EPISODE 8

JBMV Discussion w/ Noah F. Herrera, Co-Chair of the Coalition of Independent Nevadans (COIN).  We discuss the independent voter movement in Nevada.  

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
I am Joseph Simmons,
the host and also author of the new book,
Just Buy My Vote,
African American voting rights in the Chicago condition.
It is my pleasure to be able to speak with my guests today.
Noah Herrera is a successful real estate broker in Las Vegas for more than 25 years and also co-chair of the Coalition of Independent Nevadans,

(00:35):
Noah Herrera.
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
Mr Simmons.
Thank you very much.
It's my honor and pleasure to be here today.
Thank you for inviting me.
Absolutely.
Well,
Noah,
we've known each other for several years through both real estate as well as our boys played sports together.
So there are several things we could talk about in the time we have.
However,
I'd like to start by asking you to address the JBMV Avatar and I'll explain what I mean in my writing of the book just by my vote,

(01:04):
I found myself continually asking what are the best sources of American history.
So please address the JBMV Avatar if you will.
He or she is a 20 to 30 year old male or female and interested in history.
But for whatever reason was not a history major in school or maybe didn't attend college.

(01:26):
He or she is wondering,
where do I start?
Noah Herrera.
What have you found to be your favorite or best sources?
You know,
there's so many sources right now out,
you know,
one favorite author,
one favorite thing.
I'm more of a books are so big and cumbersome to try to take history.
So I try to take the best out of simple things.
So,
although I love lots of them,

(01:48):
I like sticking with one because he does short,
you know,
just short blurb,
short stints that stick with me.
One of them to me is like Mark Twain,
one of his famous quotes is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you're a fool then open it up and confirm that you are.
It's those little simple things.
People try to overcomplicate things.
It's about taking large amounts of information and keeping it smaller that people can dissect and actually use.

(02:12):
Absolutely.
I feel like we both know and have in our family several JBMV Avatars.
You were coaching baseball for a little while,
weren't you?
I've been doing a whole lot of things.
Coaching baseball with my kids really is just a way to keep us kind of closer. Understood.
Not that I want.
Alright,
perfect.
So let's shift gears just a bit in the Las Vegas Review

(02:34):
Journal in August.
They had an article,
a headline that read nonpartisans,
rule Nevada and that article started off by,
by reading nonpartisan voters now make up the largest group of registered voters in Nevada.
An ongoing shift that could signify a dissatisfaction with party politics.

(02:59):
Noah,
tell us a little bit about the coalition of Independent Nevadans.
You know,
really the Coalition of Independent Nevadans,
you gotta remember near over 30% nearly 600,000 voters are registered as nonpartisans in our current system in Las Vegas.
The coalition of Independent Nevada is what it does.
Really,
it provides a neutral platform where nonpartisan voters have a collective voice on issues that concern Nevada.

(03:23):
You know,
if you think about it now,
our nation or states are divided more and even torn apart by hyperpartisan division,
deep philosophy,
differences and bold by negative advertising,
bipartisan bickering finger pointing your fault,
political gazes,
brinksmanship and both Democrats and Republicans claim that they have the secret sauce to solve all the problems but the vision prevents collaboration.

(03:44):
The Coalition of Independent Nevadans puts people over party and policy over politics.
It's a neutral platform where you could actually be heard and be part of the solution person.
OK.
Yeah,
I,
I mean,
I wondered a little bit about that just because,
you know,
the parties have their platforms and what have you.
But uh in terms of coalescing independents or nonpartisans,

(04:08):
how does that best go come about?
Well,
I'll give you an example,
last election season,
uh we probably interviewed 100 to 100 and 15 different people that were running for office out of the people that we endorsed where there's some independence.
Yes.
But the reality is we have to either pick Republican or Democrat.
The difference this time is this,
that we had both Republican and Democrats come to our meetings and address what our issues were as independents.

(04:33):
Because traditionally,
if you want to go here,
a politician,
you have to go to a Republican event or a Democratic event.
Now they're coming to us.
So if let's say you're a Republican and you,
you wanna go hear a,
a democrat that you may like,
you have to go to a Democratic event.
Why is that?
Why is that if you're gonna vote for him in the,
in the,
you know,
at,
at the general election?
So what we,
what we're doing is we're becoming that neutral platform,

(04:57):
the large majority we like to call it is a silent majority,
right?
So,
so it sounds like you're able to bring people from different walks and uh everybody's able to get a chance to hear that and then really,
it still boils down to kind of individual choice in terms of voting and what have you. Cool.

