As a registered independent at the New to Las Vegas world headquarters, I don’t vote in party primaries. And as a journalist I don’t make political endorsements. But I get to critique, like a movie critic. I did this two years ago about an antisemitic campaign mailing put out by the Nevada Central Republican Committee against U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen.
Now, at a time when the two top-grossing Hollywood films were made by YouTube creators, I have to admire the utter image cleverness and seeming cost-efficiency of the nearby ad shot on a cell phone for Joe Dalia. He’s one of three candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in next week’s primary to be Nevada state treasurer.
Since the incumbent is term-limited, this is an open position and hotly contested. All the candidates–including Dalia–are complete nobodies statewide. So an ad like this, if it catches on, can make the difference in candidate name recognition, and therefore success.
Now, for all of his aw-shucks, I’m-just-cheap persona, Dalia is a lawyer who used to work for Meta. He found the scratch to air this ad during expensive breaks on CNN. And I imagine it wasn’t edited on his cellphone. For all of its charm, it’s clearly not a complete selfie; you can see both of Dalia’s hands. Someone else was operating his cellphone camera.
In the 30-second ad, Dahia says, “Do you know Nevada’s holding a billion dollars in unclaimed funds? I’ll do more to get that back to you.” What he doesn’t say is that he’s on record stating that money from that fund should go to state education programs and perhaps a state development fund schools, rather than directly to taxpayers, as a viewer might surmise.
But I digress. It’s a helluva pitch.
The hearings have been held and almost all the briefs are in. It will be up to a federal judge in Nevada to decide if the Las Vegas Sun will ever see the light of print again. A ruling could come soon. In my view, it’s a loooong shot for the 76-year-old daily newspaper.