Maxfield slings some mud back at Tarkanian

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Changing the tone of a subdued Clark County Commission race, Chip Maxfield plunged into the spirit of Halloween this week by pulling skeletons out of opponent Lois Tarkanian's closet.

With less than a week remaining before Election Day and the most recent polls showing Maxfield behind Tarkanian by 5 percentage points, Maxfield has intensified his campaign both offensively and defensively.

Maxfield's attorneys sent letters to television and radio stations asking them to pull a Tarkanian advertisement that claims her Republican opponent only has two major endorsements.

"She knowingly produced an ad that's wrong," said Dan Hart, Maxfield's campaign manager. "When you go in and do ads, sometimes you tilt the truth toward your candidate. There's no tilting with this one; it's an outright lie."

Hart said the 15-second ads that refer to the "embarrassing secrets of Lois Tarkanian" were made after Tarkanian stretched the truth about Maxfield's relationships with area developers and misrepresented his endorsements.

"She has embarked upon character assassination," Hart said. "The fact is people need to know about Lois Tarkanian and her background."

The series of advertisements addresses a controversial land deal in 1990 that involved more than a dozen investors, including Tarkanian's husband, former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.

Another commercial brings up a lawsuit filed against Tarkanian, a longtime Clark County School Board member, by the Association of School Administrators three years ago. The suit, which was settled out of court, alleged Tarkanian used her position to influence promotions and transfers of administrators.

Steve Forsythe, Tarkanian's campaign manager, balked at Hart's claims that Maxfield's camp launched a negative campaign in response to Tarkanian's ads. He said the endorsement ad and Maxfield's commercial came out the same day.

Forsythe said he still believes Maxfield has only two major endorsements, including one from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. But he said he is willing to redo the ad that boasts Tarkanian's 25 major endorsements and leave out the number Maxfield has received.

Forsythe said Tarkanian's camp is simply pointing out that Maxfield has lobbied for developers, not attacking his integrity. Tarkanian and Forsythe also are upset that Maxfield dug up a decade-old controversy that did not involve Lois Tarkanian.

"Here's a guy just last week saying, 'Poor me, I'm being attacked,' " Forsythe said. "Then he levels this frontal assault on Lois and hiding behind this story that we went negative first.

"We made a legitimate point," he said."