Conservative Candidates Come To Logandale

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A whole slate of conservative candidates, running for various offices, visited the Moapa Valley on Saturday, March 19 for a town hall-style event in preparation for the upcoming Republican primary election to be held on June 14.

More than forty people, coming from both Mesquite and Moapa Valley, attended the event which was held at the Old Logandale School Building.

In attendance were gubernatorial candidate Dr. Fred Simon, U.S. Congressional candidate Sam Peters, U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hockstedler, Lieutenant Governor candidate Tony Grady, Clark County Sheriff candidate Stan Hyt, Secretary of State candidate Socorro Keenan, and Assembly District #19 candidate Jerry Swanson.

Attendees came to shake hands with these candidates, get to know each of them and ask them questions. This informal event allowed plenty of time and opportunity for all of these things to take place.

The event began at 4 pm in the outdoor pavilion at the school, with a meal of grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and a variety of other treats. All of the community was invited to come and have dinner with the candidates.

After the meal and social hour, the crowd went into the Old Logandale School building to hear what the candidates had to say in a town hall meeting.

Dr. Simon, who had gathered and coordinated this slate of candidates to attend the local event, opened the meeting by urging attendees to consider this group as their choice in the upcoming election.
“We need candidates like these,” Simon said. “We need a return to faith-based, family-centered, Constitutional conservatives to the halls of government. That is the only thing that is going to save this state and our nation.”

Simon emphasized the importance of rural representation in the state saying that a focus on the rural residents and community has long been fading.

He added that he believes the most effective government is a local government. “My commitment is local government first and state government second,” he said. “The federal government is much further down the list.”

Simon emphasized the need to reform education in the state, which is ranked last in the nation, and the healthcare system which is at “number 38 in the nation and dropping,” he said.
But the solution to these problems shouldn’t come from federal legislation but from the local and state level, he said.
“There is nothing in the Constitution that allows the government to be involved in either education or health care,” Simon said. “To the extent that the federal government has become involved, it has failed even further.”

The candidates were each given a few minutes to introduce themselves and answer questions from the audience.

Peters said that he retired as a Major in the US Air Force after spending time in Afghanistan, Iraq, Panama, Korea and other locations.
“I never thought then that I would be coming back to the United States to fight the rise of socialism in this country,” he said. “Yet here we are.”

Peters said that he is a firm believer in 2nd Amendment gun ownership rights protected by the Constitution.
He identified his top three issues as 1.) addressing illegal immigration, 2.) reducing federal spending and the national debt, and 3.) stopping government overreach, including health mandates and restrictions.

A U.S. Air Force veteran and health care executive, Bill Hockstedler described himself as a “regular person.” He believes that it is time to return to sending citizen legislators to Congress.
“It is regular people who vote,” he said. “And we need to recognize that it is a regular person that is needed to send to the Senate; honest, hardworking people with integrity. I can offer that.”

Hockstedler said that he is running because of a disturbing breakdown in civility he had noticed among elected officials in recent years.
“There is just a lot more name calling and finger pointing going on,” he said. “These are things we need to get away from. I feel like we need to return to the sense of decorum that we had in the days of my childhood.”

Grady introduced himself as a “proud veteran of the U.S. Air Force.” He was in the command effort to test the B2 Stealth bomber, a multi-billion dollar project.
“Large budgets don’t bother me,” he said. “And I know how to lead people.”
Grady said the Lieutenant Governor’s role is to be the “point man for business in the state.” In doing this, one of his chief focus points would be improving education.

“Let’s face it, business and tourism are dependent upon an adequate work force,” he said. “And the workforce is dependent upon quality education. So I would seek to influence educators and legislators in the state to reform our failing system.”

Grady said that he was in favor of school choice for parents. He is supportive of decentralizing decision-making about education from a large district system to smaller local entities. He said that he would be in favor of the Community Schools Initiative currently being proposed in the state to allow for breakaway districts out of the massive Clark County School District.

Stan Hyt encouraged the crowd to carefully consider the down-ballot candidates in the upcoming election; including the race for Clark County Sheriff.
Hyt said that the position of Sheriff is the “highest legal authority in Clark County.”
“So if we have a situation where the Governor is forcing mandates on the residents of the county, the Sheriff can say ‘no’ to enforcing them. He can say ‘no’ to closing churches, schools and businesses.”

His top priority as Sheriff is to improve morale of personnel. He would also work towards greater transparency in both highlighting positive things while shining light on areas that need change.
Socorro Keenan said that she decided to run for the Nevada Secretary of State office when she saw how ”rigged” the voting was in the last election.

“The changes I would make are simple: 1 ID, 1 vote, 1 ballot; no need for machines,” she said.”
Keenan said that the Secretary of State office is a purely administrative role in the state. “You really can’t do much except to just follow the law,” she said. “That seems to have been a challenge in the office in the past.”

Jerry Swanson listed the first four bills that he would present and champion at the State Legislature.
The first was the Community School Initiative. “My goal is to have our own school district with Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley,” he said. “The dollars would follow the students and we wouldn’t have to fight urban-focused decision making.”

The second bill he would champion is to require a Voter Identification in order to vote.
The third would be to make Nevada a “Constitutional carry state” which would allow reisdents to carry concealed handguns without a permit.

The fourth would be to repeal the Commerce tax and block all attempts at instituting a mileage tax in the state.

Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board chairwoman Lois Hall was given a moment at the beginning of the meeting to speak to the crowd. “We would just like to thank our distinguished guests for spending time in our rural area,” she said. “It is important that rural Nevada has representation.”

Hall concluded by encouraging the crowd to exercise their civic duty and vote in the upcoming election.
The evening ended with a raffle prize drawing for a number of prizes donated by many area businesses. Two firearms were also auctioned off at the event.

“A huge thank you to the candidates and the townsfolk of Mesquite and Moapa Valley for making this town hall a beneficial event for the 2022 election year,” said Logandale resident Peggy Pope who helped organize the event.