Sandoval and Rory

Ironically, the race between Brian Sandoval and Rory Reid for governor of Nevada is by far the most important race going on in the state.

Of course, since the national news media has been "trained" by both left and right to dial in on every "Majority Leader of the Senate" race, this time the Reid/Angle race, there isn't much buzz about the gubernatorial contest.

After the census is completed, the state Legislature will begin drawing the new election district lines. This is huge. Despite reports from the GOP, all signs point to the Democrats holding onto both the Assembly and Senate in the state, allowing them to draw the boundaries in their favor. Of course, without a friendly Democrat in the governor's mansion and many votes short of a veto proof majority, we can expect an ugly fight and a major compromise to get it done.

Furthermore, if Sandoval wins, there will certainly be  expected a rehash of the Gibbons Veto Fest of 2009 ub the 2011 session.  Sandoval has so far refused to sign the Chuck Muth "No Tax Pledge" form, which is a good thing, my cynical bones tell me that this might just be an attempt to court "the middle". After all, it's not like he's going to lose any supporters on the Right by not signing the pledge.

And if I was on Rory's staff, I would tell him to sign the damn pledge, forcing Sandoval to sign it. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and being 12% behind, 75 days from the election is a desperate situation.

So is Sandoval a secret Democrat? Who knows. Stranger things have happened (T Roosevelt, Justice O'Connor etc.). Like none of the media are pointing out, he has never actually been elected to any office, and has no legislative history to speak of. He could actually turn out to be the moderate that I think at this point, voters are looking for.

And the exact reason why the Sandoval/Reid race is getting so little coverage, a lack of controversial actors, is exactly why it should get more coverage. It's the most important race in the state.