Reid is in red after $4.4 million campaign

Monday, Feb. 8, 1999 | 12:12 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- Sen. Harry Reid, who narrowly won re-election to a third term, ended up with a small debt after spending $4.4 million on his campaign in 1998.

A contribution and expense report filed last week show the Democrat, now Senate minority leader, raised $2.8 million during the year. That coupled with the money he had on hand at the beginning of 1997 left him about $20,000 in the red, according to Jenny Backus, his director of communications.

"We will continue fund-raising to pay off our debt" and to cover on-going expenses, Janice Miller, vice treasurer of finance for the Reid campaign in Las Vegas, said.

Bills are still coming in from the campaign, Backus said. Normally, she said, a fund-raising effort would have been started immediately after the election. But Rep. John Ensign requested a recount, which lasted more than a month.

"We had to raise money separately for the recount," Backus said.

Reid defeated Ensign 208,621 to 208,220, about $21.54 per vote for Reid. Ensign's report hasn't reached the secretary of state's office.

The Federal Election Commission raised questions about contributions made to Reid it said were over the limit. So Reid refunded $1,000 each to William Boyd and C. Dan Reichartz, both Las Vegas casino executives; William Pennington, a former Las Vegas casino owner, and his wife, Myriam, now of Reno; and Joseph Gagliardi of Santa Clara, Calif.

Of the total collected in 1998, $1.8 million came from individuals and $830,981 from political action committees.

Documents show a $125,000 loan made to the campaign by Reid was repaid.

The report, which covers the period from Nov. 24 to Dec. 31, said Reid got contributions of $5,000 from the National Automobile Association Dealers and the Silver State Voter Contact Program of Las Vegas; $2,500 from the certified public accountants' political action committee; $2,000 from the operating engineer's union; and $1,000 each from Phillip Morris and General Electric Corp.