Where Have All the Primary Debates Gone? Plus, Vegas Avoids a TSA Nightmare and the Super Bowl Returns

0:00While temperatures are finally cooling down, election season is heating up. So today on CityCast, Las Vegas, we're talking politics and more with two journalists from the Nevada Current, April Corbin Gurnes and Michael MJ Lyle, and we're getting into a debate over no debates in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Why Harry Reid International has stayed relatively calm on the TSAKS nationwide and big sports news for Nevada on two fronts, NBA, and NFL. It's Friday, March 27th, I'm Sonya Choswansson, and here's what Las Vegas is talking about. April MJ, welcome to the Friday News Roundup. Good morning. Good morning. Two currents, my gosh. Oh yeah, two currents. We've never done this together, April. This is so inaugural. This is like the first time.

1:01That's true. It's true. With your powers combined, today is going to be off the hook, maybe a little crazy. Okay. Let's set the bar a little alone. Okay, okay. It's just going to be just fine. It's going to be just fine. We're going to start up with our hot headline, which is we just kind of bring it a little bit of the news in the week. Prediction market company, Colchie, has been temporarily banned in Nevada. So this broke on March 20th. We heard from Wired, and a few minutes later, the Indy who broke the news, Prediction market company, Colchie, was banned for 14 days in Nevada. They got a restraining order from a Carson City judge. And this is the latest and a long legal fight between state gaming regulators who say Colchie is evading our 6.75% gaming tax and prediction markets, who argue that prediction markets aren't gambling. And I wish you could see my notes, April and MJ, because I wrote them in alternating caps. I wish there was a way to vocalize that. But anyways, I think you did it lovely. You can envision it, right? Yes, I can.

2:01Thank you. All right. So here's what's next. A hearing on April 3rd, where a judge will decide whether or not to turn this restraining order into a preliminary injunction, it's the start of a long battle, y'all, so buckle up. Okay. Should we get into the news of the day? Let's do it. All right. April, tell us what's going on with this gubernatorial primary. Why are there debates about debates? Well, so Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill is running for governor as a Democrat. If you've not heard of her, it's because you've probably heard of the frontrunner, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, but Hill is publicly throwing a little bit of shade at Ford for refusing to debate her. According to Hill, numerous media outlets, not including the Nevada current have attempted or are attempting to set up a debate or a forum for Ford and Hill so that voters can get to know them and they can talk to each other. But according to Hill, Ford's camp has declined all of those and is not interested in meeting

3:05face to face with her. So I asked Ford if this was true and if so, why? And here's what he said and the direct quote, what I have learned is that talking directly to voters is the best way to get the word out. I'm going to continue to do that. She can continue doing that as well and that's where we're going to leave it. Okay. That's a quote. So not surprisingly, Hill is not impressed with that answer and when I told her that that was what Ford had told me about the issue, she said, then she said, then, sorry, it's still wasn't. Go on. So when I told her about that, she said, look, this is me paraphrasing, but she goes, look, I talked to voters every day and you know, it's a really good way to talk to even more voters, having a debate and having some kind of forum and meeting there. So that's the tea. Oh, interesting. And by the way, shout out to your excellent article in the Nevada current on this very topic. Yes. MJ, what are we losing out on by not having these primary debates?

4:08I mean, you don't get to see a difference of ideas right now, especially in this moment across the country. You're seeing a lot of the talking point to Alexis Hill or talking about a lot more progressive ideas, surface and democratic debates, and we're not going to see that back and forth. We're missing out on the fact that we've done this before in the last democratic gubernatorial debate in Nevada between Christy and Cicillac. They had two of them as it will report it and we do not get that here. And so we're definitely missing out on like a difference of ideas in the direction that we want to take the state and seeing how the leaders that are arguing with their tops for the top spot, for arguing for this position, arguing for voters to actually take a chance of them to actually spar on different ideas and debate different ideas of our future. And so yes, they'll get to take their message one one to the voters, but having that like back and forth between the two front runners and not seeing how they play off each other or how they like differ on ideas in the direction.

