Squabble over campaign fliers

Bill Gang

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Last minute volleys have rattled the campaign for Las Vegas Municipal Court Department 5, with incumbent Judge Gregory Barlow chastising challenger Cedric Kearns for what he said were misleading fliers.

Kearns countered that Barlow has been misusing his office staff and misappropriating city property.

Sitting quietly outside the fray is perennial judicial candidate Nicholas Del Vecchio, who funded his own campaign and has been taking a grass roots approach to the race.

Barlow last week said a Kearns campaign brochure carried a union "bug" indicating it was printed by a union shop, but the judge said it was not. He added that the flier listed him as Gregory T. Barlow when his middle initial actually is "J."

"He ought to apologize to the voters for the misrepresentations," Barlow said.

Kearns, meanwhile, has alleged that Barlow is using his court office, staff and materials in his campaign, contrary to an edict from the Municipal Court administrator's office.

He noted that Barlow's office phone number is listed on his campaign fliers and said that, as a result, his office staff is wrongfully being required to deal with campaign issues.

Barlow denied that his staff serves as campaign workers and said he listed his office number because the court offices "is where I am and where I'm expected to be."

Kearns also alleged that some campaign material has been sent out in Municipal Court envelopes with city funded stamps.

"That's a misappropriation of funds," Kearns said.

Barlow responded that "I wouldn't use city stationery that way, I think. I've always paid my own postage."

To Barlow's charges of fraudulently labeling campaign literature as a union printing job when it wasn't, Kearns said it simply is untrue.

"I was assured (by Bonanza Printing) that everyone who worked on the flier was union," he said. "We had shopped around for a union shop."

Kearns charged that Barlow is saddled with his own union problem, having erroneously listed in a campaign ad that he was endorsed by the Culinary Union Local 226 when he was not.

But Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Jim Arnold said that Barlow, in fact, was given the union's endorsement early in the campaign.

On the erroneous initial issue, Kearns conceded it was a "complete oversight" that he was unaware of until asked for a response by the SUN. He explained that he picked up the middle initial from another newspaper's story about Barlow's judicial survey results.

Kearns said he would "gladly apologize" for the mistake.

Kearns has been pounding on Barlow's chronically low ratings as a judge in lawyer surveys over the last six years. Those surveys, in which the majority of lawyers responding did not recommend Barlow for re-election, have been the topic of last-minute ads.

The dark horse in the race is the third candidate, attorney Nicholas Del Vecchio, who candidly said he is relying on name identification he has accumulated from several unsuccessful bids for judicial office.

Del Vecchio, 40, noted that in his last race, for a Family Court judgeship, he gathered 26 percent of the vote, although finishing third in a four-person field.

"I feel confident," said the 10-year lawyer who has five brothers who are lawyers and a sister who is a doctor. Still, he describes himself as a "no frills kind of guy."

Del Vecchio, who grew up and attended college and law school in St. Paul, Minn., was a Nye County deputy district attorney for a year before entering private practice.

Like Kearns, he has criticized Barlow for his low judicial rating.

"His demeanor leaves a lot to be desired," he said. "It's a 'robe-itis' thing."

Kearns, 31, is a 1989 graduate of UNLV and a 1992 graduate of the University of San Diego Law School. An advisory member of the Nevada Supreme Court Task Force on economic and racial bias, Kearns said he will bring courtesy, integrity and expertise to the bench.

Barlow, 49, touts his experience from eight years on the Municipal Court bench and stints as a deputy Nevada attorney general and Clark County deputy public defender.

In campaign literature, Barlow said he "believes in an efficient court that speeds, not impedes, the process to justice."