在重新入住白宫五天后，特朗普总统展开了一场政治胜利巡回，来到拉斯维加斯市中心的集会现场。与内华达州共和党州长乔·隆巴多一同出席，特朗普对热情的支持者们表示，作为首要任务，他已指示内阁每位成员“调动一切可用权力，击败通胀，降低日常生活成本”。这并未实现——甚至远未达到预期，而这一失败是隆巴多州长为保住政治前途而苦苦挣扎的主要原因之一。
Five days after settling back into the White House, President Trump embarked on a political victory lap that took him to a rally in downtown Las Vegas. Joined by Nevada’s Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, Trump told boisterous supporters that, as a first order of business, he’d directed every member of his Cabinet “to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life.”That hasn’t happened — not even close — and that failure is one big reason that Nevada’s governor is fighting for his political life.
民主党人仍对四年前的失利耿耿于怀，将隆巴多列为本选季的首要州长竞争目标。共和党人则在争取在该州保持最高层票面优势，内华达州将再次成为总统竞选的焦点。距离投票截止仅剩一周多时间——已有超过33.5万张选票投出——竞争形势仍可能出现逆转。
Democrats, still smarting from their loss four years ago, have made Lombardo their No. 1 gubernatorial target this election season. Republicans are battling to keep their top-of-the-ticket foothold in a state that will, once more, stand at the center of the presidential campaign. With just over a week to go — and with more than 335,000 ballots already cast — the contest could go either way.
隆巴多在执法部门工作多年，曾任克拉克县（拉斯维加斯所在县）治安官八年，2022年在新冠疫情引发的对民主党现任州长史蒂夫·西索拉克的反弹中成功当选州长。隆巴多天性内敛，长期是政治外行人，过去四年他专注于基础议题——犯罪、教育、就业增长、经济发展——基本回避了全国激烈的文化战争。与其他共和党议员不同，隆巴多也回避了“MAGA”运动的挑衅和炫耀式争斗。
After a career in law enforcement and eight years as sheriff of Clark County — home to Las Vegas — Lombardo made the leap to governor in 2022 in a pandemic-fueled backlash against Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak. Reserved by nature and a political civilian most of his life, Lombardo has spent the last four years focused on the basics — crime, education, job growth, economic development — and largely steered clear of the country’s incendiary culture wars. Unlike other Republican lawmakers, Lombardo has also shied away from the provocations and flamboyant pugilism of the MAGA movement.
然而，特朗普如同沉重的铁砧压在隆巴多的脖子上——这一事实被他的民主党对手亚伦·福特在每一次机会中加以利用。上周，福特出现在拉斯维加斯大道两英里外的加油站，指出燃油价格创历史新高——以及其对旅游、食品杂货和网购的连锁影响——并称内华达人之所以受苦，仅是因为特朗普对伊朗的“选择性战争”。
Still, Trump hangs like an anvil around Lombardo’s neck — a fact his Democratic opponent, Aaron Ford, exploits at every turn. Appearing last week at a gas station two miles off the Las Vegas Strip, Ford cited record-high fuel prices — and the knock-on effects they’ve had on tourism, groceries and online shopping — and said Nevadans were suffering for no other reason than Trump’s “war of choice” against Iran.
“现任州长在哪里？”福特一边看着车流呼啸而过，一边反问，“像往常一样，他在特朗普脚下，充当他的擦脚布。”福特正竞逐成为内华达州首位黑人州长，他那种白手起家的履历，在竞选顾问眼中简直是“纯金打造”。他在达拉斯长大，家庭拮据，难以维持生计；20多岁时作为单身父亲，曾靠医疗补助（Medicaid）和食品券度日。
“And where,” Ford asked rhetorically, as traffic whooshed past, “is our current governor? As usual, he’s at Trump’s feet, serving as his doormat.”Ford, who's bidding to become Nevada's first Black governor, has one of those up-by-the-bootstraps biographies that campaign consultants see as spun gold. He grew up in Dallas in a family that struggled to stay above water and, as a single father in his early 20s, relied on Medicaid and food stamps to get by. He worked as a waiter and a teacher to pay for law school and a Ph.D. in education before moving to Nevada in 2007.
他当过服务员、教师，以此赚取学费攻读法学院并拿到教育学博士学位，于2007年搬到内华达州。在州参议院任职六年后，福特于2018年当选州检察长，并已连任两届。和各地的民主党候选人一样，福特把负担能力作为竞选的核心议题之一。站在一家Circle K便利店外的人行道上——那里普通汽油售价每加仑5.35美元——福特蹲下身，在一张放大的“信函”复印件上签名，信函致特朗普，要求给内华达州每个家庭发放2000美元“加油站止痛”回扣。
After six years in the state Senate, Ford was elected in 2018 to the first of two terms as the state's attorney general. Like Democratic candidates everywhere, Ford has made affordability a key component of his campaign. Standing on the sidewalk outside a Circle K — where regular was going for $5.35 a gallon — Ford squatted to sign a blown-up copy of a “letter” to Trump demanding a $2,000 “pain-at-the-pump” rebate for every Nevada household. A line was provided, obligingly but obviously unnecessarily, for Lombardo's signature.
