Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Political notebook: Ensign’s help has a Silver lining

Abbi Silver might mine some last-minute gold from a political appointment she just happened to hear about this week.

Silver, a chief deputy district attorney locked in a noisy Republican primary for DA, was appointed to Attorney General John Ashcroft's Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women.

Sen. John Ensign, who has already endorsed Silver and given her $5,000, announced the appointment in a press release dated Tuesday and sent out Thursday.

Ensign's release said he had recommended Silver in the spring.

The committee, which will have 20 members nationwide, will meet in Washington to provide policy advice about the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act.

The charter for the committee was drafted last Nov. 2 by Ashcroft.

Taking the Fifth

Seven Independent American Party candidates dutifully marched into the Clark County Elections Department on Wednesday, a day late and several forms short of fulfilling the state-mandated campaign contributions and expense reporting requirements.

A photocopy of the form has gigantic bold type over it saying: "I do hereby claim my rights against self-incrimination and must therefore decline to fill out this form and/or sign it under penalties of perjury."

By invoking the Fifth Amendment, these Independent Americans maintain they are unable to report their political activity because they cannot verify that the secretary of state's forms are true and correct.

"I cannot, at this point in time even determine if the form refers to gold and/or silver or Federal Reserve notes as the State of Nevada can ONLY constitutionally make gold and silver as tender in payment of debt," read an attached letter to Secretary of State Dean Heller.

The letter also references Heller's suit against party member Joshua Hansen for failing to file forms.

Identical protests were filed by candidates Patricia Saye, Anna Kjorvestad, Jesse Harris, Nicholas Hansen, Justin Ramsaier, Joshua Hansen, Boyd Ballard and Dawn Pizzorno Hansen, and dated "August 27th, in the year of our Lord 2002."

The latest voter registration totals in Nevada show the Independent American Party is the third largest, with 14,518 voters. The party is a conservative group that promotes Christian values, protecting the right to bear arms, state's rights, changing the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, taking back federal lands and getting the United States out of the United Nations.

Some newcomers to Nevada mistakenly select the party hoping to register Independent, and later amend their registration to nonpartisan (115,639 strong) when they get their first whiff of the IAP.

Gephardt on sports

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt had sports on his mind Thursday when he landed in Las Vegas to shore up support for one of the congressional races that might have a say in whether he is the next speaker of the House.

He bemoaned a possible baseball strike because his beloved St. Louis Cardinals "could win the World Series this year." Gephardt, who represents St. Louis, could help pay his 94-year-old mother's $700-a-month prescription bill by putting his money behind that hope. The Cards are 12-1 to win it all, according to Vegas Insider.

Gephardt's considering a bigger gamble, though -- with an eye still partly on the 2004 presidential race.

So, when will he decide?

"I like to use this analogy," he said after a campaign event with Dario Herrera. "I'm Kurt Warner on the 1-yard line, and I better think about getting in the end zone before the next game."

Perhaps that touchdown would make Herrera a St. Louis Rams fan.

What would PETA think?

The Green Valley Republican Club must be worried about Sandra Tiffany's primary with former Assemblyman Bob Wong, who has been pounding the pavement of late.

A letter sent this week by club President Kathy Kidd alleges Wong condones eating cats and dogs because of his opposition in 1991 to a Senate bill banning the buying, selling or killing for human consumption of domesticated dogs or cats.

"It is not considered unpopular in my father's country of origin to consume a special breed of dog," Wong said in 1991, according to a quote from the Nevada State Assembly Official Journal reprinted in the letter. "I believe this bill is racist."

Kidd, who calls herself a cat owner, said she thinks it's "repugnant" that Wong "thinks it's OK to buy, sell or kill our pets for human consumption."

She also writes that Wong's views "on eating dogs and cats are an embarrassment to Republicans."

That's not at all what the Asian-American candidate for Senate District 5 was saying about his father from mainland China.

"If anybody watches the Animal Planet, (they saw that) in China they raised chow dogs to eat," Bob Wong's wife, Carol, said. "Where do you think we got the word chow?"

Carol Wong then defended her and her husband's animal loving nature by citing each pet the family has owned and how long it has lived.

"Our cat died at 21 years and 11 months," Carol Wong said. "Our current dog is just short of 9."

Bob Wong said the letter indicates Tiffany is "desperate."

He voted against the bill in question, Wong said, because one of the provisions in trying to reform so-called puppy mills included specifications about the permitted size of a cage -- specifications Wong felt were too restrictive.

"Nobody loves animals more than I do," Wong said. "I just spent $4,000 on a surgery for my Corgi."

Crazy 8s

District 37 Assembly candidate Earlene Forsythe has raised more than $200,000 for the race, but one of her Republican primary opponents has pulled in $4,272, eight dollars at a time.

Gary Horrocks, a biker who organizes motorcycle events year-round, invited his friends to two separate "poker runs." For $8, a biker would get directions to several spots around town.

Once at the spot, the biker would draw a card and continue collecting cards until he or she had a poker hand. The high hand won a prize and Horrocks got the entry fees as a fund-raiser.

"I figured everybody could afford eight dollars," Horrocks said.

Two poker runs brought in 217 and 317 bikers respectively.

If Horrocks wins the primary, he's going to organize a punch party, at which bikers with absentee ballots "discuss the candidates" and "punch" their choices.

Whither Roy?

Siegfried Fischbacher dropped $2,500 into the Clark County sheriff's race for Bill Young, as first reported in the Sun on Thursday.

But Roy Uwe Horn wasn't pulling a disappearing act.

A closer check of Young's report did reveal $2,500 from the darker-haired illusionist.

No sign of support from Lance Burton.

More entertainer influence

Frank Sullivan has been presiding over domestic violence cases for three years and is chairman of the Foster Care Review Board.

You'd think those credentials would be enough for voters to consider in his bid for Family Court's Department L seat.

But Sullivan apparently thought he needed to unleash Engelbert Humperdinck, and didn't even wait until after the loving, er, primary.

The problem with Sullivan's grip-and-grin photo is that nobody who saw it could recognize the entertainer.

"Is he someone famous?" one colleague asked.

For the record

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