Ford Calls for $2,000 Nevada Gas Refund Before Election Day

Attorney General Aaron Ford asked President Donald Trump this week to refund Nevada households $2,000 for rising gas costs, and asked his opponent, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, to sign the letter with him. The request went out as the governor's race entered its final days before the Nov. 3 election.

AAA put diesel at $6.85 a gallon Wednesday in Nevada, just under the $6.87 record reached Oct. 21. Regular unleaded averaged $5.27 in the state, third-highest in the country behind California and Hawaii, about $1 above the national average of $4.25.

A July analysis from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee estimated Nevada households have spent an average of $460 more on gas since the Iran war began. The $2,000 figure comes from a Moody's Analytics estimate of what Trump's economic policies cost households each year.

UNLV political science professor David Damore said the request will not produce checks. "There is no chance the gambit succeeds," Damore said. He said the letter puts affordability in front of voters and ties the cost increases to the president's policies. Damore also said the letter plays off Lombardo's stated access to Trump, which Ford says the governor has not used for Nevada.

Lombardo's campaign answered Oct. 21. "Two weeks before Election Day, Aaron Ford is promising $2,000 checks with no plan to pay for them or deliver them," the campaign posted. It also said Ford traveled out of state more than 420 days as attorney general instead of acting on gas prices, and pointed to Lombardo's work on a bipartisan challenge to California fuel policies, a proposed sales tax holiday, and a Fuel Resiliency Committee.

Ford has said a governor does not control gas prices. He points to what a governor can do: free school lunches, price caps on certain prescription drugs, and a cap on security deposits at one month's rent instead of the current three. Both Lombardo vetoes and the deposit cap proposal are part of his housing plan, which he released in January. "These are things the governor can do to address affordability," Ford said. "He says he can't do anything about affordability."