Aaron Ford was in favor of tax breaks for data centers before he was against them.
Ford’s gubernatorial bid is in trouble. Look at what’s been happening. Gov. Joe Lombardo’s camp has been roasting Ford for spending more than 420 days outside of Nevada. Many of those trips were lobbyist-funded getaways to places such as South Africa, France and Singapore. During his time in office, Ford has taken trips worth more than $140,000.
Consider his trip to Cape Town, South Africa, which was sponsored by the Attorney General Alliance. One of the items on the agenda was a tour of South Africa’s wine estates — for educational purposes, of course. The group also visited a safari park. That sounds like an incredible vacation, but Nevadans understand it didn’t do much to improve their lives.
It’s a devastating attack because it’s true and cuts across party lines. There’s bipartisan agreement that elected officials shouldn’t use their office as a springboard to jet around the globe. It speaks to Ford’s character or lack thereof.
Ford hasn’t had much financial firepower to respond. He finally went on the air with a TV ad defending himself. It included a speaker wearing the insignia of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association. The ad also showed retired police Detective Dave Kallas saying, “Don’t believe the attacks.”
But police union has endorsed Lombardo. It sent the Ford campaign a cease-and-desist letter over the ad. Kallas’ quote was from a 2018 ad. He has endorsed Lombardo’s re-election campaign and blasted Ford for reusing the footage.
“If he’ll lie to Nevadans about something this clear, what else is he willing to lie to us about?” Kallas asked.
It didn’t take long to find out. The answer is data centers.
“Data centers are swarming into Nevada communities,” Ford said in a Wednesday video. He continued, “And Joe Lombardo is handing them our tax money to do it.”
Ford then pledged to “stop tax breaks for data centers until they hold up their end of the bargain.”
Politically, this attack makes sense. Many voters are worried about AI taking their jobs, raising their power bills and destroying the environment. Some AI leaders apparently weren’t smart enough to realize that promising to wipe out millions of jobs wasn’t a great sales pitch. Perhaps they could have used some more human intelligence.
In 2015, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 170, which offers hefty tax breaks to data centers. One of the primary sponsors of that bill was Ford, then the minority leader in the upper chamber.
In other words, Ford sponsored a bill in 2015 to give tax breaks to data centers — the very tax breaks he now claims to be upset about. In 2015, Lombardo was sheriff of Clark County.
This is part of a pattern. When the political winds change, Ford often does, too. He has flip-flopped on illegal immigration. Last year, he claimed not to support sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants. In 2017, he co-sponsored a bill to make Nevada a sanctuary state. When Lombardo pushed to protect women’s sports, Ford claimed to have switched his position on that, too.
Flip-flops may help Ford relax on his next lobbyist-funded beach vacation, but these flip-flops should leave Nevada voters feeling quite uncomfortable.
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow
@victorjoecks on X.
