Religious leaders voice support for Gates

Wednesday, May 20, 1998 | 10:03 a.m.

A coalition of West Las Vegas religious leaders has rallied around Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates following a failed attempt to recall her from office.

The Ministers Alliance Association of Southern Nevada held a news conference at the West Las Vegas Library Tuesday to show its support for Gates, who was re-elected to the District D seat in 1996 with 79 percent of the vote.

Led by the Rev. Willie Davis, the group denounced the recall drive by Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government, saying it used subterfuge to collect signatures, promising free meals and money.

The recall drive began after an Ethics Commission investigation found that Gates improperly used her position to try to secure a lease at a hotel-casino for a frozen daiquiri shop.

The recall effort failed, but supporters of the drive have appealed the ruling by Secretary of State Dean Heller. Heller had said the petition did not have a sufficient number of valid signatures for it to pass. Most of the signatures sampled were to people not registered in the district, if at all.

Heller held a brief meeting on the appeal Tuesday, but was not expected to make a decision for several days because it opens up an area of state law that has never been tested. Nobody has ever challenged Heller's ruling on a petition before.