High court justice wants change in campaign fund-raising rules

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1999 | 9:43 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Chief Justice Bob Rose is proposing a change in the rules of the Nevada Supreme Court to allow judges to get a bigger head start in financing their re-election campaigns.

A group of district judges and justices of the peace also wants the rules changed so they can become more involved in fund-raising to finance legal help for poor people in civil cases.

Those are two of the rule changes being proposed for consideration by the court at its Sept. 16 meeting.

Rose said Tuesday that politicians can retain any amount of unspent campaign funds to use in their next election. But judges with six-year terms can use only $30,000 of a surplus and "It can't be used for the next election," Rose said.

Judges and judicial candidates cannot start raising money until January of the election year, putting them behind other candidates. In his last re-election campaign, Rose said he started his efforts in January, and by that time many businesses or individuals had already committed their donations to other nonjudicial candidates.

"Judges running for office are at a distinct disadvantage to candidates seeking nonjudicial offices," Rose said.

He noted former Rep. John Ensign has already raised $1.2 million in his race for the Senate, which is more than one year away. Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa has collected more than $225,000 for the same campaign.

His petition, Rose said, will not change the rule that fund-raising for judicial offices can't begin until January. But it will give the incumbent the ability to retain $60,000 from his previous campaign and to spend it in the upcoming election.

The chief justice also wants to clarify the rules when a judge must be disqualified from a case because of campaign contributions.

The question is whether a judge must automatically disqualify himself if he received a campaign contribution from an attorney or a party in a case before him, or does he step down if there is a mere appearance of impropriety.

Rose is proposing a three-pronged rule. A judge would need to be disqualified if a contribution was greater than a "reasonable and appropriate" amount; if a donation was greater than a predetermined dollar amount set by the Supreme Court; or if the contribution was "greatly disproportionate to contributions made by a similar class of donors."

The chief justice said the contribution amount would vary from case to case.

Meanwhile a group of district judges and justices of the peace is battling it out with the state Judicial Discipline Commission on how far they can go in raising money for pro-bono civil cases for indigent clients.

The issue arose last year when some rural county district judges signed a letter to promote attendance at the Annual Cow County Ball to collect money for "Volunteer Attorneys for Rural Nevadans" who take on civil cases for poor people.

A complaint was filed with the Judicial Discipline Commission, citing Supreme Court rules barring judges from taking part in fund-raising activities. The discipline commission dismissed the complaint but warned each of the judges to look at the Supreme Court rules prohibiting that type of conduct.

About 20 judges signed a petition to the Supreme Court to clear up the rules to solicit money from lawyers in order to fulfill their volunteer goal of providing pro bono legal services.

Leonard Gang, executive director of the judicial discipline committee, filed a response opposing the judges' petition.

Gang said Nevada would be the first state to permit this activity that "all other states deem to be unethical."

"The commission cannot imagine a more egregious circumstance," Gang said. "It does not take a great imagination to envision the mischief that could occur whether purposely or inadvertently by judges personally soliciting a contribution from an attorney who has an important matter pending before the judge."

Clark County district judges who have signed the pro bono petition are Michael Douglas, Lee Gates, Donald Mosley, Valorie Vega and Family Court Judges Cynthia Dianne Steel, T. Arthur Ritchie, Robert Lueck and William Voy. Justices of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo and Stephen Dahl also signed.