New reporting shows that Joe Lombardo fired Nevada’s top water regulator after he proposed a draft policy to protect water access that could have curbed the profits of one of his top donors, Nevada Gold Mines. Just weeks after water regulator Adam Sullivan’s firing, Lombardo’s campaign and supportive PAC received $510,000 on top of a half million dollar donation in 2024 from Nevada Gold Mines. 

Sullivan was fired last December after leading a proposal for water management at the Humboldt River basin that would prevent water shortages, but could potentially cut into Nevada Gold Mines’ bottom line by altering their water rights. A lobbyist from Nevada Gold Mines emailed Lombardo’s chief of staff to complain and this nonpartisan state engineer was fired a month later. Sullivan himself has said he was fired because his draft decisions threatened the entrenched power of Nevada Gold Mines.

This scandal is the latest example of Lombardo doing favors for big corporations at the expense of the Nevadans he was elected to serve. In 2023, he vetoed a measure to lower prescription drug costs and received nearly $100,000 from Big Pharma shortly after. He also vetoed affordable housing and tenant protection legislation while taking millions of dollars from slumlord billionaire Robert Bigelow.

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American Journal News: Lombardo under fire as donor cash follows controversial actions

• A review of campaign finance disclosures shows that Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo took in large special interest donations following some of his most controversial decisions. The pattern suggests that Lombardo may be more loyal to his donors than his constituents.
  

• A recent example concerns Adam Sullivan, who spent more than six years as the state’s top water regulator before he was abruptly fired in December 2025. Sullivan monitored the safety of dams and wells and was responsible for enforcing water access laws. He was the first regulator to be fired in 44 years.
  

• Now, new reporting from the Nevada Independent says the ouster was preceded by Lombardo’s office receiving hundreds of complaints from mining companies about a Sullivan-led plan to curb groundwater pumping in the Humboldt River Basin. Sullivan warned that current pumping rates could lead to water shortages, while mining companies, which pump large amounts of water for processing and operations, saw the proposed scale-down as a threat to their bottom line.
  

• Many of the complaints came from Nevada Gold Mines, a mining company based in Elko. In 2024, Nevada Gold Mines donated $500,000 to a pro-Lombardo PAC. The company gave another $500,000 in March after Sullivan was fired. That same month, it gave $10,000 to Lombardo’s reelection campaign.
  

• A similar dynamic played out in 2023 when Lombardo vetoed a bill that would have extended prescription drug savings for Medicare recipients to all Nevadans, saving families thousands of dollars a year on medicine.
  

• After the veto, Lombardo’s campaign and an affiliated PAC took in more than $80,000 from groups that opposed the legislation. A year later, Lombardo’s PAC took in $50,000 from Healthy Nevada PAC, a group representing the interests of pharmaceutical companies.
  

• Lombardo also vetoed two bills—one in 2023 and another in 2025—that would have created new protections for renters by establishing a legal process for evictions. Under current law, landlords have broad latitude as to when and how a tenant can be removed.
  

• Following both vetoes, Lombardo received a string of $5,000 donations from billionaire Robert Bigelow and his companies.

Nevada Independent: Why is Nevada Gold Mines one of Lombardo's top donors in the governor's race?

• Nevada Gold Mines donated $500,000 to a PAC affiliated with Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) in March, making the mining conglomerate one of the Republican governor's top donors in his bid for re-election.
  

• The dollars brought the company's cumulative donations to Lombardo's PAC to $1 million, the largest single recipient of the group's money.
  

• The latest cash infusion has raised more questions in comments on news articles and other online spaces than usual because it followed the firing of Adam Sullivan, the top official responsible for regulating water rights in the state after the mining industry complained about him to the governor's office.
  

• The state engineer was fired last December. The $500,000 donation came on March 5, according to campaign finance records.