Before anyone could ask why Nevada Republican leaders favor the likes of Joe Lombardo and Mark Amodei (to the exclusion of any challenger), party chairman opened the gathering with 'I was not bribed!'

At a few minutes past 10 a.m. on April 30 – a sunny Spring Saturday – the 2022 Nevada State Republican Party Convention was gaveled to order in a second-floor meeting room of the Palace Station Hotel in downtown Las Vegas, and Nevada Republican State Party Chairman Michael J. McDonald rose to offer his scheduled greeting.

Then things got odd.

Mr. McDonald, a former Las Vegas-Clark County Metropolitan police officer, dispensed with the normal pep talk. Instead, he declared he'd been accused of "accepting a $250,000 bribe" to see to it that current Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo "gets this party's endorsement" for the office of governor.

Mr. McDonald denied that allegation, which he said came from someone he had once considered a friend (but whom he declined to name.) He then said that if his accuser had evidence of such an impropriety, he should "bring it," apparently to Mr. MacDonald's home," and that "one of us will leave in a body bag."

This was a public event, attended by more than 400 people. Members of the Press were credentialed; there was a section of seats set aside for the Press at the back of the room. Yet I have been puzzled, over the past two weeks, to see no prominent press coverage of this rather dramatic announcement – nor of the quite surprising series of endorsements that came out of that convention, some of them in direct contravention of the evident wishes of party leaders.