5:08We're missing that back and forth. But I think it's frustrating for a lot of people, specifically for people who are supporting Hill, is that I think a lot of the assumption is that Ford doesn't need to debate Hill because he's not worried about her as a candidate. And why is he not worried about her as a candidate? He's outfund raised her by leaps and bounds. He has the backing of establishment Democrats, prominent Democrats, like all the way from US Senate and below. Hill has some supporters who have noteworthy names and she's raised some money, but it's not nearly to the extent of her. And that is what sort of makes this Democratic primary different than Christy and Cicilaxe, where they were more competitive to one another on a fundraising level and on a scale level, right? They both sat on the same board, right? Like they were bold. They were, they were a little more seen in both names, yeah. Where is Hill and Ford, aren't, but at the same point, why do we have a primary then

6:10if there's just an anointed candidate who's decided and there's that? And I think that's what's frustrating to people. For my article, I spoke to a Cicilax professor, Sandra Cosgrove, really big into election reform in the state and she said, look, the people who Hill or a candidate like Hill would speak to more, the people who want change, they're probably going to participate in the general election and not the primary. And then that we need to move people towards participating more in our primaries, that primaries have low turnout and having a debate would be a good way for that, you know, and I think that's what people are sort of frustrated with on a more philosophical level is, why do we have this if it doesn't matter if you can just be the candidate and that's it and the other person has zero chance of getting the word out. Yeah. So like a debate is almost like this kind of great equalizer, right? Where people kind of get equal time, equal exposure to the public, right to the voting public without having to spend enormous amounts from their own coffers in order to be up on that stage.

7:11Yeah. Exactly. But here's my pushback, okay, because there is a political cost to being on stage for the winner because no matter what, you are going to get attacked, right, from your opponent on the stage and this is a primary. So theoretically, the winner needs to come out and needs to show a unified front with the entire party, whether that's Hill or Ford, you know, they need to sort of not get attacked so much that they come out of that primary looking so bad to the general public and not just their primary voters, right? There's a cost to this, no? Absolutely. There is. But I think that the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary sort of shows you that it's possible, right? Christy and Cicillac went back and forth. They had a debate. They were competitive, but they kept it classy, I think. I don't remember that getting too mud slinging, I think. And after Cicillac won justly in the primary, Christy backed him and Democrats backed him and they brought him to the governor's office that year. You know, so it is possible. We see it all the time at the presidential level where they go back and forth.

8:13And then once there's a winner, they sort of all fall in line and become like, hey, we had that. That's a good thing. It's a good thing to see primary debates and candidates emerge. I think the real political calculation on Ford's part is probably more that he doesn't want to make a mistake that could be used against him later on. There's no upside for him in his mind if he's front, if he's the front runner and he's going to win, I think. Yeah. And that's why I really like the point that you made in the article by talking to Professor Cosgrove about just the civic nature of like no annoyed at candidates. Like we should be doing everyone should be going in equal ground like parties and political king makers should not get to a point and kind of have this final say voter shed. And the only ways voters can is if they are civically engaged in the full process. So. All right. Let's just engage in some hypotheticals here. Let's assume we're not getting a debate. Where do you think Aaron Ford would shine and maybe falter?

9:13And where do you think Alexis Hill would shine and maybe falter? He's been in the political field for a while. He was a state senator. He's one twice on a statewide level. So he has name recognition. And so he has actually have a better, I think, understanding of the full state and a lot of the things that are happening in the state. So I think he would shine, be able to talk about like a little bit more comprehensively. And I think Hill, I mean, she is a commissioner up in Washer County, even though she is coming down here to hear the concerns of something about it. I think he might have a fuller scope of kind of some of the issues that are happening in the state. So I think that might come through in the debate if there was a debate. You know, Ford is a really good speaker. I've seen him speak at different events. And he's good at doing that sort of politician thing where he brings up stories from his own life. I mean, he grew up poor and was not supposed to be on the track to being attorney general. You know what I mean?

