Local attorney Bruce Hahn is running in the November election to serve as Reno’s Justice of the Peace – a nonpartisan office – and has a slew of endorsements from other local attorneys and law enforcement organizations.
He also received an endorsement from The Franklin Project, a local far-right political action committee spearheaded by election denier and right-wing conspiracy theorist Robert Beadles. The site’s about page says the PAC “is dedicated to finding and supporting Constitutional candidates that will help restore our great Constitutional Republic.”
Hahn says he didn’t ask for the endorsement or interview with the group but wouldn’t go so far as to disavow it either.
“I stand for the judiciary’s duty to be independent and impartial of any political organization and their positions,” he told This Is Reno.
Hahn is the only judicial candidate included on The Franklin Project’s endorsed candidates list. Other candidates that earned the PAC’s support include:
- Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant, an election denier who stood by the fake electors Nevada’s GOP put forward and has convinced at least one Nevada county to switch to hand-counting ballots;
- Attorney General candidate Sigal Chattah, whose Twitter mantras mimic Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, who has made bigoted and racist comments repeatedly, and who said she would support a heartbeat-bill style abortion restriction in Nevada; and
- Washoe County Commissioner Jeanne Herman whose proposed election reforms – largely based on conspiracy theories touted by Beadles and others – were not only voted down by her colleagues but found to be largely illegal.
The Franklin Project PAC’s website has echoes of Beadles’ other websites with a page for “Allegations” which include election fraud conspiracies and many of the same themes as a packet of anonymously mailed materials associated with another endorsee, Mike Clark.
Hahn is running against Kendra Bertschy in November’s general election.
