Cindy Trigg, a member of the Douglas County School Board, joined in a unanimous vote of the school board to implement a full calendar-year drug testing program rather than a seasonal one.

The change in the policy is venturing into a gray legal area, Assistant Superintendent Nancy Bryant told board members. The U.S. Supreme Court has only ruled on the constitutionality of testing students while they’re engaged in extracurricular activities. [Record Courier]

Trigg is a candidate for election to Nevada’s Congressional District #2 in the United States Congress. She is competing for the election with Nye County Democrat Paul Reeves of Pahrump.

Paul Reeves, Democratic Candidate for Nevada's Congressional District #2

Cindy Trigg, Democratic Candidate for Nevada's Congressional District #2

Cindy Trigg and Paul Reeves, two Democrats competing for the nomination of the Democratic Party to run against Republican Dean Heller for his seat in the United States House of Representatives, will jointly appear at a campaign event in Pahrump, Nye County on August 3, 2009.

Trigg, is a resident of Washoe Douglas County. Reeves is a resident of Nye County.

The event will be the first occasion for the two candidates to meet each other in Nevada. The event is being sponsored by The Nye County Pahrump Chapter Democracy for America Meetup.

The public will be invited to attend and hear the campaign positions of the candidates with a question and answer segment after their speeches.

More will follow as it develops.

Cindy Trigg, Democratic Candidate for Nevada's Congressional District #2

Just received word that Cindy Trigg is scheduled to attend the Nye County Democratic Central Committee in June. She informs me she has it scheduled in her campaign for June 22, 2009. Unless the Central Committee has changed the monthly meeting schedule the Central Committee would normally meet on June 29 not the 22nd.

In any event, the visit to Pahrump will be, to my knowledge, her first appearance since announcing her candidacy for election to the the United States House of Representatives for Nevada’s Congressional District #2.

Cindy will be competing to be the Democratic Party’s nominee in the general election with Paul Reeves, a Pahrump resident.

So, if you are a Democrat and would like to meet Mrs. Trigg, you should mark your calendars to attend the Central Committee meeting in June after verifying the correct meeting date.

Democratic Party Meetup

The Pahrump Valley Democratic Party Meetup will travel to Amargosa to celebrate Amargosa Days on Saturday, May 16.

The Meetup intends to extend an invitation to Amargosa Democrats to join in the Meetup organization and form their own Amargosa Meetup. The Pahrump Meetup’s effort is to expand the Meetup groups throughout Nye County to the Beatty and Tonopah communities as well in future months. [Read more →]

Cindy Trigg announces her campaign for election in District #2. Following is her initial campaign speech in Reno, Nevada. She is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination to run as the Democratic candidate to oppose the current incumbent, Republican Dean Heller.

Paul Reeves, resident of Pahrump, Nye County, Nevada is also seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination.

I am unaware of anyone else expecting to run on the Democratic side, though it is early and District #2 is one large district.

Paul Reeves, a resident of Pahrump, Nye County, Nevada is running for Nevada’s District 2 seat in Congress. [Democracy for America]

You can learn about Reeves on the DFA link. The ultimate idea is to replace the current Republican occupant for District 2, Dean Heller.

Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter to change to Democratic Party. That, when Al Franken finally gets into the Senate, will bring Senator Harry Reid’s total to 60, which means the Republicans can no longer filibuster. Big boost to Democratic Party’s control of the Congress.

Specter says the Republican Party left him—he didn’t really leave the Republicans.

Actually, Specter has concluded he cannot win re-election as a Republican, but can as a Democrat.

Here is what Specter himself said:

Senator Specter’s assessment of possible Republican Support in Pennsylvania is that it is bleak.

I wonder if there will be something of a ripple effect of Specter’s change of party’s in Nevada. I don’t expect Senator Ensign to make a switch. He tends more to the right wing conservative views of the Nevada Republican Party.

But, it is not unreasonable to expect some rank and file Republicans in Nevada will follow Specter’s lead and switch over to the Democratic Party. We’ll know in 2010.

Senator Ensign is up for re-election in 2010. So is Dean Heller, the Republican incumbent in Congressional District #2. If there is a noticeable continuing change of rank and file Republicans to the Democratic Party in Congressional District #2 it will have a decided impact on the efforts of Paul Reeves and Cindy Trigg to win the Democratic nomination in Congressional District #2. The rural counties of Nevada, including Nye, remain a rosy red at present. If the Nye County Democratic Central Committee moves rapidly and can secure the volunteer assistance of enough rank and file Democrats in Nye County it is possible that Nye County could lead the way for the remaining rural counties to turn blue along with the current three blue counties in Nevada.

For those of you who would like additional information about Senator Specter go here.

CINDY OLIVAS TRIGG TO ANNOUNCE CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS

Democrat and Douglas County School Board President Cindy Olivas Trigg will be announcing her campaign for U.S. Congress on Friday, April 24 at 7pm at the Agave Restaurant in Reno.  All members of the press are invited to attend.

