Sheriff Joe Lombardo: Steve Sisolak ‘Most Corrupt Governor in America’

FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2018, file photo, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo speaks at a new
AP Photo/John Locher
Katherine Hamilton

Nevada Republican Gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo posted a political advertisement to Twitter on Thursday, detailing various scandals involving Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak.

“Northshore Steve is the most corrupt governor in America. Nevada, we deserve better than Steve Sisolak’s corruption, cronyism, and scandals,” Clark County Sheriff Lombardo said of the vulnerable incumbent.

The spot first accuses Sisolak’s wife Kathy of receiving government contracts during her husbands governorship. The claim is based on reporting from 360 News Las Vegas, which in August of 2021 said that a whistle-blower sent them a copy “of a no bid contract between Southern Nevada Water District and Kathy Sisolak’s company Hoggs, Ong and Associates, Inc.”

“Ong is Kathy Sisolak’s maiden name. The no bid contract which pays Sisolak $250,000 for financial consulting services was approved on July 15, 2021 by the Southern Nevada Water Authority Board which is made up almost entirely of Clark County Democrats. The contract disclosure attached below does not mention Ong is actually Mrs. Sisolak anywhere. Let’s be clear, money going to Kathy Sisolak is money going to Steve Sisolak,” the report states.

Lombardo’s ad states that “Sisolak did not disclose the money going to his wife or her firm, and he’s not stopped any of the payments.”

The ad also once again hammers Sisolak for “fast-tracking Northshore, a company linked to a campaign donor, a company that billed taxpayers $165 million dollars for tests that didn’t work.”

“Sisolak knew the tests didn’t work for months, but instead of alerting the public, he put Nevada lives in danger. Northshore Steve refused to alert Nevadans about the scandal until independent journalists finally made the sweet heart deal and the danger to the community public. The Sisolak administration and the Northshore company are now under federal investigation,” the ad states.

The second claim is based on reporting from ProPublica, which found that a coronavirus testing contractor called Northshore Clinical Laboratories, was able to operate in Nevada “without proper licensing and yielded a high rate of negative COVID results for people who actually had the illness,” according to The Nevada Independent. The tests were found to have missed 96 percent of positive coronavirus cases from the University of Nevada (UNR) campus.

The publication reported:

ProPublica’s investigation also found that Northshore used political connections, including contracting with the sons of a close friend to the governor, to fast-track its state laboratory license application and secure testing agreements with five government entities in the state. Those agreements not only gave Northshore the exclusive right to test and bill for thousands of people a week, they also gave its lab a legitimacy lacking among upstart testing companies that had set up shop in strip malls and parking lots across the country.

Moreover, the company and its leaders have a history of fraud allegations, and even though scientists at the Nevada State Public Health Lab had raised concerns about the tests, they were allegedly ignored until the issue was too glaring to sweep aside.

The governor’s office called Northshore’s behavior “despicable,” but “argued that it opened an investigation and took action to suspend the company’s PCR testing and correct deficiencies the first day it was made aware of the issues.” His office has agreed to comply with a federal subpoena for documents about the company.

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