Highway patrol says trooper must alter campaign literature

Jeff Schweers

Friday, May 8, 1998 | 10:09 a.m.

Barely a week after he announced his candidacy for Clark County Commission, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Steve Harney has gotten into hot water for depicting his badge and uniform in his campaign materials.

Harney is running as a Republican for the District F seat against incumbent Erin Kenny, a Democrat. Both have drawn primary challengers.

After reviewing the campaign material Thursday, NHP Chief Mike Hood told Harney that it was unacceptable and that any references to the highway patrol violate internal policy and the Nevada Administrative Code.

"I gave him an order that he cannot utilize highway patrol material, pictures, emblems or insignias for his campaign," Hood said. "If he runs for commission he has to run as Steve Harney, a citizen of the state of Nevada, not as Trooper Steve Harney."

If not, Hood said, he would seek an injunction from the attorney general's office to prevent Harney from distributing the material.

"I feel it's my duty to keep this material from hitting the street," Hood said.

Harney's campaign brochure for the District F seat depicts his badge on the front and back covers and folds open to a full-color photo of him in his trooper uniform, which Hood said could be seen as an implicit endorsement.

"It falsely represents that the highway patrol endorses him," Hood said. "The highway patrol does not support or endorse any political candidate."

Harney's campaign has capitalized on his statewide recognition as the public information officer for the Nevada Highway Patrol, a position from which he has stepped down to avoid any conflict of interest as he campaigns.

He said after reviewing the administrative code and Nevada Rules and Regulations with his campaign advisors, he thought he could make reference to his job as long as he didn't campaign while on duty or in uniform.

He also wondered how he could educate people about his career of the past 24 years if he can't make any reference to it on campaign material.

Now Harney and his campaign staff must decide whether to scrap the 30,000 brochures and remove all references to the highway patrol or decide if they were in the right.

"I take responsibility for it, period," Harney said. "We will sit down this weekend, review everything and make a final decision on what we do with it, but I have to accept final responsibility for everything."

Harney also took responsibility for a press release faxed to several media outlets by his campaign staff stating that Hood had forced Harney to resign over his campaigning.

Harney said the release went out before he had a chance to review it.

"Nobody has asked Steve to step down," Hood said, adding that he has no objections to Harney's running for office. "That was Steve's idea to retire if he wanted to."

Even if Harney retired from the highway patrol, Hood said, the insignia, uniform, patch, seal and badge belonged to the patrol and could not be used for any unauthorized purpose.

"I told him to retract the photo, and he said, no, he's going to run on this," Hood said.

Harney said Hood gave him the option of removing the photo and trooper references or take a leave of absence while he campaigned.

"That's how the conversation ended," Harney said "I didn't resign, but I requested a resignation form, then went about my duties."