Vol. 3, No. 5
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January 1, 2006
Nevada's Online State News Journal
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CRIMINAL DEFENSE |
COPYWRITING
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Top News Story:
How Elections Are Bought -- A Primer
Or, Why Campaign Finance Reform Needs An Open Debate In Nevada
by Johnny Gunn
There are several very good reasons for Nevada lawmakers to take a long look at how elections and their financing are held in the Silver State. Campaign finance law needs restructuring simply because in its present form it isn't worth the paper it's written on. According to the state elections officer, that is, Dean Heller, Secretary of State, if someone breaks the law, no one would even know it, and if he, Heller was told about it, he couldn't do anything about it. The word for something like this is "insane."
The problem is, Heller is mostly right. As the law reads a person, entity, corporation, or committee can contribute up to $10,000 to a Nevada politician's campaign, $5,000 for the Primary and $5,000 for the General Election. If the candidate should lose the Primary and has already accepted money for the General, that money must be returned. That's rather straight forward, simple to understand, why the fuss?
The candidates are required to file contribution and expense (C&E) reports with the Secretary of State or local clerk, and that's where the entire law literally goes out the window. The C&E reports are not scrutinized by anyone in local or state government. A retired Reno City Clerk told The Nevada Observer he was never given any information on what to do with the reports when they were filed. "No one in the Secretary of State's office even suggested that I should look for errors or omissions or anything. I filed them." He went on to suggest that the "honor" system doesn't even work in grammar school, why would anyone think it would work in politics?
The reports are in essence useless. They can't be understood because they follow no known data base form, are not filed in any particular order, and are generally hand written and all but illegible. A simple data base program would cure about half the problems with C&E reports, and a flexible law allowing the Elections Officer of the state the rights and powers to pursue those that are alleged to have broken the campaign laws of the state would give more credence to Nevada elections.
How to buy an election
There are businesses, industries, and individuals in Nevada that want control over who makes the laws and which laws should be made. We'll take just one industry in our Primer to show how easy it is to get control if you happen to have a large purse, few ethics, and a desire to dominate. This is simply a demonstration of how it could work. The Nevada Observer in no way is suggesting that such practices actually take place.
We'll use Nevada's primary industry, gaming and tourism for our example. To show just how much money can play a part, we'll just use one major corporation within that industry, the MGM Mirage. Here is a list of the casino/hotels operated by MGM Mirage:
- Bellagio
- MGM Grand Las Vegas
- Mandalay Bay
- The Mirage
- Luxor
- Excalibur
- New York New York
- Monte Carlo
- Treasure Island
- Circus Circus
- Boardwalk
- Railroad Pass (Henderson)
- Silver Legacy (Reno)
- Circus Circus (Reno)
- Colorado Belle (Laughlin)
- Edgewater (Laughlin)
- Gold Strike (Jean)
- Nevada Landing (Jean)
- Buffalo Bill's (Primm)
- Primm Valley (Primm)
- Whiskey Pete's (Primm)
That's 21 gaming properties spread around the Silver State. Using the state's shadowy campaign finance law, if each casino's manager and spouse gave $10,000 each to a candidate, that would be an impressive $400,000. Wait, we forgot the corporation donation from each entity. Add $210,000. If then each of the division heads, that is gaming, food, beverage, hotel services, etc. and their spouses gave the maximum $10,000 each, why we are far more than impressive here with money.
Let's not give it all to one candidate. Let's instead develop a group of candidates that could become a leadership contingent and see to it that their coffers are filled, and that their opponents get as little as possible. Of course these candidates need to understand their obligations, so to deliver this little bonus to each candidate we'll use one of our fine corporate attorneys to bring the donations in one delivery. "Here, my fine candidate, are donations from our little group of gaming interests. We're giving this to you because we know how strongly you feel about our industry." It's called bundling in the vernacular, and when a candidate is handed a bag-o-money totaling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars it's impressive.
There isn't one single thing illegal about what we just discussed. But you as someone interested in how campaigns are financed would not be able to discern any of this if you went through the C&E reports unless you knew the names of all those people mentioned. The information about who those people are connected to isn't part of the reports. It very well should be.
Continuing our thread here, we want to make sure our legislature really does have our (The Gaming Industry) best interests at heart, so we go to our gaming partners in the state. Let's see, Boyd Gaming has 12 operations in Nevada. Harrah's Entertainment has 13 operations. Station Casinos? Who can count?
