Undercurrent

Lois Tarkanian takes to Breitbart to blast Lee, defend her son

By: - August 15, 2018 11:00 am
Lois Tarkanian

Lois Tarkanian on “Access City Council.” (Courtesy: City of Las Vegas)

Lois Tarkanian
Lois Tarkanian on “Access City Council.” (Courtesy: City of Las Vegas)

In an article published Tuesday on Breitbart, Lois Tarkanian, the mother of Danny Tarkanian, the GOP nominee for the open seat in Nevada’s Third Congressional District, denounces his opponent Democrat Susie Lee for her campaign tactics saying “Susie Lee’s most recent lie especially sickens me.”

Lois Tarkanian, a Democrat, has served on the Las Vegas City Council since 2005.

Lee’s campaign recently set up a website claiming Tarkanian “borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars against his parents’ life insurance policy – without their knowledge” and that he “helped to set up a series of telemarketing companies that scammed and preyed on the elderly” which Lois contests in the article. 

Lois Tarkanian writes that Danny’s father suffered a heart attack leaving him in fragile health leaving Danny to care for him. Afterward, she said Danny found himself with an upside down mortgage. In order to stay near his father and continue caring for him, Lois said Danny borrowed against his parent’s life insurance and had their “blessing on the decision.”

Previously, Lois said she did not give Danny permission to take money from her life insurance, according to court documents. 

In 2009, Danny was the first public figure in Nevada’s history to win a defamation lawsuit when he was awarded $150,000 in damages after his 2004 opponent for state senate Mike Schneider ran ads blasting Tarkanian for setting up the telemarketing companies, which were later convicted of fraud. But opponents have continued to raise the issue against Tarkanian in his multiple campaigns ever since. Tarkanian filed a still-unsettled lawsuit against Rep. Jacky Rosen over the issue after she defeated him in the 2016 congressional race.

Danny recently sent a cease and desist letter to Lee’s campaign office requesting her and her campaign retract statements on social media and elsewhere related to his past business dealings.

Lois said Lee is aware of the former court ruling and that she is “sickened and angered by the false statements made by fellow Democrats.”

On Twitter, Danny claimed that Lois first went to the Las Vegas Sun to publish the article but was rejected in favor of a Sunday editorial about Rep. Jacky Rosen.

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Jeniffer Solis
Jeniffer Solis

Jeniffer was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada where she attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas before graduating in 2017 with a B.A in Journalism and Media Studies.

Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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