Congratulations to all the candidates who signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge - promising the voters of their districts that, if elected, they would oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes - and won their GOP primaries (no Democrats have signed the Pledge).

Some notable victories:

Pledge signers Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Joe Heck easily won their primaries and now move on to tough races against a pair of tax-and-spend liberals in November.  They are joined by fellow Pledge signer Rep. Mark Amodei - who had no primary opposition and has only token opposition in the general.

Pledge signer Danny Tarkanian won a squeaker in Nevada’s new 4th congressional district race over Nevada State Sen. Barbara Cegavske who, for some unexplained reason, signed the Pledge years ago when she ran for the state Legislature, but refused to sign it this year as a congressional candidate.

And don’t think that didn’t factor in the voting decision of a lot of CD4 voters.  Maybe enough to have been the difference in the race.

Tarkanian also swamped Dan Schwartz (11%) who spent a fortune on television ads pummeling Tarkanian and who not only refused to sign the Pledge, but ran as a moderate on other issues, as well.

Taxpayers scored another big victory in Assembly District 39, where Pledge-signer Jim Wheeler defeated incumbent non-Pledge signer Assemblyman Kelly Kite despite having a third GOP primary candidate in the race.  That almost never happens.  Usually the challengers split the anti-incumbent vote and the incumbent gets re-elected.  But not in this case.

This is a particularly sweet victory for taxpayers since Assemblyman Kite not only refused to sign the Tax Pledge but voted for the $620 million tax hike in the last session and wouldn’t promise not to do it again next session.  On the other hand, Mr. Wheeler not only signed the Pledge, but campaigned hard on the issue. 

In Assembly District 35, Pledge signer Tom Blanchard defeated Adam Cegavske, a public employee who refused to sign the Pledge, while Pledge signer Assemblyman Pete Livermore crushed his non-Pledge signer opponent in Assembly District 40 with more than 72% of the vote.

In Assembly District 15, Pledge signer Megan Heryet pulled off an easy victory over two non-Pledge signers, Benjamin Donlon and Marco Miller, while in Assembly District 9, Pledge signer C. Kelly Hurst pulled out a 9-vote victory over fellow Pledge signer Victoria Delaguerra-Seaman.

Yes, a number of GOP legislative candidates who didn’t sign the Pledge also won…and those are the ones you better keep an eye on!  Because all of the Republicans who voted for that $620 million tax hike/extension in 2012 were Republicans who refused to sign the Pledge.  Caveat emptor.