Columnist Jon Ralston: Standing behind the Malone mailer

Sunday, April 23, 2000 | 9:16 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

This one didn't require Sherlock Holmes.

This is one where a detective struck deaf, dumb and blind could have solved the nonmystery. This is one where the "victim" knew who done him "wrong" and was happy to metamorphose from the shamed politician into a victimized innocent. This is the whodunit where anyone who has watched since the beginning already knew who, and was just wondering when ... when the official disclosure would be made.

That answer came Friday as Station Casinos and one of its consultants, Tom Skancke, divulged through a couple of statements that the company had indeed been behind that mail piece -- despite earlier denials -- designed to inhibit Lance Malone from securing a second term on the Clark County Commission. Sources say that Skancke also rounded up contributions from Howard Hughes Corp. and the Fiesta to pay for the mailer.

The piece has spawned a lawsuit by the commissioner because the flier did not contain any identification of who sent it, as required by a constitutionally questionable state law. And the brouhaha also has metastasized into an FBI probe of how far Station Casinos was willing to go.

Station's involvement was manifest from the moment a citizens' group sprang up in Spring Valley after Malone voted to approve a casino in the environs. The band of protesters suddenly had the money to buy newspaper ads eviscerating Malone, and the source of their funding was obvious.

But the announcement in a news release Friday -- one which will be somewhat lost in a holiday weekend -- was not about unraveling a mystery. And it was no apologia, either -- it was more of an offensive to acknowledge what was about to be discovered by those looking into the mailer's genesis and also to make the company's position clear.

That position -- that they have free speech rights that trump the state law and that Malone is a bad guy -- was clear in the release, which said "companies and individuals must have the right to trust and rely on the word of an elected official."

Skancke put out a separate release, which he apparently was able to write despite the wounds he sustained from falling on his sword for his client. It fairly brims with disgust and outrage: "I have watched the commissioner, through his attorneys, attempt to intimidate my friends, associates, clients and citizens of Clark County. I believe he deliberately sought to stop his political critics from speaking out against his voting record." Skancke used phrases such as "fear of retribution" and "tremendous power of an incumbent county commissioner" to portray Malone as an intimidating bully.

So the message of the two interconnected releases is this: "We pointed out Malone's flip-flop. We were afraid of him wreaking revenge on us so we did it anonymously. And we will not be cowed by him." Quite a spinning turnaround.

There was another reason, too, for trying to sate the media feeding frenzy. If Station shows good faith in making this admission, perhaps the feds will decide that related charges of Station trying to intimidate Malone are not serious enough to pursue.

The electoral impact of this ongoing saga, though, is an open question. For a time Malone can continue to be Lance of Ark, the noble and honest martyr to the cause of taking on those forces of evil, otherwise known as .... gaming. But that role casts Malone against type, and it is a part he cannot carry on for too long.

If Station weathers the federal probe, the company has sent a message to Malone with this declaration: We have not yet begun to fight. And it doesn't take Holmesian logic to figure what that means for Campaign '00.