(05:17):
What else can you tell us about the coalition?
How did it come about?
Well,
the coalition was started by Ash Mirchandani.
Ash Mirchandani had probably 15 years in state policy.
He writes tons of policy.
He used to be the deputy director of uh the of uh department of business industry which runs literally the whole state,
all departments.
And as you know,

(05:37):
I've been,
you know,
involved in lobbying for the last 15 years for the Association of Realtors and very heavily involved.
The reason I'm heavily involved is because I care what happens.
A lot of times people see like here,
like during 2008,
when they had a problem with all the foreclosures with AB 284 no one did anything.
It wasn't.
But because of our group n that we had,
we lobbied Senator Cortez Masto,

(05:59):
uh sorry,
then Attorney General Masto and we brought together the group that actually changed AB 284.
Then move forward when the foreclosure started a primary investor,
primary uh,
homeowners couldn't buy houses because the investors were buying all the properties.
So what do we do?
We went to Senator Harry Reid and what did he do?
He went to Fannie Mae,

(06:19):
we got to meet with Fannie Mae and they created a pilot program here in Las Vegas,
which was the first look program for 30 days for only owner occupied home buyers on any one of their assets.
As a matter of fact,
the program is still in effect today and it went so big.
There was a pilot program here.
It's still gone nationwide and the majority of the banks and financial institutions did pick it up.

(06:41):
So,
those are the type of things.
Why do I get involved?
Because if no one gets involved nothing will change.
Oh,
it's too bad.
People can't get in the houses or this happens or this happens.
So that is the grassroot and why we got involved.
Why did I get involved with coin?
Because coin really is nonpartisan.
It's right down the middle.
It's for all people,
you know,
because nowadays,

(07:01):
if,
you know,
you're a Republican or a Democrat,
they're too far left,
they're too far,
right.
There's a lot of people that are no nonsense,
but it's like,
like here I can be a de uh,
you know,
uh uh a Kennedy Democrat or a Reagan Republican.
They were both great presidents.
But now there's just,
there's too many political bickering,

(07:22):
you know,
I have been for a long time now of the belief that the party labels,
we've really outgrown them,
I believe.
And I,
I'll go even further and say,
I don't think that uh,
uh liberal and conservative even fit us anymore,
you know,
I mean,
you know,
there's a large middle mass of,

(07:44):
of individuals that,
uh you know,
call us the sensible majority.
But,
but I looked at that article and it actually talked about the,
the nonpartisan voters is facilitated by the way that uh the registration is actually taking place in Nevada.
So that's a great point.

(08:05):
So here in
in Las Vegas.
Let's say you come from California.
If you don't put your Republican or Democrat,
you automatically default to independent.
The reality of it is how many of those people are actually really independent versus how many are nonpartisan who just didn't care to do it.
The reality is this and I'm sure of this.
The govern.
There's a lot of races that the independents help push forward for sure.

(08:27):
One was the governor's race and we interviewed them when,
when they were coming up there and there was only so many Republicans that voted for Lombardo because that's the number was,
if it wasn't for the independent vote,
he wouldn't have won and vice versa in a lot of the other races also like the Cortez Masto race.
If it wasn't for the Independents to push him over,
that wouldn't have happened.

(08:49):
So,
it's,
it's mainly just kind of showcasing really to your voters or really the,
whoever is interested to expose them to both parties and all candidates.
Exactly.
Got you.
All right.
Cool.
How did you become involved?
I became involved because,
uh,
I know Ash and a lot of the people on the board and we have a common goal,

(09:14):
love of our country,
love of our state and we see the way it's going and no one's doing anything.
And once again,
you have to be the one just like when we help change those,
those state laws and the federal guidelines.
If no one does something then no one does something.
We have to at least try to make it happen.
That's it.
What is it gonna work eventually?

