Friday, Oct. 11, 2002 | 4:26 a.m.
Last week I reported that Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny, who is challenging Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, had taken $1,000 from the power company while airing an ad that claimed her opponent "takes thousands from Nevada Power."
Turns out that Hunt's thousands were actually a $2,000 contribution from the company, so there was a clear attempt to deceive. But then when I discovered Kenny had taken the $1,000 donation in February when she was feigning to run for re-election and already a couple of months after the utility had asked for that $922 million rate increase, the hypocrisy story was obvious. How could Kenny attack Hunt for taking the money when she had done the same? This was a classic case of exploiting an issue for political gain -- as other candidates have this year with the power company -- but being a flawed messenger to deliver the attack.
Then it got better. After printing the news last week, I was immediately contacted by an operative for the Kenny campaign who told me the commissioner had not taken the money. In fact, he told me, he could find no such donation from Sierra Pacific Resources, the utility's parent company. Then, shortly thereafter, he sent me a follow-up e-mail asking for a correction. In the e-mail, he suggested perhaps I or someone else had been confused by an entry on Kenny's contribution report that said, "Sahara Pacific Resources," not Sierra Pacific Resources.
"Is it possible some older eyes misread that as Sierra Pacific Resources?" the operative asked in his wry missive. Perhaps, the intimation was, I had been too eager to criticize Kenny when it was I who had made a mistake.
Like any journalist, when confronted with an allegation that an error has been made, I was only too eager, red face and all, to correct it. But then I checked a little further.
Turns out that Sahara Pacific Resources has the same address, as it is listed on Kenny's disclosure form, as Nevada Power Company -- 6226 West Sahara Avenue. Isn't that interesting?
And it turns out that a check from Sierra Pacific Resources, with the same Feb. 26 date as the purported Sahara Pacific Resources check, was sent by the power company to Kenny and later cashed by her campaign. Now, I wondered, could this be more than hypocrisy? Could she actually be trying to conceal the contribution by putting a phony name on her report?
Hard to believe anyone would be that clumsy. So how could this happen?
Kenny said Friday she "never knew" she had the money from the utility. And when the campaign finally realized I was right, Kenny immediately sent the check back.
So whose fault was it?
"When the contribution was received, it was entered into the computer as Sahara probably because it was on Sahara Avenue," asserted Dan Geiger, Kenny's campaign accountant, who must have felt a little like a human shield. "We looked on it as a developer or something like that. It never dawned on us. It should have because of the address. It is my responsibility."
Yes, perhaps. And yet the check not only has "Sierra Pacific Resources" on it, but also, in larger, all-caps lettering: NEVADA POWER COMPANY. (Forget that Sahara and Pacific go together like desert and water and that you would think Kenny should know who her contributors are.)
"I take full responsibility for everything that happens in the campaign, but it was a clerical error," Kenny said. "This is a nine-month old mistake. Why in the world would we ever run an ad (knowing she had taken the money)?"
A very good question. Only if she didn't know or they were trying to hide it. Either way, her campaign no longer is tainted by the evil power company check that has now been sent back to Sierra on Sahara.
Pat Shalmy, the president of the financially strapped utility who had not received the returned check by early Friday afternoon, greeted the news with good humor. "We could use the cash," he chuckled.
No doubt. And Kenny, who doesn't need the thousand bucks with her near seven-figure war chest, surely didn't need this brouhaha as she tries to exploit the power issue to catch up to frontrunning Hunt.
When your best explanation for apparent hypocrisy and a campaign disclosure snafu is, "The accountant did it," it's time to change the subject.
Speaking of the power issue, Sierra Pacific Resources boss Walt Higgins and Southern Nevada Water Authority czar Pat Mulroy will debate the issue of public power this week. Finally, after all of these candidates and opportunists have been shamelessly demagoguing the issue on both sides, a chance for an hour-long to and fro between the two principals. Look for it on "Face to Face" on Wednesday.
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