CINDY OLIVAS TRIGG CAMPAIGN KICKOFF
Friday, April 24
7pm
The Agave Restaurant
1575 Vassar Street
Reno NV 89502

The campaign kickoff begins at 7pm with a meet and greet, followed by Cindy’s official announcement at 8pm. Cindy Olivas Trigg will be announcing her candidacy for U.S. Congress in Nevada’s 2nd District at 8pm.  Press is encouraged to arrive at 7:45pm.

For questions, or exclusive interview requests, please contact Evan Moody at 202.230.6857 or misterevanmoody@gmail.com.

Paul Reeves, a resident of Pahrump, active member of the Pahrump Valley Democratic Party Meetup, has announced his candidacy for election to the House of Representatives from Nevada’s Congressional District #2.

You can learn about Reeves on the Democracy for America website. His biographical information on that site discloses the following:

Background:

I was born in Detroit, but my family was from small towns in Michigan. My father was in the military, so I grew up living and moving around the country. When I left home, I continued to be a wander, until I moved to Nevada and put down roots here.
I currently work behind the scenes on concert tours, which takes me around the country (and the world) working with union members and everyday Americans, building difficult and complex projects on tight schedule. I spend my free time on outdoor actives such hiking, photography, and sky diving, and as a volunteer and activist in local political issues.

Goals:

I am running, because I was asked to by members of my community. I was not looking for the job, but the job came looking for me. America no longer has time for “business as usual” in politics. There are too many critical issues that require long term solutions that need to be implemented now. Quick fixes are not acceptable any more.
So, my goals are to participate in creating long-term solutions for economic diversity and stability, banking regulation, energy efficiency and independence, global warming and climate change, and quality of life issues such as health care and education.

Issues:

The Economy, Energy, and Education. These three issues are intrinsically linked, and critical to both Nevada and the nation. Developing green jobs and alternative energy will put us firmly back in place as global leaders, but we need a strong and proactive educational system (from pre-school through grad school) to promote research into those high-tech fields and create a workforce that can fill those jobs.

Grassroots Support:

Grassroots organizing is a critical component of my campaign. This is a “bottom-up” effort that originated here in the local community. My selection as a candidate was based on my involvement in grassroots efforts both on local issues and the Obama campaign. Currently, we are building the campaign as a grassroots project: rather than relying only on the traditional campaign tools of public, speaking, and debate, we are training a network of volunteers to go out and act as activists in their communities.
This is starting now, in a campaign office run out of my home office until we have the funding for a proper one. The first big push will be to train volunteers to go out and educate others in their communities about available resources for mortgage assistance. Nevada leads the nation in both mortgage foreclosures and foreclosure assistance scams. Using the grassroots principles of networking, voter education, and providing access to good information will be a key strategy for working on this problem.
Many candidates makes promises about what they are going to do after they get elected — it is my intention to lead by example and take progressive action on important issues before I get the job.

DFA Values:

As mentioned above, the entire campaign is based on grassroots action. This really is a bottom-up effort. None of us are political professionals (yet), and we are putting this together in what little spare time we have between our day jobs.
As far as fiscal responsibility goes, we haven’t spent a single cent of anyone else’s money yet. Up to this point everything has been about activism and networking. When we do begin taking campaign contributions, we will be proactive about disclosing campaign finances and educating voters about the available resources to check on both myself and other political candidates.

Persons interested in Mr. Reeves campaign can access the Democracy for America site to learn more and add their support for his candidacy.

So far as I know the only other Democratic candidate or potential candidate for Congressional District #4 is Cindy Olivas Trigg. The Republican incumbent is Dean Heller.

Heller defeated University of Nevada Regent and Democratic candidate Jill Derby in last November’s general election by 5 percent [1]. Heller lost Washoe County, home to Reno and by far the largest county in the district (it casts more than 70 percent of the district’s vote). However, he won most of the rural areas of the district by margins of 2-to-1 or more, allowing him to win the district by 12,600 votes. Heller was almost certainly helped by the presence of Gibbons atop the ballot; Gibbons carried the 2nd by a landslide margin in his successful gubernatorial bid. [Wikipedia]

Nevada’s second Congressional District is geographically huge. The last Presidential election resulted in significant gains in Democratic voter registration gains on the Republican Party. According to the figures of the Nevada Secretary of State, the picture of “active” (active=people that actually vote) voter registration in District #2 is as follows, as of March 2009:

It is obvious that there are more people in District #2 registered as Republicans than as Democrats. In fact there are 22,522 more registered as Republicans than Democrats, and that doesn’t take into account the numbers registered in the remaining parties.

Any Democrat has a steep hill to climb to win an election in District #2. It will take a lot of money, time
, and support for a Democrat to succeed.

Indeed, it will take significant effort to win the Democratic Primary since Reeves will have to defeat Cindy Trigg to reach the General ballot. Neither will be able to gain the support of the Nevada State Democratic Party or any of the County Parties active support during the primary election since they are required to remain neutral until a Democratic nominee is selected in the Primary election.

I’m unaware that Dean Heller has any opposition within the Republican Party, thus he will get a free ride into the General election, meaning he has to spend no time, money or effort during the Primary phase of the election, while both Trigg and Reese.

It takes a lot of guts and stamina to run for an elective office, particularly in an area the size of Congressional District #2.