(09:34):
It will?
Ash went down to,
uh,
a national independent event in,
in Austin,
Texas.
And it went pretty well.
Is it a small movement?
Yes.
Is it growing?
Yes.
But what does it need?
It needs money and for,
unfortunately it doesn't have the big bank rolls that the DNC and the RNC have.
You know,
what's interesting is that we're talking nonpartisan and independent voters,

(09:56):
you know,
there's now a push for a third party,
for example,
on the presidential election.
What's your reaction to that?
You know what?
I think that would be a great thing,
especially after watching the Republican,
uh,
debate last.
Was it last night or the night before?
You know,
it's like a three ring circus,
you know,
no one's presidential,

(10:17):
you know,
right or wrong,
whatever you believe.
And it's the same thing on the democratic side,
on the Republican side,
I get tired of watching it.
And then during the election period you can't,
you,
politics is the only position in the world where you can tell,
you know,
where you can basically bad talk about a person who's trying to get your job and actually it,
if you would do that in any other type of business,

(10:38):
you wouldn't do it and they spend millions of dollars to get a job that's worth a couple 100,000 or less.
What does that really tell you?
You know,
should there be term limits?
Should there be a lot of things?
Absolutely.
I believe there should be.
Yeah.
The challenge,
the challenge though,
it seems to be with the third party is access to the ballot,
as you mentioned.
You know,
it,
it takes a lot of money to be able to get on the ballot in 50 states in addition to being able to advertise and spend all the money to compete and be competitive.

(11:08):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And that's what it takes really.
It,
it,
it's all a fin,
it's all about money.
It's all about finances and not until the point where the Americans people get tired of going,
hey,
you know what,
I have to have a different choice because this isn't working and this isn't working,
you know,
and we're getting taxed on both sides.

(11:28):
So it just doesn't stop.
What do you know about the new procedure in terms of voting in Nevada?
The open primaries.
You know,
I think,
uh,
that is something that's important because as an independent,
I couldn't vote for a Republican or a Democrat.
So,
what does that mean?
I'm out now,
do I vote specifically one way or another?

(11:49):
We vote for the person that is best for the position,
regardless of party.
Do party politics get involved a lot of times they do.
But,
uh,
I,
I think that's a positive thing.
I think it will be good.
I think it'll have a lot more people that normally would not be able to vote because,
because it wasn't open,
be able to.
Yeah,
the challenge there is,
you know,
coalescing.

(12:10):
Right.
I mean,
if you're in the middle,
you gotta try to grab from both sides,
hopefully make,
uh,
make sense and,
and have a good platform.
Right.
Absolutely.
You know,
Joe,
but there's gonna come a time when there's,
and the time is coming sooner than later,
I believe where we're gonna have a strong independent candidate and we're starting to see a couple of small ones come up.

(12:33):
Why don't they win bigger positions because they're not bankroll.
Yeah,
you've got a couple of examples of independent senators,
you know,
um that are,
that are in the,
in the US Senate.
I don't believe there are any independent congressmen that I know of congress tends to be in a lot more chaos than the,
than in the upper chamber.

(12:54):
Yep,
I agree.
Very interesting.
You know,
the challenge again,
I'll go back to that.
I'm trying to figure out how an independent develops a platform.
Essentially it's on them rather than a party to develop a platform that people can coalesce around,
which is a big job.
So how could that happen?

(13:14):
How is that happening?
You know,
first,
it has to start at a grassroots efforts with organizations like ourselves.
Now,
first of all,
last year,
we didn't take any money from anyone all the money,
the,
the television commercials,
the ads,
the fun,
you know,
it was all basically funded out of our own pocket.
And why do we do that?
Because we don't want an outside influence as well.

(13:35):
We want you guys to do this or that.
Really?
It's gonna take someone with the financial wherewithal to start that can actually help build and that actual platform to move forward here in Nevada.
What would that look like?
You know,
we're starting to see a lot of people that were Republican and Democrat start switching over a matter of fact,
this last year,
I don't know the exact amount,
but there was quite a lot of people that switched from both their party affiliations to independent,

(14:01):
which is a good thing.
Uh Of course,
we're starting to go into the election season for the Las Vegas.
Mayor.
Do you have uh any uh insights or favorite picks on that?
You know what we're gonna be doing?
We're gonna be talking with both of them or all the candidates and seeing which one's ideas,
thoughts,
future values align with ours.

(14:24):
Now,
you gotta remember sometimes the people that win are not exactly the same because they're funded better.
But yes,
we,
we,
we,
we're,
our plan is to interview them,
sit down with them and we have our set series of questions like when we met with them last year,
a lot of them,
a lot of them were really not ready.
They didn't think we're talking about policy about school,
about funding police and a lot of them didn't have questions.

(14:46):
And I'm like,
but you've been in this position already for a term.
How was it?
You don't know the exact numbers that I'm spitting off the top of my head.
So a lot of these,
I think a lot of times they're taken for granted and I have someone that will take care of that when you have the,
the,
the,
the easiest questions and things that they should know.
They're in the business of politics.
They're not in the business of policy.

