Clark County gives more than its share to Washoe candidates

Monday, May 17, 1999 | 7:35 a.m.

The 13 lawmakers from Washoe County got 43 percent, or $544,159, of their contributions $100 and larger from people living within Washoe County, according to a review by the Reno Gazette-Journal.

About 31 percent, or $396,426, came from Clark County.

Four lawmakers got more money from Clark than Washoe County last year - state Sens. Randolph Townsend and Lawrence Jacobsen, and Assembly members Sheila Leslie and Bernie Anderson, the newspaper said.

The health care industry was the biggest overall contributor to the 13 lawmakers elected in Washoe County last year. It contributed more than $100,000 of the overall $1.27 million reported in 1998.

Southern legislators take in far less from Washoe County contributors.

For example, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, first elected in 1990, received $16,466 or 21 percent of her 1998 contributions from Washoe County. But if the teacher's support from the Nevada State Education Association in Reno is discounted, her Washoe support drops by $7,236 to 12 percent.

Erik Herzik, associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno, said southern Nevadans could become the biggest donors to Washoe County's state races in another two years.

That's partly because campaign money can have more influence in the north than in the more populated south due to the fact each individual voter has more impact.

"It's easier to use money in Washoe to have impact on races," Herzik said. "It costs less. If I throw $50,000 to Washoe races, I'm a major player. If I spend $50,000 in Clark County, I'm rabble at the bar."

One striking example in the difference in north-south giving is the chambers of commerce.

The Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce donated $2,750 in 1998 to the winners in the 13 campaigns in Washoe while the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce donated $13,000 to the same candidates - more than four times as much.