
Politicians are almost the same but for a longer period of time; for three or five years the politician is busy, whether he or she is just out of the office, in a meeting, in several back-to-back seminars or due to any other excuse that the secretary, liaison, or other-titled person who gets paid to cover up for them gives us as to why their politician is unable to take our call or meet with us.
Once an election year starts up, however, you see them like flies, everywhere — no more busy schedule, or out of the office/in a meeting/in several seminars and all those other excuses the secretary, liaison, etc. are instructed to use; they answer all telephone calls, kiss all the babies they can find, take time to read to the kids in the schools, in any graders or of any age.
I am sick and tired of seeing them sitting in a tiny desk embracing a child with a book in their hands.
Look at District Court Judge Douglas Smith who discriminates against Latinos who appear in his courtroom; he forced a single Latina mother to go on a hunger strike to protest his abusive behavior and irrational ruling, decision and sentencing of her mentally ill son, but now he appears on Spanish television speaking in Spanish to beg the Latino audience that does not know him to vote for him.
How dare this man, judge or no judge, to have the audacity to turn to the Latino community — asking for their support!?
He may not know that I have taken my time to tell everyone I can, in Spanish, English or by sign language if necessary, that they should NOT vote for Judge Smith. The lady on that hunger strike is doing the same and the Latino who Judge Smith sent to jail and raised his bail from $3,000 to one million dollars because he did not like the way he said thank you to him are also campaigning against Judge Smith.
If Judge Smith thinks that because a couple of Latino attorneys are afraid of his retaliation and kiss his rear end, that they are going to make him win this election, I think he is going to be surprised on November 4 after the votes are counted.
I am recommending to every one that I know — Latinos, Anglos, Blacks, Asians and any other race — to vote for Christine Guerci-Nyhus because she is the best candidate for judge in District Court Department 8 without a doubt.
If Undersheriff Joe Lombardo believes that the Latin Chamber of Commerce has any influence on the Latino Community, he has a real surprise coming. If he thinks that Fernando Romero’s clique has any respect within the Spanish community of any kind, his surprise will be even bigger.
The Latinos in Las Vegas know better than that; they know that under the Lombardo regime the Clark County Detention Center Latino population has increased; and as I pointed out a few weeks ago in this column, three Latinos have been murdered and the police always arrive too late.
Latinos in Las Vegas know Larry Burns; they know that Larry Burns speaks our language and is able to communicate with the Latinos that have not learned English yet.
Larry is not going to be out there in the streets of Las Vegas being an interpreter for the Latino community — of course not — but Larry Burns knows the Latino mentality and he knows how to deal with the Latinos.
Those of you who did not have the opportunity of listening to my radio show last Tuesday when I interviewed Desiree Lucido, should allow us to send you a copy of that show before the election. In that interview, you would have heard from this mother who, after two years without seeing her daughter, still cries for her as she told us how Family Court Judge Vincent Ochoa screamed at her and told her that she will never see her daughter again.
Request a copy of that show which aired on Face The Tribune and you can hear her telling us that when she and Judge Ochoa met at a traffic light, she asked the judge when he was going to let her see her daughter and he rolled down his window and told her, “F*** you.”
This election should be an example for those elected officials that still believe that by coming out only in election year they are going to be able to keep their job; many of them could get a nice little surprise of rejection from the voters who give them the pink slip.
In fact what this community should be doing is starting to organize themselves to lobby for every office holder to have a term limit. We should not be keeping those government employees in office forever — they need to learn how to earn a paycheck or learn how to sign a check on the front and not just on the back.
This election should be an alert to those individuals that make politics their career to show them that serving the community, “giving back to the community” as they say, should have a term limit because the people of Nevada do not want to abuse the generosity of those politicians who need to get back to their normal life and their families.
I hope and pray that this election serves as an example of how tired the public is of career politicians and how eager they are to see new faces in office. This is a Republic, not a monarchy; we do not need just a few families governing the people of Nevada. Open your eyes, people, and vote the right way, the honest way, the educated way and the way that is best for the good of the community.
My name is Rolando Larraz, and as always, I approved this column. Rolando Larraz is Editor in Chief of the Las Vegas Tribune. His column appears weekly in this newspaper. To contact Rolando Larraz, email him at: Rlarraz@lasvegastribune.com or at (702) 699-8111.