Columnist Jon Ralston: McDonald case more overblown than unusual

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 9:25 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 through e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

The first casualty of any media frenzy is perspective. All of us Fourth Estaters do it. As we froth and hurl superlatives, we lose sight of the larger context.

The case of Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald is illustrative. I come not to exculpate Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, who has made significant contributions to his current predicament that has resulted in a full-blown Ethics Commission hearing next month. But just because he has chosen to wear his special interest jersey -- in this case, that of Republic Silver State Disposal -- on the outside rather than trying to conceal it with his councilman's uniform, does he deserve to be the new poster boy for ethical transgressions?

There are two issues here. One relates to the specifics of this case, which are much less damning (relatively speaking) than other controversies involving ethics. And the other is the much more global issue of where McDonald's cozy relationships with Silver State officials reside in a political system that is one large bedroom where the politicians are constantly lying down with (and perhaps for) those who serially supplicate for their votes.

McDonald stands accused of failing to disclose his friendships with Silver State executives and misleading them about his relationship with Jennifer Simich, a low-level company employee. (In the spirit of this column on full disclosure, Simich once worked for me.)

Yes, McDonald is friendly with Steve Kalish and Bob Groesbeck, two senior Silver State types. He has even been seen quaffing a few with them on occasion. Fine.

First, does anyone think that McDonald's relationships with these guys are extraordinary? This is de rigueur in Nevada politics, folks. Lobbyists who come before local government boards also raise money for the politicians, often from clients who will then seek favors from them.

The practice is even more incestuous in Carson City, where lobbyists who have raised money from clients for lawmakers' campaigns then follow them to the state capital, where they look for a return on their investment.

Lobbyists, especially those for the gaming industry, serve as confidants for legislative leaders, strategize with them during campaigns and occasionally help pick committee chairmen. And we are now supposed to be exorcised because McDonald too openly struts around with his Silver State pals?

The issue of Simich is a red herring. But what has plunked McDonald into real jeopardy with the ethics panel is a letter in which his lawyer -- who copied McDonald on the missive -- makes the risible claim that they (conveniently enough) were not dating at the time of the vote. If McDonald lied through his attorney, whether or not he ever saw the letter, he deserves to be smacked. But how hard?

County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, the reigning queen of ethical transgressions, dissembled about her business solicitations to Strip bosses and then about her relationships to proposed airport concessionaires -- and she is a heavy favorite for re-election this year. And we are supposed to be apoplectic because McDonald was dumb enough to try to fudge his relationship with a girlfriend who is not even a political player?

All of this is complicated by Gov. Kenny Guinn and the Gang of 63 gutting the ethics panel's ability to consider anything beyond employee or family relationships. The new commission tried to open the door again in a recent decision, but they are hamstrung by the law, and it's unclear how far they can go. Or should go.

If the new baseline is McDonald's relationships with the Silver Staters, though, then I know a few other politicians who had better start lengthening their disclosure speeches. That might be a salutary development for the body politic -- disclose if you must but vote if you should. Otherwise, the panel will give politicians a license to abstain -- and the fortuitous duck has become all too common and deceitful these days in Southern Nevada local government. The lack of outrage about that abdication of responsibility on high-profile issues is much more of a justification for a media frenzy than McDonald's demonstration of ineptitude as he plays the state sport of political incest.