Political Quarantine in Progress: The Beadles Bug Strikes Again

Everyone Picon knows seems to be sprinting for cover, hoping to avoid catching what we’ve started calling “the Beadles bug.” It’s highly contagious and politically disfiguring — symptoms include sudden memory loss about past donations, rapid distancing statements, and an unexplained urge to say “no comment.” Unfortunately, there’s no known vaccine yet, though a healthy dose of transparency and a booster of accountability might offer some immunity.

Picon’s private investigator was questioned by the Sparks Police Department in 2022, who handled the tracker investigation, and was cleared. We’ve been following this story for years and now the answer is known. We were blamed, guess you were all wrong.

Robert Beadles has gone on the record admitting he hired David McNeely to follow Mayor Hillary Schieve and then-Commissioner Vaughn Hartung — confirming what’s been whispered in political circles for ages.

The surveillance, which included placing a GPS tracker on Schieve’s car, sparked a legal storm and ultimately prompted a change in Nevada law to make that kind of tracking illegal without consent. Now that Beadles has said out loud what everyone suspected, the real question isn’t who did it — it’s what happens next.

Beadles, after all, isn’t just any local political figure. He’s a sitting member of the Washoe County GOP Central Committee and, more notably, serves on its Committee for Free and Fair Elections. The irony writes itself.

So does Bruce Parks, chair of the local party and Beadles’ most visible ally, will he do anything? Or will the usual silence fall over the committee room like it so often does when Beadles’ name comes up?

And what about Commissioner Jeanne Herman, whose ties to Beadles are well-known and long-standing — does she distance herself now that the admission is public? Does she resign?

Sharron Angle’s invitation and Marsha Berkbigler’s Nevada Contribution and Expense Report from 2024.

The potential fallout doesn’t stop there. Former Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler, who accepted campaign contributions in 2024 from Beadles, is now reportedly hosting a fundraiser for Sharron Angle. That might make for an awkward photo-op now that Beadles’ brand has become even more radioactive.

Denise Myer Contribution and Expense Report from 2024. We believe she also took contributions from Robert Beadles during her Washoe County Commissioner District 3 campaign in 2022.

Then there’s Denise Myer, who received $5,000 from Beadles in her race for City of Reno’s Ward 3 in 2024, and currently sits on the Washoe County Senior Advisory Board. With Beadles’ activities out in the open, does she hold her seat, or step aside to avoid the optics?

The Republicans need to ask themselves will they be able to get a Republican elected in Washoe County.

Mayoral Candidate Eddie Lorton’s Nevada Secretary of State Contribution and Expense Report from 2022.

So where does this leave Eddie Lorton, now running for mayor, and Commissioner Mike Clark, both of whom pocketed campaign contributions from Robert Beadles back in 2022? The checks may have cleared, but the political aftertaste lingers. When Picon Press reached out to Commissioner Clark about Beadles’ recent admission, he didn’t miss a beat: “Who? Oh him — the only thing keeping his name alive in Washoe County is this lawsuit. I don’t think he even lives here any longer.” It’s a line that might just serve as the unofficial eulogy for Beadles’ once-formidable influence — short, dismissive, and about as warm as a Reno morning in January.

Meanwhile, the civil litigation to be filed by Schieve and Hartung is just getting started. The plaintiffs will need to do more than claim hurt feelings — they’ll have to prove real harm, loss, or damage. That process will peel back layers that Reno politics would probably prefer to keep buried, and all during the 2026 campaign.

And maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally get an answer to the question Picon Press has been asking all along: Who’s paying for Mayor Schieve’s legal bills?

The truth tends to surface eventually, even when it’s been buried under layers of political spin, party loyalty, and selective outrage.

Without Beadles to pin the next controversy on, some local Democrats may find the spotlight swinging back their way — and that, as they say in politics, is an entirely different kind of tracking problem.

Now that Beadles has said the quiet part out loud, the test isn’t about what he did — it’s about what everyone else decides to do about it.