Poll Results: 0% of Voters Think There’s No Corruption

Friday, August 2 2024

I wanted to give an update on a recent poll that was done of Pahrump voters.

This poll was done between July 10th and July 14th of 2024 and there were about 2,000 voters polled. Those polled were active voters who lived in Pahrump. The poll was done by No Mask Nevada.

I wanted to go over the results of the poll and give you my opinion on what the results mean.

This is surprising, even to me, that so many people distrust county government. You typically would not see as condemning of a number as “0%” who think there’s not corruption. For everyone to think that there’s corruption means that it’s highly likely that public corruption is the most important issue to voters.

Again, for something so obscure like an ethics violation, for 4 out of 10 people to be aware of it tells me that voters care about this.

Former District Attorney Chris Arabia, former County Treasurer John Prudhont, and Leo Blundo – former commission of district 4 in Pahrump – have all been found guilty by the Nevada Commission on Ethics of violating ethics law. This happened in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and is separate from the federal indictment of wrongdoing of both a high ranking Nye County Sheriff deputy in 2023 and a sitting Nye County judge in 2024.

Even reading the above paragraph, you’d expect this kind of news in Chicago or Los Angeles, but for a small town like Pahrump means that we have some major problems that are undetected. Voters are aware of this.

The county manager runs the government day to day. Any failures coming from county government can be directly traced to the county manager, with failure of proper oversight going right to the commissioners.

It’s hard to know whether the 57% that blame commissioners are upset because they are failing to properly oversee the county manager, or not.

Regardless of why the 57% blame the commissioners, it’s a very high number that blame the county manager.

The 8% who said there’s no corruption, after none of them admitted this on the first question, means that they aren’t happy with the answers. Maybe the system is broken to them, in which case “someone else” or any of the people offered as possible answers are just not good answers. Maybe these people don’t like the county manager system, and don’t want a county manager running everything.

County Manager Tim Sutton’s contract with the county gives him free health insurance for life, for both him and his wife, and any and all dependents. This means that even if Sutton were terminated, his entire family would go on to enjoy free health insurance at a cost to Nye County taxpayers (see the KPVM story here).

With past one term ex-commissioner Leo Blundo having a stranglehold over the tiny membership at the county Republican Party, he has gone against bylaws to endorse candidates and these candidates pay him after receiving endorsements.

Below is the filing of one candidate for county commission who was endorsed by Leo Blundo’s Nye County Republican Party just before the donation was made.

This is something that likely upsets voters, explaining the 37% who selected this choice.

Finally, a secretive government is a hostile government. I have made a number of requests for public records and never received anything from our county. I can understand how frustrating this is for those of you who have asked for records in the past and received nothing.

When I was in McLean County Illinois, I made dozens of requests while I was a talk show host and I always received the records. I did not have a good relationship withe the government there, but I was never turned down.

It is not normal for 53% of people in a town to think their tax money is being stolen. This is a severe breakdown of trust, and for 97% to think there is a possibility of theft of tax money is extreme.

As of right now, I am the Republican nominee for the District 3 commission seat after winning the Republican primary with 34% of the vote. My closest competitor received 29% of the vote.

I will take office in January 2025 and at that time I will have more power to address these issues.

In the meantime if you want to receive update emails like this, please sign up to receive them below.

Ian Bayne, Nye County District 3