Nevada political punditry has been riven this week with some of us saying Tuesday’s primary results are evidence of a surge in right-wing voting power and some saying that taxes and other core GOP issues had nothing to do with the losses of some faux Republicans in primaries.

For the record, of course, it’s totally the former. Don’t let anybody tell you differently!

That’s not to say that we’re urging you to discount the work of our respected colleagues Anjeanette Damon of the Reno Gazette-Journal or Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun and Face to Face with Jon Ralston. Both Damon and Ralston argued in blogs and columns this week that factors other than ideology played the starring role in Tuesday’s results.

(A reminder: Republican Assembly members Francis Allen, Bob Beers and John Marvel were defeated in primaries by more conservative challengers, while Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio hung on to his seat by fewer than 600 votes against more conservative challenger ex-Assemblywoman Sharron Angle.)

Now, Ralston and Damon are right to point out that Allen faced a tsunami of negative publicity right around election time after she was arrested on charges of stabbing her new husband (the charges were later dismissed). And Ralston is correct when he says that Beers was a bit of a nut, and Marvel was a career politician in an era of term limits. And to call Angle ineffective is an understatement, her recent victory on the property tax initiative front notwithstanding.

But let’s look at a few facts in favor of our theory, espoused in a column this week in CityLife and an earlier post on this very blog, shall we?

• In a low-turnout primary, it’s primarily the ideologically motivated voters who turn out to the polls. In this case, that means inveterate GOP voters, those who would be receptive to an argument that certain incumbents were not true to the Republican philosophy.
• Taxes, or more particularly the promise not to raise them, was an issue in each and every one of the primaries we mentioned above. Allen’s refusal to sign an anti-tax pledge was highlighted, whether or not Beers broke the pledge was debated; Marvel’s 2003 vote to raise taxes was not forgotten and Raggio — who did not sign — nonetheless was maneuvered into promising not to raise taxes in his battle with Angle.
• While it’s true Allen was done in by the stabbing story, the GOP has been after her for years, because of her friendship with Democrats (the horror!). The arrest thus became a tool they used to accomplish a longstanding goal. But it was by no means the only reason for her defeat.
• The mood of the electorate in Nevada is toward a more conservative Republican. Look at how supporters of Ron Paul managed to derail the state convention. Look at how the hatred of unions (an issue also on the national level) was used in Beers’s primary race. Look at how the lion of the state Senate — a man who has prevented the north from being steamrolled by the more populous south for decades — came so close to defeat at the hands of a person with a nearly perfect losing record.
• Nationally, conservatives are upset at being saddled with U.S. Sen. John McCain, who is not one of them, no matter how hard he tries to appear otherwise. Republicans can’t really do anything about that, however. They could (and did) make more conservative choices in down-ballot races.

We at Various Things & Stuff are not ones to give undue credit to conservative Republicans. But in this case, the more conservative elements of the party clearly scored some victories, and they did so because of ideology. At least that’s what this particular corner of the pundit universe thinks!

UPDATE: Count the Review-Journal editorial page and columnist John L. Smith in the column with us (gulp!) and the Las Vegas Gleaner in the column with Ralston/Damon. Do take time to read the comments to the Gleaner post, as the one from College of Southern Nevada Professor Michael Green is especially worthwhile.