester, Montana is, in my view, the most vulnerable Democrat              Len’s Political Note #550

Ruben Gallego, Arizona will be the Democratic nominee.  Kyrsten Sinema, the now Independent up for election, complicates matters but she will not dominate the contest.                                                           Len’s Political Note #544

Lance Kunce, Missouri will be the Democratic nominee. He lost the nomination for US Senate in the Democratic primary in 2022.   He is probably the Democrats’ best chance to flip a Senate seat.               Len’s Political Note #538

Third Priority

November, 2023 elections

Three candidates for Governor whose victories would be meaningful, both for their states and nationally.

Andy Beshear, Kentucky for reelection.                                                                                              Len’s Political Note #533

Shawn Wilson, Louisiana to succeed a termed out Democrat.                                                       Len’s Political Note #549

Brandon Presley, Mississippi to be the first Democratic Governor of that state in 20 years. Len’s Political Note #535