10:13It's a wonderful back life story that I think registers with a lot of people, a lot of people find hopeful. And he's really good at capitalizing on that in ways that feel, I think, pretty authentic. I think Hill, we sort of know the general public knows a lot less, Las Vegas, especially knows a lot less about who she is as a person. I have spoken to her for this article and before for a few other things. And she comes off his very genuine, like a very real person. I think that that registers with a lot of people, particularly maybe in this political climate in my register a lot with people. Yeah. So I think that could come through, but it's hard to tell what they would look like on a debate next to each other. I think I would like to see it. I think it would be fun. But, you know, say yes for it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, where do you think Alexis Hill would poke for the most? Like what's his greatest, you know, weak point that she would kind of get him for? I think during this election cycle, she's been a lot more, well, I guess everything, she has said like everything's kind of on the table when we talk about like generating income for the state.

11:14She's been open to a lot more ideas and I feel like Ford has been at so far in this campaign way more cautious going into some of these ideas, even as they're more popular, ideas around what we're going to do with high cost of energy, ideas of how we're going to afford a lot of things in the state, a lot more cautious. And so I think Hill would poke at him for that caution and kind of talk about some of these ideas that are being heard on by a lot more on the state, especially on the left, especially for more progressive people that want change and the atmosphere that changes, everyone's beckoning for changes. And so I think she definitely poke, poke them on that vice versa. Where would, uh, where would Ford get, get a hill? One of the biggest criticisms people have of Hill is that she is a Washington County Commissioner and no offense to the great County of Washington, but you know, you're like the second largest in a state where 74% of the state lives in one county or whatever, you know what I mean? Like it is a big leap from running Washoe County to running the state of Nevada.

12:19So I think that her weakness is experience while she does have experience managing local issues and paying attention to things that are important across the state, the scale of which Clark County operates, the scale of which then the state runs, it is a different beast, I think. I think that would be certainly a weakness that we could point out. And I think Ford's strong point for a lot of Democrats, especially is that he is currently the AG and he's suing for or he's suing Trump left and right, which is, it was a big deal and something that really registers with people who think that's the biggest issue. And so he's very strong on that front. So he'll has less of that to sort of fall back on. All right. Well, we'll see, keep our eyes peeled and see if we actually get a debate in this primary stage, but not putting any bets on it, not that we even could, because... Pretty sure. Yeah. Cool circle. Closing out the UNLE Performing Arts Center's 49th season is a performance by the New York

13:32Philharmonic String Quartet. The quartet debuted with John Adams' absolute jest in New York City in 2017 and it comprises the four principal musicians from the orchestra. All four of its members are prize winning soloists and have performed around the world. Master Frank Huang, principal second violin, Chen Chen Lee, principal viola Cynthia Phelps and principal cello, Carter Bray. So with their powers combined, it's going to be an amazing performance. The evening's program includes Felix Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 3 and Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 15 and Cavarta Zats. That's Monday, March 30th at 7.30pm at Artemis W. Hamm concert hall. On the topic number two, sounds like TSA is in chaos nationwide, but maybe not at our airport? Why not MJ? So for those who don't know, we're in another partial government shutdown.

14:35Not a full one like we saw last year, but partial and so parts of DHS, which includes CSA, has not been funded. We're coming up on a little bit more than a month right now. As a result, workers are calling in six. So airports across the country have seen long, long, long, long lines. I've seen the videos and people just waiting while music, like God bless America is blasting and it's just like, no, this is not what I wanted. Y'all, okay. Listen, my family, they were just in San Diego for our family vacation. The lines were insane at San Diego airports. They were insane. Yeah. But recently, the Trump administration decided the best idea was to put ice in some airports about a dozen airports. Ice does not have the exact same training as TSA, the six months of training to do anything so they're kind of just standing around. But in addition to not seeing ice agents at Harry Redemann National, we have not seen hours long rates. I think on average, they have been 15 minutes. Even as callouts and sick calls have doubled more than to more than 100, that's what Keith

15:39White wrote from one of the workers union told channel 13 recently and he said the biggest reason for that is the biometric face scanners that are being used, the kind of e-gates that are helping facilitate travels going through. So these have been rolled out in a few airports, just facial recognition that kind of has like a verify a traveler's ID. It's supposed to be convenient, even though a lot of ex privacy experts, as you can imagine are saying, there's so many red flags with this, especially with the ability to build a national biometric system that could be used outside of TSA. There is no system like that yet, let's be clear. There is no system like that yet to be clear. You can opt out of the system technically. You can, they're not storing your facial ID and biometrics at this moment. A lot of it is more of like theoretical of what could happen, but there are concerns of rising about using this system. But for the time being, that system is according to some union reps from TSA. The reason why Harry Reid is a little bit smoother than what we've seen across the country

