AG gets campaign money question

Tuesday, March 19, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.

Secretary of State Dean Heller has forwarded a campaign fund report question involving Las Vegas Councilman Michael McDonald to the attorney general's office for an opinion.

Las Vegas resident Robert Rose asked the secretary of state's office whether McDonald properly used campaign funds to pay legal fees stemming from an ethics case and criminal investigation last year.

In a letter dated last Thursday, Heller asks Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa whether a state law prohibiting personal use of campaign funds applies to legal expenses.

Heller asks whether the use of campaign funds to defend an ethics case related to the public office before the city and state ethics commissions constitutes a personal use of the funds as defined by Nevada Revised Statutes.

Heller also asks Del Papa for an opinion on how the Legislature contemplated the definition of personal funds when passing that section of law.

Rose on Monday received a copy of the letter signed by both Heller and Deputy Secretary of State Susan Morandi.

He said he was troubled that two months had passed from the time he requested an opinion.

According to campaign disclosure forms filed Jan. 15 at the city, McDonald spent $23,319 to pay the law offices of Wright, Judd and Winckler.

After news reports about McDonald's use of campaign funds to pay his lawyer, Clark County Counsel Mary-Anne Miller wrote a letter to county commissioners stating that such a use is allowable.

McDonald said he used the money to pay his attorney because the legal expense incurred was related to his office and that both his attorney, Richard Wright, and the city attorney's office instructed him that he could do so.