State Senate Could Use a Case of the Blues

Ralston makes the case for turning the State Senate blue today as he trots out his semi-annual harangue about Nevada's screwed up campaign reporting. We learn that the Governor has a "secret money machine" sucking up cash from pharmaceutical companies and whoever is dumping funds into the Gube's legal defense slush fund.

Last week [Gibbons] raised money - sources say mostly from pharmaceutical folks - at an event that netted him about $20,000. Will he use those donations to contribute to other Republicans, to travel to far-flung lands, to tip his security detail? We don't know because he doesn't have to disclose until next year.

As for the legal defense fund, which the governor disclosed only after pressed, he doesn't have to reveal that money until next year, either. And he has an active effort under way being run by two prominent businessmen, Sig Rogich and Monte Miller. We have no idea who m they have solicited and how much they have raised. And they don't have to tell. (Sun)

Not until January, leastwise.

Ralston wants elected officials to post their contributions on the web within 48 hours of receiving them, which is a nifty idea. In fact their were bills in front of the State Senate last session that would have required timely posting. But they died in the (up scary music) Senate Legislative Operations and Election Fixing Committee. (CL,CL,NCPE,BSV)

So, you want ethics reform? Then vote Bill Raggio, Barbara Cegavske, Bob Beers, Warren Hardy out of the Senate, slap some sense into Mathews, and shake Valerie Wiener awake. Horsford was the only member of the committee who seemed to work for change.

And, oh the minutes from that committee! They'll make you weep harder than a Greek Tragedy:

SENATOR MATHEWS:
Maybe I am naive, but when I knock on doors, nobody has ever asked me about my [campaign expense] report.

CHAIR CEGAVSKE:
I agree. I think a lot of this is for the media. (Committee Minutes. p. 8)

What? You knock on a door at some random time, and are surprised that your constituents aren't waiting, report in hand, to go over the details? Sorry, ladies, but that's what a free press is for! And it ain't easy sorting out all that bundling you guys do on those reports.

Later (p. 14)...

           [Craig Walton:]

The other point I would make is the concern some of the members of the Committee have about why do five reports. We had complaints from voters in the valley about the anomalous situation where you either go to early voting and not know who gave what money to whom or you wait to find out who gave what money to whom, but you cannot vote early because it is over..

CHAIR CEGAVSKE:
When you say people, the only people most of us hear complaining are the media or our opponents; they are the ones who want to know. I am someone who walks door-to-door as most everyone else does, and we do not hear it from the constituents. We hear it from the media and somebody's opponent who wants to see what is going on in the other camp. That is what it is about. [Emphasis added]

MR. WALTON:
We have had two town hall meetings open to the public, and people brought those questions up. They are also pushing to say, "Why don't you make this electronic so it would be more easy?" I think they are related. The number of folks looking for numbers, who gives what to whom, will be larger when we can do it electronically. We have to do the spade work to inform the public and make it possible for the public to get this information.

Weep! Weep for our poor over-burdened candidates and lobbyists! And Look what Senator Hardy said as the committee killed the bill to require training in the State Ethics rules for lobbyists and legislators (p. 14).

SENATOR HARDY:
I came from the lobbying ranks and I can tell you their obligations to the law, in terms of ethics, are well adhered to because the penalty is drastic. We need to do all we can to advocate for the availability of this training for people who want to take it. However, mandating the training seems extreme. This goes for Legislators as well.

Ethics requirements! They're so extreme!

And, hey, isn't there something familiar about that picture?