Recall of Gates fails

Jeff Schweers

Thursday, May 14, 1998 | 9:43 a.m.

An effort financed by Venetian resort owner Sheldon Adelson to recall Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates has failed because of a lack of valid petition signatures.

But nothing in state law can prevent Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government, or any other group, from marching up to the Elections Department today and filing a notice of intent to start a new petition drive.

"They will have to start all over again," Secretary of State Dean Heller said Wednesday. His remarks came after he notified the Clark County registrar, the petitioners and Gates that the recall petition had come up short on valid signatures.

Of 503 signatures examined in a random sample, 244 belonged to registered voters, Heller said. The rest were either not registered, lived outside the voting district or had signed their names illegibly, he said. The 244 valid signatures was 49 fewer than necessary to trigger a special election.

There have been four previous attempts in the past 10 years to recall Clark County commissioners. All have failed. In 1992, an attempt to recall former Commissioner Thalia Dondero failed because of insufficient signatures. Efforts in 1988 to unseat former commissioners Manny Cortez, Karen Hayes and Dondero were suspended.

Charles Bennion, leader of Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government, said he would appeal the decision on the grounds that the random sampling was unconstitutional. If that fails, he said, he would take the matter to court.

And if that fails, Bennion said, his group will go back to the streets and gather more signatures if necessary.

"We will walk through this process, because we really believe that we have enough signatures," Bennion said. "We're confident that if the process goes through the way the Constitution envisions it, we'll get a recall. If not, we'll go back out because we know we have the support and will not let it get thrown out on technicalities."

Heller said there's never been an appeal of a recall decision by his office but, if asked, he would review the verification process.

Bennion sent a letter Wednesday to the secretary of state objecting to certain procedures that occurred while they were witnessing the signature-verification process. He also complained that remarks County Registrar Kathryn Ferguson had made about the petitions to the media betrayed a bias favoring Gates.

"What's Kathryn Ferguson doing getting up disparaging our efforts on TV and in the print media?" Bennion asked.

Ferguson was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Gates, who was re-elected to a second term in 1996, said she was relieved even though she knew there was a chance Bennion would contest the process or refile to circulate another petition.

"This has been a really trying and humbling time for me," Gates said Wednesday evening before going home to celebrate her daughter's fifth birthday.

Bennion's group sought to recall Gates because of alleged ethical improprieties involving a frozen-daiquiri business and airport concession leases. It started the recall drive after a January Ethics Commission finding that Gates had violated ethics codes by directly soliciting hotel-casino owners for lease space for her fledgling daiquiri business.

Gates said the petition drive was an ordeal that "no elected official wants to have to go through," but she felt that her district, which re-elected her with 79 percent of the vote two years ago, still supports her.

"I felt very comfortable that, had it come to a re-election, I would win, based on the feedback I'd been receiving from the community," Gates said.

Gates represents District D, which encompasses predominantly black West Las Vegas and parts of North Las Vegas and downtown Las Vegas. She said she was rededicating herself to the task of building that community.

"I was elected by my constituents to do a job, and that's what I intend to do and focus on," Gates said.

Gates said she would be willing to talk to Bennion, a resident of her district since 1996, any time he wants.

"If Mr. Bennion called and asked me to meet with him, I would meet with him," Gates said.

During the entire time Bennion and his group were collecting signatures, he had never met Gates, spoke with her or sent her a letter expressing his concerns.

"Based upon what happened, she needs to go," Bennion said, scuttling any chance of a conciliation with Gates.

The notice of intent to circulate the petition was signed by Bennion's mother and two other North Las Vegans in District D and was filed March 10 with the Elections Department. From that time, the group had 60 days to collect at least 4,380 signatures -- one-fourth of the total number of voters in Gates' last election.

With money donated by Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Sands Inc., the group hired Reno-based National Voter Outreach to circulate the petitions. Bennion said he had raised $70,000 for the recall effort.

Last Thursday, the group turned in 959 pages of petitions with 7,474 signatures. After the Elections Department did a raw count of the signatures, the secretary of state ordered Ferguson to check at least 500 signatures at random.

Chiropractor Terry Akers, who had filed to run against Gates in the event of a recall election, said he was convinced Bennion would win the appeal. Akers said he will continue to campaign and collect the 4,380 signatures he would need to get his name on a ballot in the event a special election is held.

"The people have spoken," Akers said. "The will of the people in District D is going to prevail."

And if there's no special election, Akers said, he would think of running for Gates' seat in 2000.

"I'm not going anywhere," Akers said.

Sun Capital Bureau staff writer Cy Ryan contributed to this story.