Tuesday, June 9, 1998 | 4 a.m.
Congressional candidate Shelley Berkley apologized Monday for her "bad judgment" in conveying the impression that business is conducted in Las Vegas by doing favors for politicians.
"I am very sorry for what happened," Berkley said in an interview with the Sun. "I'm sorry for the words and expressions I used and the ideas those words conveyed. I'm embarrassed, and I know I've disappointed people. But most of all, I've disappointed myself.
Berkley, the leading Democrat in the 1st Congressional District, said she believes she "inadvertently contributed to the cynicism that permeates the political process."
Her thoughts about Southern Nevada politics reportedly were expressed in a May 1997 telephone conversation secretly recorded by a friend, and in private 1996 memos to her former boss, Las Vegas Sands Inc. Chairman Sheldon Adelson.
The existence of the tape and the memos were disclosed in news reports last week.
In one memo, Berkley, a lawyer and university regent, reportedly encouraged Adelson to contribute to the campaigns of judges, suggesting they tended to return the favor. Adelson wrote back chastising her for making that comment.
Berkley also was overheard on the phone conversation discussing attempts to persuade Adelson to do favors for two county commissioners, Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Erin Kenny.
She allegedly encouraged Adelson to give Gates a daiquiri concession and hire the uncle of Commissioner Erin Kenny at the $2 billion Venetian hotel-casino to help grease the way for construction of the megaresort.
But Adelson was said to have refused to help the commissioners.
He has since been backing a campaign to recall Gates from office over her aborted attempts to start up the daiquiri business.
Adelson was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner, who has called Berkley's words "offensive," did not return phone calls.
Berkley insisted she was only doing her job, as a political and legal adviser, when she recommended the favors for Gates and Kenny.
"At no time did I ever offer anything to an elected official to get their vote," she said. "And neither did any elected official make such a request of me."
Berkley, who said she never meant to hurt anyone, apologized directly last week to Gates and Kenny, whom she considers good friends.
She has learned from this experience to more carefully weigh her words before she speaks, she said.
Berkley has never been given an opportunity to hear the tape and doesn't know for sure who was on the other end of the conversation, she said.
"The truly scary thing about this is it could be somebody who is still pretending to be my friend," she said.
Berkley surmised that the conversation was illegally recorded a couple of days after Adelson, a prominent Republican Party donor, fired her as his vice president of government relations.
"I was angry. I was hurt," Berkley said. "I was very blunt and candid, and I was speaking to someone I trusted who I thought was a friend."
Berkley said she was concerned that a person was willing to commit a crime to hurt her political career.
It is a felony in Nevada to tape a phone conversation without the knowledge or consent of the other party.
"Someone is trying to keep me out of Congress and silence my voice on important issues," Berkley said. "This just makes me fight harder for what I believe in."
Berkley said the controversy has energized her campaign.
About 400 supporters, she said, attended a campaign fund-raiser for her over the weekend.
"The outpouring of support from my volunteers and people in the community has been extraordinary over the last several days," she said.
"This attack is designed to take everybody's attention away from the important issues that affect working men and women in this community. I'm not going to let that happen."
Her campaign manager, Gary Gray, suggested word of the secret taping has created a "climate of fear" within the political world.
"If all of this starts with somebody committing a felony to obtain a tape, what's going to follow?" he asked. "What person running for office is going to feel comfortable talking on the phone with a friend after last week?"
When discussing the memo to Adelson about the judges last week, Berkley suggested that her former boss had set her up.
This week, she declined to elaborate.
But she said: "Only two people had the memo, and I didn't leak it. You can draw your own conclusion."
Adelson is known to be supporting one, maybe two, Republicans in the congressional race.
One of the Republicans is said to be former District Judge Don Chairez, who filed for office on the final day of last month's two-week filing period.
Chairez did not return phone calls.
Berkley intends to continue talking about the issues and get past this "little bump in the road.
"I'm going to work harder to prove that I deserve to be in Washington," she said.
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