(Annie Black) – Malcolm X once said, “If you have no critics, you’ll likely have no success.”
Well then, I guess I’m on the right path! Here’s the latest…
On Tuesday, Kristyn Leonard of the Nevada Independent wrote a story about Nevada’s all-mail primary election. In it she noted that 32 people in Clark County voted who “never registered to vote.”
This morning I posted a tweet asking: “How did they get a ballot in the first place?”
Seemed like a logical question to ask. After all, we now have same-day registration. So how does someone receive a ballot, whether via mail or in person, without being registered to vote?
It certainly raises a legitimate question about the potential for fraud in our elections without some kind of voter ID in place, right?
Enter the critic.
Jon Ralston is a liberal Nevada blogger most of you have probably never heard of. He’s also employed as the editor of the Nevada Independent who uses his platform to attack anyone who suggests voting fraud exists or that mail-in balloting increases the potential for such fraud.
Especially President Trump.
So my tweet apparently got his hackles up. Here’s the snarky response he posted on his blog in response…
“Genius tweet from incoming Assemblywoman Annie Black. Thank goodness she will have zero influence in Carson City. … Black’s twitter feed is a sewer of Trumpism and partisan hooey, including saying the state never should have been shut down. She appears to be Sharron Angle without the policy grounding. Think about that.”
First, it’s fake news to claim I said the state never should have been shut down. However, I HAVE said the conflicting, arbitrary, discriminatory and ham-handed manner in which Gov. Sisolak has imposed the shutdown has been disastrous for Nevada’s families, businesses and economy.
Just ask the thousands who, three months later, STILL haven’t received an unemployment check.
Secondly, the fact that Mr. Ralston is already attacking me five months before I even take office would seem to belie the claim that I will have “zero influence in Carson City.” If he’s already attacking me, I’ve already made a difference.
After all, dogs don’t bark at parked cars.
Lastly, I’ve never spoken with Mr. Ralston. Yet somehow, he’s already pre-judged my “policy grounding.” Not exactly what most would consider professional journalism. More like what you’d expect from a partisan activist.
So Mr. Ralston – a timid soul who’s never run for office himself, let alone won an election – is a critic. Whatever. As Channing Pollock once observed: “A critic is a legless man who teaches other people to run.”
Next year in the Legislature, I’ll have a vote. He won’t.
Talk about “zero influence.”
Annie
P.S. Let me ask your advice on an issue that didn’t come up during the campaign…
As you know, Nevada is unique in that voters are able to vote for “None of the Above” (NOTA) in statewide races. In fact, NOTA came in first place in the 2014 Democrat primary race for governor.
But there’s no teeth in the law. The candidate who came in second to NOTA automatically went on to the general election.
Would you like to see a change in the law requiring a special run-off election whenever NOTA wins in which none of the candidates who appeared on the ballot are allowed to run again?
Shoot me your thoughts: [email protected]
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Annie Black is a Mesquite City Councilwoman and Assemblywoman-elect for Nevada State Assembly District 19. You can get more information by visiting www.electannieblack.com
