Pondering politics

RN&R contributing editor D. Brian Burghart e-mailed us with the news that Bob Cashell’s Reno mayoral campaign is moving forward now that Cashell is renting a campaign headquarters on East Fourth Street.

Cashell, 63, hasn’t announced that he’s in the running yet. If he does, he’d join the likes of former Reno City Councilwoman Candice Pearce, former Washoe County chairwoman Earlene Forsythe and trench critic/insurance broker Mike Robinson.

It’s said that Cashell may have a chance of holding his own against the well-financed re-election campaign of Mayor Jeff Griffin. Griffin has raised something like $100,000—more than $30,000 of that was a result of a recent fund-raiser held with magazine mogul Steve Forbes.

But Cashell has plenty of long-time political and business ties to Northern Nevada. He was lieutenant governor of Nevada from 1982 to 1986 and chairman of the University of Nevada Board of Regents from 1978 to 1982. He also did a term as chairman of the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority Board of Directors.

Cashell has owned and operated casinos in Nevada since 1967, when he and three partners purchased the Boomtown truck stop on Interstate 80, west of Reno. Cashell sold the Boomtown Hotel-Casino in 1988. He also owned Horseshoe Casino in downtown Reno and was chief executive officer at Ormsby House Hotel & Casino in Carson City. These days, he owns the Alamo Travel Plaza in Sparks.

Sources say that Cashell is still formulating campaign strategy plans. After Reno City Councilman Dave Rigdon announced that he would not proceed with his plans to run for mayor, campaign contribution disclosures show that Rigdon received $500 from a Bob and Nancy Cashell Trust.

Hmm.

It’s heartening to hear President Bush say, in his State of the Union address, that he isn’t giving up on the battle to carefully assess the dangers posed by countries who “pose a grave and growing danger” because of their insistence on developing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. I wonder, though, what the U.S. military will do with all its extra money—that $48 billion boost—now that developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons is considered a “dangerous” and “destructive” thing. More MREs for Afghans, maybe?

Hmm.

It’s interesting to read in the Reno Gazette-Journal that, after two years, a “decision may be near on the Mapes site.” That’s right. The Reno City Council members now say they can reach a consensus. Maybe the property can be used, as it is now, for an ice-skating rink in the winter and a parking lot for Hot August Nights in the summer. Or maybe it can become a performing arts theater. Or an amusement park. Does all of this sound familiar? Or is it just me?

Hmm.