Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Election politics as Nov. 3 approaches

Saturday, Oct. 31, 1998 | 10:47 a.m.

RADIO LISTENERS were amazed last week when Sen. Harry Reid's opponent again advertised that he had removed the source tax levied against Nevadans by the states from which they came. Rep. John Ensign had used this same gimmick early in the campaign, but then properly quit running it. Now, during the waning days of his campaign, he dredges it up again for use. So let me dredge up a column I wrote more than five years ago, before Ensign even went to Washington.

"An older woman, who lives in Fallon, Nev., has an annual income of between $12,000 and $13,000 a year. She is not rich, but she is surviving. One day, the mail carrier delivers a notice from California that says she owes taxes on her pension income from California, plus the penalties and interest on those taxes. She cannot believe it but, being an honest person, she tells California that she has never paid these taxes in the past and asks why she is being assessed at this time. Mr. President, to make a long story short, the California Franchise Tax Board went back to 1978 and calculated her tax debt to be about $6,000. Mr. President, this woman's income is only $12,000 per year.

"Mr. President, most citizens pay their taxes honestly and without too much complaining, but, when they are taxed by a state where they do not reside, they begin to get upset with the system. ... "

These were the words of Nevada senior Sen. Harry Reid continuing his seven-year fight to relieve thousands of Nevadans from unfair taxation without representation, when I turned to C-SPAN to watch the U.S. Senate in action in 1993.

Eventually Reid was successful in getting this taxpayer protection law added to his many restrictions on the IRS. This didn't surprise me because at the end of that long column, I then concluded that Reid's appearance on C-SPAN: "Reminds me of Harry Reid the middleweight, who would crawl in the ring and box a heavyweight when it was necessary. During the past 10 years, the senator from Searchlight has learned the ropes in Congress and many of his colleagues have come to know him as a heavyweight who isn't afraid of hard work or taking on the powerful.

"It was exciting to watch him on television fighting for a just cause. Reid never had the opportunity to box on television during the 1950s and '60s."

* Why is casino bigwig Sheldon Adelson willing to spend an estimated $2 million on nasty and inaccurate campaign ads to beat County Commissioners Myrna Williams and Erin Kenny and also defeat commission candidate Dario Herrera? The answer is easy when considering that Commissioners Williams and Kenny refuse to bow to his every wish. Neither commissioner is for sale and this upsets the rich man who wants to own our elected local public officials.

But what about Herrera? He's a former assemblyman who served one successful term in Carson City. What has he done to deserve Adelson's wrath? Probably nothing, except he does have a reputation of being an independent thinker and this is dangerous for a person harboring Adelson's goals.

Because of Adelson's paid-for scurrilous ads, there is some reason to believe that Herrera's youth bothers the self-styled kingmaker. Direct attacks are made on the candidate's youth, but this shouldn't fly with Nevadans who have received great benefits from dedicated young people serving in public office. Assemblyman Pat Murphy, D-Reno, the youngest person to serve in the Assembly, wrote and passed Nevada's open meeting law in the 1970s. More recently, Brian Sandoval, R-Reno, although extremely young, was a leader in Assembly lawmaking. State Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, and Herrera, a Democrat, are also examples of young people leading the way.

So why the attacks on Herrera? The answer is simple. Two years ago, Adelson funded the election of Lance Malone to the County Commission. He had failed to control Commissioner Paul Christensen, so he paid to defeat him. He owns Malone, but it's a seven-person commission. He knows he can't run or own Williams and Kenny, so they have to go. Their defeat will get him within striking distance of running your business and mine in Clark County. Just to make certain, he not only can intimidate the remaining members, it gets even better for him to defeat Herrera. That will give him a 4-3 margin and he won't even have to be coy about what he demands from the County Commission for years to come.

Next Tuesday, the voters will determine if they or Sheldon Adelson have the most influence with the Clark County Commission.

* After a close evaluation of all Clark County campaign advertising there is little doubt that some of the most outrageous has been against Williams, Kenny and Herrera. Adelson's big money has made this possible.

When fighting back, Kenny last week fired off an expensive campaign piece that outdid anything we have ever seen in a local campaign. It was paid for by the Police Protective Association and was enough to make a person either become extremely angry or throw up.

Very simply, it attempted to tie Kenny's opponent, Trooper Steve Harney, to the pain of a physically mutilated fellow trooper, Ken Gager. It was distasteful to say the least and was very misleading.

In a rapidly deteriorating political climate, this ad has to be awarded the Scumbag Award for 1998.