Pictured: Rory McShane, NVGOP Chair Michael McDonald, Someone who works for NVGOP, Jim DeGraffenreid. (Source: McShane’s Social Media)

Having worked in the political arena since 1997, your intrepid blogger was no stranger to dirty politics. What has been exceptional to me is how out in the open it is in Nevada. What I observed in my short time in the Nevada political scene were extremes.

I met a lot of really good people. I lot of simple people with good old fashioned values, in the scene for the right reasons. But, I was also struck by the high ratio of unhealthy people I met. In addition, the universe of political operatives was very small and the State of Nevada resembles a “Closed Shop” in Union Parlance. To top it off, in 29 years of dealing with internal party politics, the Washoe County Republican Party stands alone as the most toxic, destructive party group I have ever encountered. Naturally, many of their leadership love them some David Flippo for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District. Others are on board with some even more fringe candidates. Robert Beadles, no longer on the Washoe GOP Board (but apparently still pulling puppet strings) showed up on David Flippo’s Cash Receipts 5-30 for $3500. Should Flippo get nominated in NV-02, his opponent will get $3,500,000 worth of advertising out of that.

It is that Race for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District that is dominating the political news in the State of Nevada, and is getting play nationally. A little over a week ago, Donald Trump shocked some people and endorsed a Las Vegas Financial Planner (who has a history of disciplinary action against his securities license) David Flippo over Douglas/Lyon County Rancher James Settelmeyer. Even more absurd is that Settelmeyer was a Co-Chair of Trump’s campaign in 2024 and is a 4th Generation Nevadan.

I’ve seen a lot of people write a lot of things, but my take is one I have not seen written – so it is my turn. Rory McShane is the campaign manager for David Flippo and he is also the long time Political Consultant for the Nevada GOP. Michael McDonald is the Chair of the Nevada GOP.

It was a not so well kept secret that Mike McDonald had been lobbying Donald Trump to endorse David Flippo for NV-02 ever since Flippo left his Las Vegas residence and rented a place in Reno. Flippo was running for NV-04 and had been running the usual Rory McShane smear the opponent slime style campaign.

When Flippo ran in 2024 for NV-04, there was a tape, allegedly of Flippo’s opponent John Lee (that clearly was not John Lee) that McShane had called one person I spoke to directly about (and he probably called others) that later mysteriously popped up that depicted Lee allegedly soliciting sex from minors. John Lee did file a lawsuit over the whole thing that went nowhere apparently.

So, it is no surprise in 2026 that one candidate I have direct knowledge of was shopped a file of a dismissed case related to an ex-wife of James Settelmeyer again by someone tied to McShane (who denies both said allegations). The Douglas County DA has an active investigation in to the leak as the leak of a sealed, dismissed case is indeed a crime in and of itself – yet the case is being aired by a PAC supporting Flippo, similar to the fake tape of John Lee two years ago in NV-04. The Settelmeyer campaign has been more direct about how they believe the pipeline worked:

“We have received direct information regarding how sealed court records connected to this matter were obtained and circulated. We understand that these materials moved from a private individual to the spouse of a Douglas County Commissioner, then to a family member working with the political firm retained by David Flippo’s campaign. We further understand that the owner of that firm shared these sealed records with individuals across the state.”

The Nevada Independent reported that Amy Tarkanian – wife of Douglas County Commissioner Danny Tarkanian and a longtime Republican activist – is friends with Settelmeyer’s ex-wife.

Her relative, Alex Tarkanian, works at Revolutionizing Microtargeted Campaigns (RMC) – the firm running Flippo’s campaign. RMC is operated by political consultant Rory McShane, Flippo’s lead consultant.

Patterns folks. (If you want siome more, here is another story from 2021 about McShane and crew)

McShane – with a beverage of some sort in front of him.

