Attorney general race takes another ugly turn

Erin Neff

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002 | 11:18 a.m.

The two main candidates for attorney general have already been going at it for weeks in debates and, more recently, in TV ads.

But one of John Hunt and Brian Sandoval's feuding points spilled over into a war of memos and political accusations between two of the state's constitutional officers of different parties.

Secretary of State Dean Heller accused the office of current Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa of playing political games with a complaint filed by Sandoval's campaign which alleges illegal contributions to Hunt's campaign.

Del Papa, a Democrat stepping down after 12 years in office, has endorsed Hunt -- and appeared in a television commercial -- for the Las Vegas attorney and fellow Democrat.

Last month Sandoval's campaign alleged Hunt had accepted illegal contributions as part of about $160,000 he got from Vestin Mortgage, its related entities and employees. Sandoval's campaign alleged that money from company executives, including chief executive Mike Shustek, was bundled through lower-level employees to skirt campaign limits on personal donations.

After Sandoval's campaign filed a complaint with Heller's office, Hunt's campaign sent a response, signed by a number of the 41 donors in question, claiming nothing illegal had taken place.

But Heller, a Republican, was not satisfied that the case was settled, and asked the attorney general's office for legal advice on how to proceed. Deputy Attorney General for Elections, Kateri Cavin, met with Heller and members of his staff several times since last week on the issue.

Cavin told Heller's staff that the letter from Hunt's contributors should have satisfied questions of wrongdoing.

And this is where the two offices depart on what happened next.

In an interview, Del Papa told the Sun that Heller did not take part in all of the discussions with her staff, and thus, he was not aware that her staff had been consistent in its advice.

Heller, in a memo back to Del Papa's office, argued that during two days of meetings Cavin had said that the letter from Hunt's campaign was not sufficient to close the Sandoval complaint.

But in an Oct. 4 memo to Heller, Cavin said the case should be closed without obtaining affidavits from the donors. She gave that advice citing past cases, including a complaint involving an anonymous flier sent during then-Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone's re-election bid. Affidavits were not required in that case, she said in the memo.

Heller's staff argues they did seek affidavits in the Malone case.

Heller, claiming Cavin had flip-flopped, essentially fired the attorney general's office on Wednesday and said he would proceed with an inquiry into Sandoval's complaint on his own.

"In view of Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa's public endorsement of John Hunt as the candidate to succeed her and your office's sudden, inexplicable and complete reversal of position on this matter, I do not feel it is appropriate for the Attorney General's office to direct how we conduct a preliminary inquiry into a potential violation of state law," Heller wrote in a memo, were leaked to the media before Heller left the office for the day.

Del Papa's office immediately fired off a return memo saying politics played no role in its advice.

"Our advice has been to follow the law and be consistent with past practices," an angry Del Papa told the Sun after the memos from her office and Heller's office -- which fall under attorney-client privilege -- were released to the media. "I don't believe we've given any inconsistent legal advice and we're not politically motivated."

Heller was unavailable late Wednesday or this morning for comment. He is expected -- in the next day or so -- to ask Hunt's Vestin-linked donors to submit additional information to his office to help decide whether to seek a full-blown investigation into the matter.

"There was a concern because of the change in advice," said Renee Parker, chief deputy secretary of state. "We felt we weren't getting independent advice and that we want to go it alone right now."

Pete Ernaut, a consultant with Sandoval's campaign, said Wednesday he had no independent knowledge of how the complaint was being handled, or of the spat between Heller's and Del Papa's offices.

"Once we turned it over to Heller, we stepped back and said it was up to the state to decide how to handle it," Ernaut said.

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