Submitted by Ilya Arbatman
What does it mean that Robert Beadles, the wealthy, far-right, Christian nationalist conspiracy theorist and election-denier funding local conservatives from Jeff Church to Eddie Lorton, has paid for a recount in the Ward One City Council race that will potentially benefit Lily Baran, the grassroots, community activist who has been a consistent and effective advocate for local government accountability and progressive change?
Beadles’ retrograde, “God-fearing,” bigotry- and anger-fueled brand of conservatism is not to be taken lightly or even acknowledged as a legitimate political movement. His unrelenting attacks on the democratic process, which often take the form of empowering long-shot fringe candidates like Joey Gilbert even after they have clearly lost an election, serve to deceptively make unpopular, extremist views seem like they belong in mainstream discourse. His intentional targeting of the voting process, including the public servants who are responsible for overseeing it, is dangerous and troubling, as it weaponizes general discontent with the sorry state of partisan politics into violence-prone vigilanteism that paves the way for fascist usurpation of democratic institutions.
But not all concerns about vote counts qualify as “election denial.” Just because nuance and critical thinking are rare sightings in politics these days, it does not mean we should abandon them for good. Beadles is filing for recounts for three candidates in this recent primary, Mark Lawson, who ran for County Commission District 4; Paul White, who ran for WSCD School Board District G; and Lily Baran. Lawson lost by over 1,700 votes, White lost by over 2,300 votes and Baran lost by exactly 15.
Even a broken, fascist clock can be right twice a day. A 15-vote margin should, at the very least, trigger some kind of automatic review or recount process at the county’s expense, especially given that initially, around 1,200 challenged ballots needed curing and still almost 900 as of June 18.
It is difficult to verify how much outreach to voters the county did to cure the outstanding ballots. In addition, the county cites over 25,000 undeliverable mail-in ballots. I won’t pretend, as Beadles does, to be an expert in any of this stuff, but I will say that such a narrow margin seems like an extenuating circumstance that justifies a closer look, perhaps a temporary extension to cure more ballots. Instead, the price tag for a recount was set at around $50,000, with a deadline to file of three business days from the county canvass of the vote.
Who stepped up to foot the bill? Beadles. To be clear, no money was exchanged between Baran and Beadles, and he had nothing to do with her campaign. He offered to pay for a recount by writing checks directly to the City of Reno, and Baran said, sure, go ahead.
Should we be so terrified of validating right-wing election fraud conspiracies that we do nothing when we have misgivings about election results? In an interview with Vox about her book “Doppelganger,” Naomi Klein tackles this conundrum, which plagues and ultimately stifles the left. Sean Illing of Vox suggests that “conspiracy theorists [like Beadles] may get the facts wrong, but they often get the feelings right.”
Klein responds,
“…when an issue [like election integrity] gets co-opted, warped, and twisted… the response among liberals and leftists is to mock…All kinds of issues become untouchable…whatever they’re tapping into becomes kind of unsayable, [and] it’s an absolute gift to the Bannons [and Beadles] of the world. So what you see is that when an issue gets trivialized or abandoned in mainstream circles or even in left circles, then it’s ripe for the picking for somebody like Bannon [or Beadles]…”
There can be plenty of legitimate concerns about the integrity of an election. In Baran’s case: extremely low turnout, a high number of challenged and subsequently uncured ballots, issues with the mail and — the crucial detail that adds real weight to these concerns – a razor-thin margin. All kinds of people from all across the political spectrum (City Council is a nonpartisan office, after all) might have these concerns.
The problem is, since the left has broadly labeled this topic as wacky, crazy, off-limits talk, we either censor ourselves and pretend, “It’s all good — I am sure they got right. They know what they are doing…,” or, if we do choose to speak up about it, we can’t find anyone in the progressive world who will listen lest they be accused of being an election denier.
So who can Baran turn to if she feels the Ward One election deserves a closer look, if only to be sure we did our due diligence and got it right? Unfortunately, the only person I know of locally who takes this stuff seriously, in his own problematic way: Beadles.
If a lefty mega-donor offered to help, of course, she would have gone with them. You let me know if you spot one of those, running with the unicorns somewhere over the rainbow.
The established left has become a skittish, erratic and ineffectual creature. Our supposedly progressive local leaders can make symbolic gestures of antifascism but can’t even vote down an obviously harmful ordinance that literally criminalizes homelessness.
If you are looking for candidates who empower the far-right, look no further than Frank Perez (who leads Baran by 15 votes). Perez abruptly resigned from the Library Board of Trustees, cutting his appointed term short, to run for City Council, which immediately elevated Gianna Jacks, a vocally anti-LGBTQ+, anti-library, book-banning advocate, to chair the board. I may have missed it, but I don’t recall anyone calling Perez out for platforming the far-right in Nevada.
I am disappointed that we need to hash this out at all. When Baran announced her candidacy, we should have seen a flood of support from progressive individuals and organizations here in Washoe County, established and otherwise. In some ways, we did.
I’ll give credit where it’s due: PLAN, Silver State Equality and Nevada NOW stepped up to endorse. The bulk of Baran’s campaign (as of the last filing in April), was funded by smaller donations from over 100 individual donors. That’s compared to just around 30 larger donations that Perez received in the same period and about 40 that Kathleen Taylor received. Many of hers came from all kinds of powers-that-be big names, from the Eldorado to the Cal Neva to industrial developers like NV Tri Partners (Tesla) and Locus Development Group (Rancharrah, Reno Experience District).
How did we botch this once-in-a-generation opportunity to elect an actually progressive, community-minded, grassroots-supported, outspoken, brave and competent councilperson?
Leading up to the primary, and for the first time in my life, I canvassed. I never thought I would find myself knocking on doors and bugging people about who they were gonna vote for, but when Baran announced she was running, I knew that I would have to get over myself and get out there.
And you know what? I loved it. It was so inspiring to explore Reno and get to know more of its people, who they are, what matters to them and what they want out of this wonderful but struggling city.
One common thread running through many of the conversations I had was disillusionment. People are so fed up with the local government’s total unresponsiveness to the community’s needs and total obedience to the wishes and whims of any developer who comes knocking with a few bucks to kick our way.
This is not a fringe viewpoint held only by black-clad Antifa and their communist ilk. Many of the people I met who expressed the greatest frustration with the direction the city has taken are older, living on fixed or low incomes near the colorful fences that adorn the “Neon Line District.” They are low on juice to take up the fight and were so relieved and inspired to hear that Baran was stepping up to advocate on their behalf. I am fairly certain many uncured ballots belong to these very people, who often find themselves left out of the city and county’s so-called outreach efforts, and who may have no idea that their vote may not have counted.
Yes, Beadles poses a very real threat to our community. But so does an apathetic, patronizing and corrupt City Council. In this particular case, I think we can be okay with pitting them against one another as the tactic at hand that might actually usher in progressive, positive change.
Ilya Arbatman is a Ward 3 resident, small business owner, and community advocate. He currently sits on the Ward 3 Neighborhood Advisory Board.
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