信上还留了签名行，好心但显然多余地留给隆巴多签字。福特指出，四年前汽油价格在每加仑4.68美元左右时，他的共和党对手曾在社交媒体上写道，深受困扰的内华达人需要“确保我们的家庭和企业免受这些灾难性政策侵害的领导力”。“但他一旦上任，”福特说，隆巴多“就不再为内华达州奋斗，转而全职为特朗普效力了。”
Four years ago, Ford noted, when gas was around $4.68 a gallon, his Republican rival wrote on social media that hard-pressed Nevadans needed “leadership that ensures our families and businesses are protected from these disastrous policies.”“But once he got in office,” Ford said, Lombardo “stopped fighting for us in Nevada and he started working for Trump full time.”A few hours later, at a country-themed nightclub in northwest Las Vegas, the governor took to the stage to extol his performance these last four years.
几小时后，在位于拉斯维加斯西北部的一家乡村风格夜总会，州长登台宣扬他这四年的表现。他告诉聚集在舞池里的支持者，小企业创建和就业增长都在上升。教师薪资提高了，在内华达州就业的人数比以往任何时候都多。“干得漂亮，”他说，指的究竟是他自己、内华达州，还是两者皆有，不得而知。
Small-business creation and job growth are up, he told a crowd of supporters gathered on the dance floor. Teachers are better paid and more people are working in Nevada than ever before. “Kicking butt,” he said, referring to either himself, Nevada or both; it wasn’t clear which. “Kicking butt.”
“干得漂亮。”此外，隆巴多补充说，内华达州的暴力犯罪和财产犯罪率均已下降——“完全没有检察长的帮助。”州长嘴里从未吐出过“唐纳德”和“特朗普”这两个词。隆巴多与总统的关系颇为微妙。他在2024年竞选期间保持距离，自特朗普重返白宫以来，也曾偶尔、有选择地对政府政策提出异议。例如，州长曾公开反对削减医疗补助（Medicaid）以及关闭内华达州的风能和太阳能项目。
Also, Lombardo added, Nevada's crime rate has fallen for both violent and property crimes — “without any help from the attorney general.”The words “Donald” and “Trump” never passed the governor’s lips. Lombardo has had a somewhat mixed relationship with the president. He kept his distance during the 2024 campaign and has occasionally, selectively, taken issue with the administration since Trump returned to office. The governor, for instance, spoke out against cuts to Medicaid as well as the shuttering of wind and solar projects in Nevada. . But Lombardo didn’t help himself in the least when Trump came to town in August for another rally, this one at the Red Rock Casino.
但当特朗普8月来到红岩赌场举行另一场集会时，隆巴多丝毫没有帮自己的忙。他大赞总统，甚至为特朗普照顾其富豪好友的做法辩护。“媒体经常攻击他，说他在照顾亿万富翁朋友，”隆巴多说，“这些亿万富翁朋友提供就业岗位。除非你照顾他们，否则这些岗位就会消失。”这一幕理所当然地出现在了一则竞选广告中，画面里州长咧嘴笑，特朗普嘴角上扬，结尾打出标语：“乔·隆巴多。为特朗普，不为内华达。”
He heaped praise on the president and defended, of all things, the care and feeding of Trump’s plutocratic pals. “Quite often when the press and the media runs him down, they think about, you know, he’s taking care of his billionaire friends,” Lombardo said. “Those billionaire friends provide jobs. Unless you take care of them, those jobs are absent.”Naturally, the moment showed up in a campaign ad, showing the grinning governor alongside a smirking Trump and ending with the tagline: “Joe Lombardo. For Trump, Not Nevada.”
就福德而言，州长将其描绘成无能且近乎腐败。他抓住检察长大量出差（福德称均为公务）这一把柄，把他描绘成由资助其行程的特殊利益集团把控的“高飞者”。隆巴多还指责福德在打击犯罪上软弱，特别提到一名因杀害孕妇被判过失杀人罪的内华达州囚犯案件。福德将该囚犯的特赦申请列入州特赦委员会议程——隆巴多声称这是福德对待罪犯方式的典型例证。
For his part, the governor has portrayed Ford as feckless and borderline corrupt. He’s seized on the attorney general’s abundant out-of-state travel — for official business, Ford says — to portray him as a high-flier beholden to the special interests that financed his jaunts. Lombardo has also accused Ford of being weak on crime, citing, in particular, the case of a Nevada inmate convicted of manslaughter in the killing of a pregnant woman. Ford placed the inmate’s bid for clemency on the agenda of the state pardons board — an example, Lombardo claims, of the way Ford treats criminals.
这位民主党人表示，他只是遵循程序行事，若非因未明说的家庭急事缺席了委员会会议，他本会反对该特赦请求。
The Democrat said he was merely following procedure and would have opposed the clemency request had he not missed the board's meeting due to an unspecified family emergency.
凭借巨大的资金优势和一支训练有素的竞选团队，隆巴多在恶劣的政治气候下仍使竞争保持胶着。但很大程度上，他的命运不受他本人所能控制的任何因素影响。关键问题是，11月3日民主党的浪潮有多大，特朗普的暗流有多强。这些红蓝两党的力量——胜过任何一位候选人所说所做——将决定这个最紫（摇摆）州的赢家。
With a big financial advantage and the benefit of a highly practiced campaign team, Lombardo has kept the race close despite the rough political climate. But to a considerable degree, his fate is beyond anything that Lombardo can control. The key question is how big the Democratic wave is on Nov. 3 and how strong the Trump undertow. Those forces of red and blue — more than anything either candidate says or does — will determine the winner in this most purple of states.