Well, there she was.

Councilmember Kathleen Taylor at the microphone last night at the Republican Central Committee meeting at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa.

We’re just trying to keep up.

Isn’t Bruce Parks the same party leader who demands absolute loyalty from Republicans? The one who’s made it clear that crossing the aisle is grounds for excommunication? Ask Ed Lawson, Clara Andriola, Kristopher Dahir, or Colleen Westlake how that worked out.

In a political leap worthy of a track meet, Trista Gomez has frog-leaped from the Washoe County District 3 Commission race and resurfaced as a candidate for State Assembly District 30. That puts her squarely against hometown favorite Natha Anderson, widely regarded as one of the more approachable members of the Assembly — yes, the one who actually returns calls and emails - even ours.

After reading Mike’s Reno Report today, it’s clear he laid out Bruce Parks’ worldview of Republicans and Republican politics far more eloquently than Picon ever could.

And as Mike correctly pointed out, the problem isn’t that Parks lacks passion or spirit—it’s that he doesn’t do the homework.

After reading Mike’s Reno Report this morning, we thought we’d add a few observations from Monday night’s Washoe County Republican Central Committee meeting (January 27, 2026). You know—the one chaired by Bruce Parks, who has a habit of politically excommunicating Republicans who don’t fall in line, well his line.

Maybe that helps explain why Washoe County has over 103,000 registered Republicans, yet the Central Committee can only muster about 165 people as members, and that says a whole lot.

So let’s clear this up.

I’m being told the Republicans aren’t supporting me because I print articles calling them out.

Correction: the real Republicans are. The ones who open their homes, host fundraisers, knock on doors, make calls, and grind through campaign season without a title or a Facebook following. They’re with me.

Apparently, December 14, 2025 is now campaign season in Reno — at least according to four-time mayoral candidate Eddie Lorton, whose campaign signs began popping up months before candidates are even allowed to file for office.

Yesterday should have been a simple holiday gathering — the Washoe Republican Women’s annual party at a member’s home. Cookies, ornaments, political small talk. Instead, it turned into yet another snapshot of the GOP’s ongoing identity crisis, starring none other than Commissioner Clara Andriola, who was there holding court like the club exists solely at her pleasure.

Only in Washoe County could the Republican Party roll into the holiday season with not one, but two Christmas parties — on the same day, with the same invitation template, but wildly different vibes.

On one side of the road, we have Event #1:
A polished, paid soirée at a building on 4th Street owned by — wait for it — a mayoral candidate. There’s valet parking, food, and enough political perfume in the air to make a lobbyist dizzy. This is the kind of party where you check your coat and your conscience at the door.

The Washoe County Republican Party might want to invest in a spreadsheet — or at least a group chat — because the 2026 ballot is shaping up to be one giant, red-tinted identity crisis.

First, there’s the Reno mayor’s race. Two elephants, one chair: Councilmember Kathleen Taylor, who rode GOP backing to a razor-thin win in 2024, and perennial candidate Eddie Lorton, the party’s forever date who’s back for another dance.

In 2022, Colleen Westlake was a full-fledged Robert Beadles disciple — speaking at Boomtown’s “Freedom Fridays” as only the inner-circle got to do, railing against Democrats at King Buffet Conservative Talk luncheons, and vowing to clean up schools by getting rid of ‘certain’ books and ending coed bathrooms. Republicans rallied, got her elected — and then she flipped. Westlake ditched her conservative base, sided with the very crowd she once condemned, and left Jeff Church and her GOP supporters in the dust. Now, as she runs for re-election, even the Washoe County Republican Party has cut her loose — officially excommunicated and politically orphaned, just like her new supporter Commissioner Clara Andriola who has turned on her fellow Republican commissioner members, Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark.

It’s that time again—campaign season—when local Republicans start the age-old tradition of cannibalizing their own, and the Republican women’s clubs happily set the table.

This article’s entertainment came via a cheery little email announcing a brand-new rule: no more showing up to meetings and buying lunch at the door—reservations only. Translation? If you’re not on the guest list, you’re not on the guest list. One can’t help but wonder: does that rule apply to the press too, or just to anyone who might ask inconvenient questions?

If leadership is about vision, strategy, and cohesion — then Washoe County Republicans are proving once again that they’ve got none of the above. Their so-called leader, Bruce Parks, seems more like a stagehand than a director: taking cues, following scripts, and letting others ghostwrite the footnotes, easier to point a finger after failure.

Republicans in Washoe County have a problem they can’t just wave away with a slate card: two of their own are charging into the 2026 Reno mayor’s race.

On one side, you’ve got Reno Councilmember Kathleen Taylor — the same Taylor who just last year leaned heavily on Republican circles to squeak out her city council victory. Chair Bruce Parks and the Washoe County GOP rolled out the welcome mat for Taylor, putting her front and center at Republican events, think Parties in the Park. Some argue that support was the difference in her slim-margin win.

Reno City Councilmember Kathleen Taylor—fresh off her 2024 council win backed by local Republicans—has now launched an "exploratory campaign" to consider a run for mayor. Translation? She’s running, she just wants to see who’s gullible enough to hop on the bandwagon again.

Let’s rewind: Taylor courted Republicans and posed with the party base. But now, with her eyes set on the mayor’s office, we’re wondering if the Nevada GOP is about to be the ex who keeps coming back for more.

When kicking out members becomes easier than building a bench.

Let's be perfectly clear: We've never been members of the Ed Lawson Fan Club. We haven't printed t-shirts, we don't have a secret handshake, and we certainly don't have his poster taped to our bedroom wall. But even a broken clock is right twice a day, and on this particular issue, the time reads "Bruce Parks is dead wrong o'clock."

The once-mighty Republican Women of Reno seems to now be desperately scrambling to rebrand themselves as the "Republican Women of Reno PAC." How quaint. Nothing says "nothing to see here" quite like a sudden identity crisis.

Let's call this what it really is: a spectacular attempt to sweep years of IRS negligence under a freshly monogrammed PAC rug. Apparently, someone in this esteemed organization forgot that those fancy EIN numbers actually require annual filings. Oopsie! Just a minor oversight spanning multiple tax cycles. Who hasn't forgotten to file their federal tax documents for years on end?

2024 has been a really weird year for politics. The races have gotten personal and petty, but hey when opponents need to go up against incumbents with buckets full of campaign contributions from developers, special interest groups, lobbyists, etc., who for their own reasons want certain individuals reelected well we guess gloves are off.