CAN & SHOULD NV REPUBLICANS TRUST JOHN LEE?

April 26, 2021

Before John Lee was a Democrat, he was a Republican who became a Democrat to run for State Assembly and won. Lee served in the State Assembly from 1996–2000. Lee then went on to win a State Senate seat where he had a reputation as a fiscally conservative Democrat. Lee served in the Senate until 2012. John Lee was then elected mayor of North Las Vegas in 2013.

Lee took over during a serious fiscal crisis after the city blew up its budget borrowing a 100 million to build a brand new city hall. After reaching a deal with city employees, Mayor Lee was able to balance the budget without tax increases or layoffs in less than a year.

Crime is out of control in North Las Vegas. When Lee took over in 2013, the city had a murder rate of 3.10 per 100k people. Violent crime soared in 2018 to over 13 murders per 100K people compared to Nevada’s murder rate of just 6.6 murders per 100k people. In 2020, North Las Vegas police investigated 26 killings.

North Las Vegas is one of the most difficult jurisdictions to start, own and run a small business in the county. Property owners are held hostage to the city’s water and sewer bill system where landlords are held liable for tenant’s failure to pay their bills. The city bureaucracy is extremely complex to navigate blocking small startup businesses and protecting big corporations from competition.

Building new businesses in North Las Vegas is extremely difficult unless you’re a large corporation.

For example, McDonald’s had a location on Cheyenne next the freeway for 20 plus years, with a drive thru and a 100 foot high post to hold a McDonald’s sign visible from the freeway. McDonalds built a new location across the street witha drive thru and new pole leaving the old location available for lease. When small restaurant operators tried to lease the old McDonalds location they were told by the city the drive thru and the pole could not be used making up some arbitrary reason about grandfather clauses.

North Las Vegas was one of the most authoritarian cities in the state during the pandemic ruthlessly enforcing Sisolak’s CV19 orders and threatening landlords with criminal charges if they did not comply. As reported April 2020, under a new purposed North Las Vegas city ordinance, violators could face fines up to $1,000 per day, the loss of business licenses or permits or misdemeanor charges that could mean up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000, simply for demanding rent from tenants.

Mayor Lee did retract gun ordinances in North Las Vegas that made it illegal to car a firearm in your car in conflict with state laws.

Fast forward to April 2021, John Lee announced on Fox News he was leaving the Nevada Democrat Party after the socialist wing took over. Lee claims he voted for Pres. Trump both in 2016 and 2020. BTW he’s running for Governor. My first question is, why didn’t Lee change parties and help back in 2016?

John Lee, according to sources, is extremely close friends with Harry Reid. So before we all buy Lee’s recent revelations that the Democrat party is too extreme, let’s patiently and thoughtfully vet Lee’s record and agenda for Nevada.