(15:07):
And that is what the problem is.
You need to focus on policy over politics.
Yeah,
it's,
uh,
you know,
that Las Vegas mayor's race is a consequential race.
I mean,
it's been held by the Goodman's for so long that,
uh,
you know,
we're gonna get somebody different.
The question is,
is what that difference means.
You know,
from what I'm seeing right now,
there's quite a lot of people coming up.

(15:29):
I went to high school to with Cedric,
uh,
Crear who's,
uh,
married,
he'll be running.
I don't want,
I believe he's running.
He's one of the announced.
Yeah.
You know,
born and raised in Vegas lives in the area.
Solid guy.
You know,
we have to see kind of what happens if anyone else comes out and,
and there are a lot of people that are going to come out.
So we'll have to kind of see what happens,

(15:51):
talk to each individual,
each individual and see where their,
their stances are on certain items.
And then once you guys make your endorsement,
how do I mean,
how do you get that out?
I mean,
how do you,
uh,
you know,
obviously the parties operate and they come,
come with a Slate and,
you know,
et cetera,
et cetera.
What's your plan there in terms of,
you know,
hitting the ground and letting the public know how you guys feel.

(16:15):
Well,
you know,
first of all,
we're not bankrolled very large.
It's like I said,
it's the majority of our own funds.
But we do,
we do targeted marketing and targeted marketing to the independence.
So we have that information,
addresses,
emails,
all that contact information and we actually send it directly to them.
We drive people to them.

(16:35):
We also have television commercials on COIN.
We do uh you know,
social media,
Facebook targeting Instagram.
So certain different ways,
things that aren't as expensive because,
you know,
you could,
there's only so much TV,
you can buy in Good Lord during those times,
the rates are astronomical.
It's amazing,
you know,
it's amazing and that's how we do it directly direct to the voter,

(16:58):
the independent voter.
Now,
those independent voters,
which is 30% how many of them are true,
independents?
Let's take off,
they say it's 600,000 30% take off 10% margin.
Of error because they didn't sign up.
It's still 400,000.
Let's even take less.
Let's take another 100,000 off those 300,000.
But you have to remember those 300,000 voters on a lot of these races.

(17:20):
5,
10,000 votes sway the,
the winner.
So you're,
it didn't sound like you were putting people on the streets there.
You know,
I'm from Chicago.
Politics are blocking and tackling.
So,
but,
uh,
I mean,
it doesn't sound like you're putting,
putting folks on the streets mainly you're advertising and kind of letting the public know via,

(17:41):
I guess social media.
And you said television,
et cetera,
right?
Radio.
You know,
here we,
we,
we do have some,
uh,
some street teams but like all things that takes a budget,
it takes more time,
you know.
Unfortunately,
here we're not 100% set up like a political movement.
Well,
it sounds like you're working on it that we are that we are.

(18:02):
There's a lot of hard working board members that are doing a great job and have got involved.
They put their money their time to basically do it.
Interesting.
Well,
I'm gonna shift gears a little bit and ask you with what time we have left.
Noah,
what's one piece of advice you would give to your 20 year old self?

(18:24):
I love this one because everybody,
everybody's like,
well,
I got to think back to the,
you know.
No,
no.
You know,
and the great thing about it is that I have a 24 year old son and I have a 20 year old son that just turned 21 last week.
So the advice is very,
very simple.
All right.
I teach them.
It's two things in life.
Yeah.
In life and in business.

(18:44):
I live by eight Simple Rules.
This is what I try to teach them what's important to you.
God,
family,
health and money and in business.
Be humble,
be grateful,
be kind and be quiet.
Really?
Life is that simple?
You know,
they're gonna make mistakes but be coachable.
Understand that you,
you know,
you're not owed anything,
you're supposed to go get it.

(19:05):
You're supposed to be in the office at 7:30 in the morning,
you know,
and that's ok.
Sounds good.
Well,
Noah,
this has been a real pleasure for me,
Noah Herrera.
Thank you so much and thank you for sharing with our listeners today.
Thank you very much,
Mr Simmons.
Always a true pleasure being here with you,
sir.
Well,
well,
we hope you enjoyed that episode of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.

(19:29):
We're looking forward to the next episodes.
You can find the book at Just Buy My Vote dot com and feel free to follow us at Just Buy My Vote podcast dot com for notification on upcoming podcasts and events.
We thank you for the privilege of your time and until next time Just Buy My Vote.