16:40for now. I remember when these got installed last year, and they were so controversial, do you all think that basically the big brother trade-off is proving to be worth it? Well, I think we lost that war a long time ago, not to be a pessimist, but the price of convenience unfortunately comes at a lot of our liberties, but that's just the way things are going. Well, you could argue it's more than just convenience, right? I mean, actually getting people to their flights on time and the smooth operation of our airport, all bolsters are tourism economy. This is not purely convenience. It's also operations, it's safety, it's people getting places on time, right? Yeah. We can do that with actually paying an up and reforming our airport system or paying and fully investing. I agree for people. Yeah. We can do it all the way. It's funny because every time the night before I flight, I'm like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I don't want to. But then when I get up to the line, everything is running smoothly.

17:40So I do opt into that system, but there is a lot of questions and concerns about just the way that convenience has really shaped my life and what I'm actually authorizing and setting myself up for the future and just out of the heat of the moment for convenience. Yeah. Although I am curious, because although we're talking about the facial recog being the reason why the amazing work of our TSA workers and people showing up, which is all great, however, new numbers this week show that Vegas had another down month for air travel last month, continuing a rough trend from 2025. That's a good point. Is that maybe a sign of something maybe even worse? I mean, we've been saying that sign for a while, just in general, people, because of policies around tariffs, just because of policies, foreign policy and immigration policy, people from other countries have not been as comfortable flying into the United States. There has been just aggressive action across the board, whether it is on our economics or

18:42on our immigration standards that are just making a lot of people uncomfortable. And so I think that is having a bearing on just our tourism and numbers down. And so I think there's, there's two things can be true at the same time that we have things in place to make the systems a little bit easier. There are incentives and push especially on a tourism economy to make sure airport is running smoothly. But at the same time, we were seeing less and less travelers because America has become a little bit of a pariah under this administration because a lot of foreign countries are jiving with the way that we are conducting a lot of our policies. Hmm. Did you all see this? The other day I saw this that Delta has ended special perks for members of Congress. Yes. They could have gone harder. Okay. So what else should airlines or airports do to like put pressure on elected officials to make a deal? I welcome serious and serious answers to back up for people that don't have heard that Delta announced that they're ending like special services for congressional members like airport escorts.

19:43However, they said things like making last minute changes to reserve and reserving seats of multiple flights. That will remain open at this moment. And so one shut that off. I didn't know they had these perks, honestly. Yeah. It makes sense. But yeah. So some things are still setting off, but I would say give every congressional member a middle seat on frontier, um, uh, like frontier, not frontier. Yes. Frontier. My answer was like spirit. You have to play spirit. Spirit. Honestly. I keep everyone's spirit. Spirit has always been reliable to get me to where it's not been comfortable, but I've never had an issue getting to where I needed to be a spirit. Okay. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. Then leaf Las Vegas is a local dispensary brand with multiple locations serving the

20:46Vegas community. So if you go to their flamingo and for the patchy locations, here's something really cool. They offer deli-style flowers, so imagine a deli, right? Where customers can see, smell, and choose their buds before they're weighed fresh. And those locations at flamingo and for the patchy also have drive-through pickup if you want a quick and convenient option. North Las Vegas customers can take advantage of home delivery directly from the Zenleaf team. And I would say Zenleaf really focuses on making cannabis shopping approachable, convenient, and welcoming for both new and experienced customers. So visit a Zenleaf Las Vegas location and here's a special tip, mention CityCast or shop online using code CityCast, all caps, one word, to receive a special subscriber savings. So search for Zenleaf Las Vegas to find your nearest location. So third topic, we got sports on the brain, big, big, yay sports, three most unsports