The last Nevada GOP Convention (when Flippo was then a candidate for NV-04) looked like a campaign rally for Flippo. Why hasn’t anyone asked if there is a direct financial connection between McShane and McDonald? McShane was on the Dais of that convention for big chunks of time with McDonald as well.

The rural counties in the North of Nevada just got royally screwed over by Michael McDonald. For years, he has used them to provide the bulk of the party delegate votes to get re-elected. The math was simple, keep Clark County in chaos so it splits, let Washoe be Washoe and run the table on the Rural Counties. McDonald is the longest tenured State GOP Chairman in America. The Caucus system in Nevada is a complete joke, it is a magnet for the insane as basically whomever shows up pretty much gets on the county party committee. The crazed Robert Beadles and crew proved how that can be abused in Washoe County (I witnessed it firsthand) and I also witnessed firsthand a State Party Convention with the Rural Counties basically holding a coronation for the NVGOP Leadership for an umpteenth term.

Mike McDonald and Crew rigged the Caucus in 2024 to ensure a primary win for Donald Trump in Nevada. That will be my stance until I die as I had more than a front row seat to watch it happen. But McDonald could not do it without his allies at the County Level – including James Settelmeyer helping him do it!

The whole time I worked on the ground in Nevada politics I saw Mike McDonald drive thousands of miles all over the Nevada Desert doing his usual schtick about “Rural Nevada” with hyperbole like “the backbone”, “Real Nevada” in his near ghetto cadence.

Then he set fire to the Rural Nevada poster child James Settelmeyer, using his juice with President Trump to get an endorsement of a Las Vegas Carpetbagger. (How could anyone draw a different conclusion based on the circumstantial evidence?)

What changed?

Could it be that Mike McDonald is broke because of fighting the prosecution he is currently facing over the fake elector stunt in 2021? Pretty much every activist I know in the North of Nevada and near all elected officials in the North of Nevada have endorsed James Settelmeyer and Mike McDonald just took a dump on all of them. This is not a smart career move from someone who has been skilled at the art of political survival and duplicity for over a decade (and a half).

I worked for DeSantis against Trump in 2023-2024 and endured the smears against myself and those that worked for me. They were circulated by a lot of the same people that Mike McDonald just screwed over. Because of this, I learned a lot of things about what was going on behind the scenes. I knew then that the fake electors were hurting financially, spending gobs on money on legal fees.

There’s one more thing. This is not the first time Donald Trump helped out a client of Rory McShane:

LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned a Nevada Republican politician who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.

Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for state treasurer, was found guilty in October of six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was out of custody ahead of her sentencing, which had been scheduled for next month.

For a little more fun related to Michele Fiore, enjoy this more current article.

Michele Fiore was an officer of the Nevada GOP for several years. It was conventional wisdom at the time this happened that Mike McDonald who knows Trump on a first name basis, who also goes to Mar-A-Lago frequently, made the ask. (The very top photo was taken there) Sigal Chattah, now the US Attorney from Clark County was also on the NVGOP Leadership for a time as well – again another connection to McDonald. The political world is very small.

Neither asking for a pardon for a convicted felon nor asking for the endorsement of a douchebag are criminal. Those actions are immoral. Especially so because of the collateral damage caused by the requested actions. If there was a financial nexus for making the ask, that is a different issue on top of the rest of it all. Ask questions people, you got screwed over for a reason, right now only Mike McDonald and God know why. The rest of us are left to ask questions…

I feel bad for all those good people in the North State, many who have known James for years. The only valid result is to change the leadership of the Nevada GOP finally, change the way county parties are elected, change the way the state party is elected, and disinfect it from top to bottom.

I will conclude with this. The Late Michael Triggs, who was married to Janine Hansen many years ago (she of the independent party and the email updates) and I talked around the time I moved to Reno in 2020. Triggs warned me that he had elected dozens of people to office in Nevada and what I had experienced in California politics could only partially prepare me for what I was going to experience in Nevada. He was right. (Triggs passed 1-8-2026 RIP.)