The fundraising lead is split in the 10 competitive races where both parties’ establishments have endorsed candidates.

The spotlight’s on Nevada as residents prepare to vote in races for president, U.S. Senate, and 52 legislative seats that will determine the governor’s veto power.

There’s just seven days until government funding lapses, and with House Republicans yet to pass a spending bill, federal agencies are preparing to close. The last government shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — lasted 35 days in 2018 and 2019.

With the Legislature’s biennial 120-day session over, this edition of the Indy Environment newsletter looks at what measures made it to the governor’s desk and what legislation did not.

That included three from Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama (R-Las Vegas), who last week criticized Democratic lawmakers during an Assembly floor session for not adhering to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s budget proposals.

Major political donors in the health care and pharmaceutical industries pumped more than $1.3 million into legislative campaigns in the 2022 election cycle, ahead of a 2023 legislative session likely to be rife with fierce debate over health care issues. 

As the results for the midterm election pour in, Democrats appear to be maintaining control of the Legislature, but they will likely fall short of hoped-for supermajorities in either house.

Boyd Gaming and Red Rock Resorts are taking different approaches in expanding their operations. The two companies are the primary forces in the Las Vegas locals gaming market.

All three Clark County sheriff candidates — Stan Hyt, Kevin McMahill and Tom Roberts — spent most of their law enforcement careers serving on the Las Vegas police force.

The bill, SB1, already passed on party lines in the Senate and is expected to be signed by the governor in spite of complaints from Republicans that it skews maps too far in favor of Democrats.

When lawmakers kicked off their 120-day legislative session in February, the state was still recovering from a brutal winter surge of COVID-19, which saw a thousand new cases of the virus reported across the state each day.

Democrats controlled both houses of the Legislature during the 2021 session, and hundreds of high-profile Democratic measures sailed through the Assembly and Senate while a vast majority of Republican-backed measures failed to make much headway in the legislative process.

From permanent expanded mail voting to the state public health option, the 2021 Legislature saw no shortage of headline-grabbing partisan disagreements — but a look at actual vote totals reveals that the vast majority of bills were passed with at least some bipartisan buy-in.

Nevada lawmakers stand poised to vote out dozens of bills banning ghost guns, changing criminal justice procedures including bail and a host of other measures affecting education, cannabis and health care heading into one of the final major bill passage deadlines of the session.

Lawmakers voted out measures including a tenant’s rights bill limiting application fees, a bill requiring eggs sold in Nevada be cage-free and a measure lowering penalties for youth caught possessing marijuana.

But on Monday, both housing advocates and landlords said they support proposed legislation that would give renters more of a heads up on rent increases, even as there was a less warm reception for a bill that would create a statewide landlord database and registry.

It’s unlikely Republicans will gain a majority in the Senate without a major wave that gives them victory over essentially all seats in play and a fifth seat that’s considered generally out of reach. Democrats enjoy a 13-8 advantage in the Senate, and Republicans are aiming to both pick up seats and defend potentially vulnerable districts to ensure that Democrats don’t obtain a supermajority.

Cegavske has argued that the move to a mostly mail primary election in June was a special circumstance and that Nevadans should adjust to a new normal. She said people who fear for their health in going to vote in person can request an absentee ballot and that her office is making that easier by implementing an online absentee ballot request process.

Of the 42 seats in the state Assembly, almost a quarter will be decided in the primary election. Four races will actually be decided in the primary — including three incumbent Republicans fending off challengers — because no other candidates filed to run in those districts. Another five races will effectively be decided in the primary, given vast disparity in voter registration totals making it all but impossible for the opposing party to gain a foothold.

Candidates must appear in person, pay a filing fee, show identification and sign paperwork to complete the transaction. For seats within a single county, candidates file at that county clerk’s office; for multi-county seats, they file with the Nevada Secretary of State.