Nevada campaigns end with spending flurry

Saturday, Dec. 16, 2000 | 9:58 a.m.

The harried last days of campaigning for House candidates Shelley Berkley and Jon Porter and Senate candidates Ed Bernstein and John Ensign were marked by a wild series of "media buys."

"It's critical for candidates to have fund-raising in place in the 11th hour, especially in order to respond to whatever their opponent is saying about them," said Sheila Krumholz, research director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign money watchdog. "It's not uncommon for candidates to raise campaign money right up until the end, and also stockpile it."

According to Federal Election Commission reports, here's how much the candidates raised and spent between Oct. 19 and Nov. 27 - most of it immediately prior to the Nov. 7 election:

Republican Ensign raised nearly $366,000 and spent nearly $482,000. His spending total hit nearly $4.2 million.

Democrat Bernstein raised nearly $128,000 and spent nearly $234,000. He spent nearly $2.4 million total.

Democrat Berkley raised nearly $99,000 and spent $283,000. She spent a total of $1.8 million in her campaign.

Republican Porter raised nearly $14,000 and spent nearly $243,000. His total spending was nearly $1.3 million.

Among the expenses listed on FEC reports for the four Nevada candidates: copiers, coffee mugs, candy, catering, printing, postage, parking, pizza, flights, flowers, hotels, hardware for signs, shipping, staff salaries, taxes on salaries, travel, T-shirts and telephones.

But mostly candidates buy advertising.

Ensign wrote the single largest check of the election season: $234,501 to Las Vegas-based public relations company FFE Associates on Oct. 25.

Ensign spent a total of $2.5 million on television commercials during the course of his campaign.

"Obviously, you spend 75 percent of your media budget in the last four weeks of a campaign," said Ensign strategist Pete Ernaut, a partner in FFE. "You either budget well and have enough left to do that, or you're scrambling."

Bernstein paid Washington-area based Media Strategies Research $198,000 between Oct. 20 and Oct. 27.

Porter paid Las Vegas-based DRGM Advertising $145,000 between Oct. 23 and Oct. 30, mostly for television and radio ads.

Berkley in the final days of the campaign wrote checks for $57,496 for direct mailings; $33,625 for polling; $35,000 for other ads; and $25,000 for a voter contact program.

Berkley pointed out that the FEC reports don't include money spent by outside interest groups, a few of which paid for commercials that were critical of her. And she repeated calls for campaign finance reform.

"The money that came in from out-of-state in the last three weeks (of the campaign) was disgraceful," Berkley said. "There are no rules dictating how these special interest groups spend their money or what they say in these ads. I don't think the American public is going to stand for much more."