Monday, May 24, 2010

Fact check: Sharron Angle voted for pay increases, crazy scientology program, Sue Lowden?

A new poll shows Sharron Angle (http://www.sharronangle.com/) in the lead in the Nevada Republican primary: Angle is at 29%, Lowden at 26%, and Tarkanian at 24%, followed by state Rep. Chad Christensen and businessman John Chachas at 5% each. The poll of likely GOP primary voters has a ±3.8% margin of error. (See: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/sharron-angle/).

Lowden is noticing, as she is running attack ads. She says Sharron “voted twice to raise her pay raise.”

The whole story is at: http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/94787619.html:

“In 2001 Angle voted for AB606 which would have increased lawmakers' pay from $130 to $175 dollars a day. The bill passed 36 to 4 in the Assembly and died in the Senate. To be fair, any lawmaker would have had to run again and be elected to receive the raise, so it could be argued no one voting was directly raising their salary (emphasis mine).

In 2005 Angle voted to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot clearing the way for lawmakers to be paid for all 120 days of a session. Currently the pay stops after 60 days.

But on this point we'll have to say the ad's script is a misleading. The vote was not to raise anyone's salary. It was to put the question before the voters (which is what Sharron always did, given the opportunity, comment and emphasis mine).

The vote in the Assembly was unanimous. In the Senate, the only no votes came from 5 Democrats.

In any case the voters rejected the change.”

Lowden’s ad also claims that Sharron “pushed a bill favored by the Church of Scientology using tax dollars to give massages to prisoners”.

I’ve already posted about this, and here’s a summary:

This “controversy” surrounds the Second Chance program, a program for helping incarcerated substance abusers and reducing the recidivism rate. The facts on it can be found at: http://www.articlealley.com/article_131655_18.html.

Notice that the article mentions now deceased L. Ron Hubbard as follows, “The protocol utilized in the Second Chance Program is based on discoveries by L. Ron Hubbard in the fields of drug and criminal rehabilitation.” Scientology is not part of the program nor is it mentioned, but it is a cutting edge program that works.

It is a fact that Angle did not promote the Second Chance program in 2003 - only the option to explore its potential. The trip she took was a privately funded, and took place on a non-legislative working day. Legislators were invited to come on a voluntary basis, as reported in the Reno Gazette Journal in February 2003.

She did not propose legislation on the Second Chance program, or anything related to it.  See for yourself.  The 2003 legislative record can be found at: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/72nd/BDRList/fullBDR.cfm.  

Furthermore, Sharron is a conservative Christian.

She has voted against over 100 tax increases. She even used her personal funds to defend Nevada’s constitutional 2/3 vote requirement to raise taxes, and the case was taken all the way to the US Supreme Court. As a result of the lawsuit (Angle vs. Guinn), the seven member Nevada Supreme Court was replaced through election defeat or retirement. The new court reversed the decision in 2007 restoring the Nevada Constitutional 2/3 provision. For her efforts, Sharron Angle received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Medallion for Courageous Client from the Claremont Institute in 2004.

In 2005, she was the single holdout on a property tax increase (headline: “Property Tax plan goes to Senate on 41-1 vote“, see: http://kummerkaempfer.org/04_News/communique/08_05_taxrelief_rowe.pdf). This bill split the property tax abatement by applying a 3% rate to residential and 8% rate to commercial property. The reason Sharron voted “no” was because the Nevada Constitution states that taxation must be uniform and equal and so could not vote against her oath of office to which she swore to "uphold and defend the Constitution".

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if political discourse could be based in reality, truth, policy, and ideas, instead of fabricated allegations, Sue Lowden?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It is a fact that Angle did not promote the Second Chance program in 2003 - only the option to explore its potential. "

Just as recent as May 18th on Face 2 Face Sharron Angle clearly stated that she still supports the Second Chance program like the one that she claims is a big success in New Mexico....you can see for yourself goto:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/sets/2010/may/18/big-debate---part-1/

I would call these statements by Angle reality and I would consider these statements part of her policies and ideas...and not fiscally conservative.

I refuse to vote for anyone who supports any Scientology programs.

If Sharron Angle wins the GOP primary she is going to lose the general.

Jeanette said...

Sharron Angle went with a group of over 100 women legislators to see the pilot program.

Angle asked the Nevada Director of Prisons, Jackie Crawford, to evaluate the program. Crawford was impressed with the program results but cautiously searched extensively for any scientology connections because of the separation of church and state. She found the program to be non-religious.

Angle and Crawford invited any legislators to go on a fact finding trip for one Saturday paid for with private funding.

Angle requested a Bill Draft before the deadline for requests, just in case the legislators agreed with the Director and Angle that the program would save money for the state in reducing the revolving door of recidivism and would not cost extra in prison program funds.

Majority Leader of the Nevada State Assembly, Barbara Buckley, through statements to a cub reporter with questionable ethics, demonized the program as scientology, massages and saunas in order to marginalize Angle and minimize her leadership in the fight against the 2003 gross receipts tax. The politicizing of the trip caused Crawford and Angle to withdraw the offer and the bill was never drafted or introduced.

This is the same attack that Lowden is making for the same reason – how well does Lowden know Buckley, a Reid operative? We know that Lowden gave $29,000 to Democrats: Reid, the DNC, James Bilbray, George Miller, Walter Mondale, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Comm., Howard Cannon, and Jimmy Carter.

Lowden’s attack on scientology smacks of religious bigotry. Will she attack the Boy Scouts because many of their leaders are Mormon and their meetings are conducted in the Mormon church? Religious bigotry went out with the first amendment and the civil rights act of 1964. Isn’t it un-American to discriminate based on religious preference? Oh yeah. Sue Lowden wouldn’t comment on the Rand Paul assertion that the civil rights act should be repealed. I guess chickens of a feather flock together. Bigotry is alive and well in the Lowden camp.

Jeanette said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeanette said...

And, as for your comment - "if she wins the primary she will lose the general" - we will see about that, won't we?

REAL conservatism is making a comeback, Sue Lowden.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding? Sharron Angle was such a supporter of the Scientology prison program that she submitted a Bill Draft Request for a pilot program here in Nevada. She couldn't get any traction, for obvious reasons, but she definitely made a push for it.

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/94787619.html?storySection=story

Jeanette said...

Nevadasenatewatcher,

Please read other comments and facts before you make comments.

I will quote myself: "The politicizing of the trip caused Crawford and Angle to withdraw the offer and the bill was never drafted or introduced."

Secondly, just because it was developed by scientologists doesn't mean it is a "Scientology prison program."

I'll quote myself again: "Scientology is not part of the program nor is it mentioned..."

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About Me

I am a citizen journalist, wife to Bill, and Mommy to Charlotte and Cheyenne. I work at a chemical company writing Material Safety Data Sheets and own a small business on the side. I started this blog to "sound the alarm" on what is happening in this country with respect to the assault on our freedoms, and because I was called to do it: Ezekiel 33:1-5: "The word of the LORD came to me: 'Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: 'When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.'"