Democrat candidates in November races nationwide are seizing on perceived post-Roe repeal momentum to pound away at Republican opponents they say will, whether they admit it or not, ban abortion.
Incumbent Democratic Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak is following that game plan, regularly attacking GOP challenger Joe Lombardo’s pro-life stance as a wedge in a race projected to be among this fall’s tightest gubernatorial contests.
Lombardo, the two-term sheriff of Clark County who, with an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, won May’s 10-candidate GOP primary, has not emphasized abortion on his platform nor while stumping.
Lombardo’s campaign has mostly hammered away on “kitchen-table issues” such as the cost of gas and groceries, “ways to fix the state,” education, and crime.
Just before Labor Day weekend, however, with the final sprint to Election Day set to begin, the Lombardo campaign introduced a new issue it will pursue in the coming weeks: Scandal.
RGA Nevada PAC, an affiliate of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), in an Aug. 31 $2.5 million ad claims Sisolak fast-tracked permits and applications for “a shady COVID testing company that got 96 percent of their test results wrong” on behalf of a campaign donor.
The ad, called ‘Cronyism,’ says it is a “tale of corruption and cronyism that cost lives.”
The claims are based on a May ProPublica investigation into how Chicago-based Northshore Labs rapidly expanded into Nevada in 2020 without the usual licensing process after hiring Greg and Angelo Palivos to “build clientele and manage operations.”
Peter Palivos, their father, has contributed nearly $50,000 to Sisolak campaigns since 2011, including $38,000 for his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, according to ProPublica.
The matter may have gone unnoticed had Northshore’s tests worked, but 96 percent of those used at the University of Nevada at Reno (UNR) and elsewhere did not. The state canceled its contract in March.