21:49people in the entire city, yeah, oh April, I'm sorry, you're a hockey fan, whatever, yeah, yeah, respect the name, no respect, respect, respect, however, it is very exciting to even me that we got some news about the NBA. The NBA has gotten one subculture to come into Las Vegas. Here's what happened. Just this week, NBA governors voted to approve and quote exploration of adding two teams, Zenleaf Las Vegas and one in Seattle. Last week, I did say that we could possibly get a team by July. We've gotten a little more clarification on that timeline in a Wednesday news conference, Commissioner Silver said that we're likely to have a final decision on this team by the end of the year. That's because right now we're in sort of this quasi approval state. So we've got this approval to accept bids from potential owners. So folks, if you would like to own an NBA team, the price tag is something between $7 to $10 billion. Sure. Okay. Shump change. Yeah.

22:50What else? No big fancies with you. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. Should we want to go on on this? I'm James. Should we go? Sure. Three way. Three way. Okay. All right. But so what happens next is after the bids come in, there's a whole round of approval that has to go back to the NBA commissioners and then get final approval before we get the team. They could be playing as soon as the 2028 to 2029 season. So something to keep an eye on. Still very exciting. Nothing confirmed. But still very, very exciting. And then we got some bonus words news. This is a little bit more on the, you know, the whisper kind of gossip inside sources. But apparently sources have told ESPN's Adam Schefter that NFL owners are expected to select Las Vegas as the site for the 2029 Super Bowl in their annual league meeting next week. This comes after our 2024 Super Bowl was widely deemed to success. And they're saying that this is basically just inking, signing the contract that's already just basically sealed and done.

23:51If true, we'll find out next week, still all interesting stuff as somewhat non-sports people April. Are you all excited about this? Is this going to be good for Vegas? Look, I, yes, I think it will be good for Vegas. I think that it is exciting, particularly with the NBA, that is an expansion team. I think a lot of people, a lot of locals are frustrated or were frustrated with the A's and with the Raiders because they were teams that were moving in here. And you know, Las Vegas is a community that everybody says doesn't have a community. So when it's a brand new team and it is ours, it is like Vegas born, like the Vegas Golden Knights. I think there's a lot more initial excitement about that to say that, hey, this is ours, this is not somewhere else, this is not a transplant, this is our baby. And I really love that about the hockey team. So I think that that will also happen with NBA, like I would be, I would be more disappointed if it was a team that was relocating. So I think I think it's exciting that it's an expansion team.

24:52Plus we didn't have to call a special session to give a tax break to build a stadium for the hockey team. It's early. It's never early. It's never early enough. People's funding goods will be on the team now. We don't know. We don't know. Oh, yeah, Jimmy, it's early for that. Oh, my gosh. If that happens, I swear. All right. What about the NFL news, though? Like if Super Bowl came back in 2029, would that be pretty cool for y'all? Yes. I am notoriously not a sports person. I do enjoy a Golden Knights on occasion, but at the same time, like I'm a social service reporter to you. Like I see everything that we do not have in this stadium. It's like we're put and I see the machines turn on a dime to accommodate entertainment and sports to make sure like they have everything they need and everything goes without a hitch. But it also like leads all these social services long neglected. And so like it's just so frustrating. I wish there was some type of law that would be like, we'll do this as long as you like build public transportation light rail or like like there's something out that are a city

25:53that the people of our city actually concretely get out of it. So, um, I know I'm such a dummy down here, but like, I just remember the last time the sports, the sports team, I just remember the last time the Super Bowl came here. I just remember a presentation from the Super Bowl and JV heard of it. I know. The sports bowl. What's it called? I remember the last time the Super Bowl came here. As a presentation, and I remember someone from Safehouse was like, we don't have enough beds right now for domestic violence victims and human trafficking victims shown in statistics that with more sports games like Super Bowl, like Olympics, like other types of games. Like you do see a higher prevalence of human trafficking of domestic violence and they don't have the space to it. So we're not building all this other infrastructure that's not really often talked about. That's associated with actually bringing more sports. Again, I know I'm a Debbie Downer. I'm so sorry listeners.