Of course to make our little demonstration work we will have to find enough candidates willing to sell at least part of their soul to take a seat in the Legislature. Ho hum.
We used the gaming industry for our demonstration but we could just as well have used land developers, mining interests, agricultural groups, municipal or county quasi governmental agencies (think water), or unions (think teachers) for this demonstration. Groups can form and not be visible to anyone attempting to find out where a candidate or group of candidates get their financing.
Governors have been seated in this manner, legislatures have been elected, judges have found the bench, and it happens at the local level as well. Nevada's campaign finance laws are all but invisible. Transparent. Pieces of fluff blowing in the wind.
If you are the type of person that is immune to great amounts of cranium pressure, pick any member of the legislature, go to the Secretary of State's web page and find the C&E reports for that politician. Then try to find out if any particular industry or group might have been monetarily influencing in their campaign. Of course you will have to know where individuals that are listed work and who their spouses and adult children are. If you start right now, you might have some idea by the August Primary Election.
The Nevada Observer took that first step and came up with this little piece of amazement. The report you are about to read is straight from the Secretary of State's web site. Nothing has been added or deleted. We had to break out information from corporate listings, from C&E reports, and from other forms filed with the Secretary. It took many hours to do this simply because those that are responsible for writing Nevada's campaign finance laws don't want you to have this information at your disposal.
From the C&E reports filed by Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson in 2005, these corporations donated the amounts shown (all on December 30, 2004):
- Duffers LLC $3,100 [Page 3]
- La Costa Village $3,100 [Page 6]
- Las Vegas Preferred Tee Times LLC $3,100 [Page 6]
- Mountain View Estates $3,100 [Page 7]
- Southwest Golf Reservations LLC $3,100 [Page 9]
- SWG Inc. $3,100 [Page 9]
- WG Development LLC $3,100 [Page 11]
The total is $21,700 from the seven corporate entities. Each of those corporations is either owned or managed by William T. Walters. The same Bill Walters as the land and golf course developer. By Nevada law there is nothing illegal in this endeavor. Mr. Walters is president or CEO or manager of numerous corporations in the state, and corporations are treated the same as individual contributors. In other words, each corporation can donate up to $10,000 regardless of who the president, CEO, or manager happens to be.
It only costs a few hundred dollars to file corporation papers with the Secretary of State, and with just a few corporations under your belt you too can become one of the good old boys. One particular illegal act is for a company, individual, or corporation to fund someone else's contribution, that is give someone money to be donated to a candidate. Does it happen? One could say, "gee, golly, whiz, there aren't any current indictments or open court cases." Of course not, since no one bothers to check campaign financing in Nevada, who would know?
There are many that believe our current and now lame duck governor was elected, not once, but twice in this manner. A book was written outlining how the anointment process works, and work it does. Would it work if the general public, probably by way of a free and aggressive press knew where all the money came from? It would certainly make it more difficult to anoint, and to rewrite the law would actually be a simple thing.
The C&E reports would have to be adjusted so as to be part of a data base of information in which donors are fully identified. A donor would have to disclose where he or she worked, spouse's name, and relationship to a specific industry. Interestingly, even at the federal level financial reports allow a donor to list himself as "retired." Retired from what? That could be very important. Remember President Eisenhower's warning of the military-industrial complex.
A properly filled out C&E in data base form is only half the answer. Someone in authority has to look at the reports. They have to be verified as to their authenticity, their legality, and if there are instances of alleged fraud, follow through with law enforcement. According to Secretary of State Dean Heller, he doesn't have the authority to do that. This is questionable.
He does have the authority to develop the C&E data base forms. And if he ever actually took one of the allegedly fraudulent reports to court he might just find out he really has had the authority all these years. That would entail actually doing something. Sorry.
Changing the campaign finance and election laws in Nevada entails more than just rewriting the laws. They will be rewritten by politicians, debated in the Legislature by politicians, and voted on by politicians. The same politicians that know today they have holes in the current law one could fit the battleship NEVADA through.
Remembering that this is a Primer, a lesson, now is time for the test. The entire Assembly will be elected this year. It will be your responsibility to elect a group that is open to campaign finance reform. At The Nevada Observer it is going to be at the top of our list of questions that will be put to candidates. The only other answer would be by way of initiative petition.
Will you join us in trying to make Nevada elections as open and honest as possible?
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