Here at Kids Go Blue, we believe elected officials should be judged by their accomplishments. In a Nevada Senate race between two former Attorneys General, one choice is clear. As Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto cut crime 15%. Once Adam Laxalt got elected, that progress stalled.
Here's how we figured that out:
We used data from the Disaster Center, which tracks crime rates across the country for things like Murder, Vehicle Theft, Assault, Robbery, and more. We narrowed it down to the three most severe - murder, robbery, and rape.
In 2006, the year before Cortez Masto became Attorney General, there were 224 murders, 7,027 robberies, and 1,079 incidents of rape. We used a formula where murders are given 5 times weight and rape is given 2 times weight. Using this, in 2006, Nevada's "crime number" was 10,305.
In 2014, her last year as Attorney General, numbers across the board had dropped - 170 murders, 987 rapes, 5954 robberies and a "crime number" of 8778.
The "crime number" of 8778 is about 15 percent lower than that of 2007, meaning Cortez Masto reduced crime 15%.
In 2014, Adam Laxalt was elected to replace Cortez Masto. Almost immediately, progress stalled. By 2018, Laxalt's last year, there were 202 murders, 2329 rapes, and 3862 robberies, which made for a crime number of 9530, about 10% higher than under Cortez Masto.
If you want to reduce crime all across Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto is the easy choice in the race for Senate. Adam Laxalt just can't get things done.