26:54It's always me. I'm always the problem, but like, MJ, and we love you for it. We love you for it because you have this like, you know, cynical streak in this joyful being. Um, but I think to your point though, it's interesting. You're pointing that like the city can move with urgency. We can rebuild roads and reconfigure traffic and it can basically like make move mountains almost right to make something happen with urgency for a big event like this, but, you know, it can't provide more beds for like domestic violence victims. I see your point about kind of sort of the, the mismatch there between what the city is willing to do for its most prominent and its least prominent. Yeah. Well, let's assume for a second though that we are excited for the sports bowl, 29. How can Vegas out Vegas itself for the next Super Bowl? Because they did a pretty good job in 2024. Yeah. I have said this before on this very podcast that the 2024 halftime show was lame and

27:54the best thing. This is true. You dance to that. I'm very strong. And I got an email from a listener who said that I was correct because you and David think you're argued with me about it. Okay. Wow. Look, Usher was not great and the best thing that lost me is April 4th. Okay. Sorry. Go on. Whatever. No, Usher was not great in 2024. Apologies to Usher. I'm sure he listens to city cast Las Vegas. Sorry, Usher. I got your back. You know, but the best thing Las Vegas could do was ensure that the 2029 halftime show kills it. Murders it. We are the entertainment capital world. We need to run it. That is the most important. The most important thing in the world. Everything else on the entertainment side, we do well, like the little like the LVCVA as much as I will criticize them for a lot of things does tend to rise to the occasion on these things, like the little airport things where they have special signs for people who are coming in are always fun events that come around the sort of ancillary events that go around around the city.

28:56That would be great. You know, they'll have all of that, but none of it works if people don't remember the Super Bowl. Yeah. So here's my pitch for you halftime show. It's a mashup of Harry Styles, Billy Eilish, Beyoncé and I love Beyoncé, but we need Beyoncé's amazing. She could be amazing. We just need a very Vegas centric Super Bowl with headliners, with more Vegas, so girls with magic mic dancers, with like, ring them all out like the show case art talents. You know, we just needs to be spectacular. You know, you need to be over the top like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't necessarily have to be somebody who's a performer here or who has a residency here. Like, I think that disconnect is fine, but I think it needs to just be really amazing. But I'm still waiting for K-pop halftime show. Oh. Shout out to K-pop team hunters, okay? That has to be coming. Okay. That idea is for free.

29:57Super Bowl committee. Listen to April Corbin Gernist. You're welcome. Hit me up. Hit me up, Steve Hill. April on stage. Okay. Before we move on, we've got some shout outs from our members. This is something that's a perk you get if you become a CityCast Las Vegas neighbor, which you can do at membership.citycast.fm. It is the hottest club in town. Member Patricia B says, she has two. I'm going to give her both of them today. All right. One, Main Street Provisions, because they have some of the best mood downtown chefs, and two, the Clark County Elections Department, because everyone should remember to register to vote LOL. Yeah. And I'm including her LOL because, in fact, I did text Patricia, who is also a friend and ask her if she had any extra shout outs. She wanted to share. So members, get your shout outs in. This is an amazing perk. If there's a restaurant or a non-profit or a boba shop, organization, your school, your kids, schools, volunteer group that just did some killer event, shout them out.

30:58They get a free shout out on this podcast if you are a neighbor. So become a neighbor at membership.citycast.fm. Okay. Well, April, MJ, thank you both for being here on The Fighting Who's Roundup. Thanks for having me. Have a meeting. Have a meeting. Go sports. Go sports. All right. And that's all for today here on Citycast. Las Vegas. Our executive producer is Leyla Mohamed. Our creative producer is Jacob Celice, and our newsletter editor is Rob Catchal Reese. I'm Sonia Choswancin, officially putting in my bed of $100 for the NBA expansion team. Heads up, Mayor Berkeley. Music is by OG Moose, Epidemic Sound, and all the kimonos. We record this show on the traditional homelands of the new movies, The Southern Paiute People. If you enjoyed this show, go tell a friend, rate the show, leave us a review, and subscribe to our morning newsletter.

31:59And don't forget, you can support this show and get some great perks like those shout outs by becoming a citycast Las Vegas neighbor at membership.citycast.fm. We'll be back Monday morning with more news from around the city. Take care. Bye.