Game-Changer In North Las Vegas Tuesday Night? Calling Mr. Jones

On the Wednesday after the first Tuesday in November, Beltway insiders are going to get out of bed after a pretty sleepless night and they're all going to come to the same conclusion: "I should have known something was up when I saw Matt Cartwright swamp Tim Holden, when I saw Silvestre Reyes go down without a runoff to that kid Beto O'Rourke and when I heard Dr. David Gill beat the DCCC's well-funded corporate whore in the middle of Illinois." Not just the politicians and staffers and lobbyists, but those who pass themselves off as journalists as well... they all missed something that's been building. People are sick and tired of corrupt politicians and, largely thanks to online organizing, there's finally a way to do something about it, while kicking at the two grotesquely corrupt party establishments in DC... and the junior establishments in the states that aspire to the same level of corruption. Which brings us to something remarkable that happened in Nevada, of all places, Tuesday.

Short version: another out-of-touch, entrenched political scumbag, this time state Senator John Lee, had his ass handed to him... by an African-American lesbian with no money. John Lee was like the king of North Las Vegas and a grimy part of the state Democratic Machine. Everybody was backing him-- Harry Reid, the big lobbyists, all the politicians... everybody but the people. Patricia Spearman a gay minister won a landslide victory over him in Tuesday's primary-- and in a district so blue that no Republican even bothered to run. Have you noticed that those blue districts have been unkind to Republican-lite Democrats lately?

Democratic state Sen. John Lee was defeated in a stunning upset Tuesday by political newcomer Patricia Spearman despite having a huge money advantage and the backing of the Democratic establishment.

With about 90 percent of the precincts reporting in Senate District 1, Spearman, a gay minister, had more than 60 percent of the vote to top the incumbent from North Las Vegas, Lee raised more than $200,000 for his re-election bid, dwarfing Spearman's estimated $13,000 fund-raising take.

But he was targeted by environmentalists and conservationists upset over Lee's sponsorship of 2011 bill that paved the way for Nevada to withdraw from a partnership with California that governs development and environmental regulations at Lake Tahoe.

Lee, who has served in the Senate since 2004, also ran afoul of the more liberal members of the Democratic Party for opposing a 2009 domestic partnership law that extended rights to cohabitating gay and heterosexual couples. Lee also opposed a failed Democratic plan last year to raise taxes.

And, by the way, Pastor Spearman is the vice-chairwoman for the Stonewall Democrats of Southern Nevada. She's savvy and she's another harbinger of big changes that are coming to this country, changes for the better.