McDonald camp files election complaints

Judy Odierna

Monday, April 28, 2003 | 9:39 a.m.

Allegations of deception, illegal mailings and under-reporting of expenditures have been filed with the secretary of state's office against two challengers to incumbent Michael McDonald in the city's Ward 1 council race.

Jim Ferrence, McDonald's campaign manager, said Janet Moncrief, who outpolled McDonald in the April 8 primary and will face him in the June 3 general election, helped fellow candidate Peter "Chris" Christoff and others send out campaign mailers that smeared McDonald's name.

The most damaging flier, McDonald's camp said, arrived at homes the day before the election. It was supposedly from Republicans for Good Government, a political action committee that McDonald's camp said does not exist. The flier was designed to look like it came from the McDonald campaign and suggested he was against unions.

Ferrence said the money needed to print and mail the fliers -- Christoff put out three and Moncrief at least six, he said -- was unaccounted for in campaign contribution and expenditure reports released on April 1.

Ferrence asked that a full investigation be opened.

"What we hope to have happen is it will be referred to someone with subpoena powers (who can get information from mail printers)," Ferrence said. "(Moncrief and Christoff) were so deceitful and spent so much time planning to be deceitful that it's impossible for someone without subpoena power to get to the bottom of this conspiracy."

Moncrief said in a written response that the allegations are an act of desperation from the McDonald camp.

"I have no knowledge of any allegations including phone banks, mailing or any other items referred to by my opponent's campaign manager," Moncrief wrote. "And, every dollar I received, I reported."

In the April 1 reports, Moncrief reported that she received a little over $12,000 in contributions, with $3,800 of that loaned to herself and $5,000 coming from the Trinidad Surgery Center, with which she is affiliated. Moncrief reported that she spent $11,760 of that and had about $677 left. Her report shows $7,027 spent at Signature Printing and $4,733 spent at Competitive Edge in San Diego.

Christoff reported loaning himself $5,000 and spending $4,160. He spent $249 at Kinko's and another $3,910 on postage.

Ferrence's complaint suggests that those mailers were sent to at least 17,000 of the 22,000 voters in the district, totaling 187,000 pieces of mail. Ferrence said that if each piece cost 10 cents to print and 23 cents to mail, the total for the mail alone would be at least $61,710.

Ferrence said Moncrief, who has said she used a grass-roots campaign to get her name out, also did not account for miscellaneous expenses, which are usually items such as staples, pens and water for campaign workers.

"It's almost like they bent over backwards to misreport," Ferrence said.

Christoff put out three anti-McDonald mailers including one under the name the Committee to Oust Michael McDonald. He said he knew he made a mistake by not using his name on that one and corrected the mistake on the remaining two. He denied any involvement in the one targeting unions.

Christoff said an additional $13,000 worth of bills were not reported because he did not receive them until after the first filing period has closed.

"I couldn't file it then because it was too late," he said. "I have the opportunity to put it in by May 27 (the second filing date.)"

The complaint also suggests that Christoff was helping Moncrief by using his name to send out the anti-McDonald mailers. An affidavit from Robert and Lillian Simpson alleged that Christoff approached them to start a phone bank for Moncrief. The affidavit said he knew he could not win against McDonald and that he would play the "bad guy" to give Moncrief a better chance to win.

The Simpson affidavit also said that Christoff would be getting $5,000 from Moncrief's manager to give to Simpson to run the phone bank. Christoff also allegedly told the couple that Peter Eliades, owner of adult clubs Olympic Gardens and Sapphires, would be giving $38,000 for flyers to be printed against McDonald.

Eliades could not be reached for comment.

Christoff said he never said any of the to the Simpsons.

"I never said it," Christoff said. "I would be glad at their expense to take a lie detector test. I didn't know the woman, period. I only met her three times."

Moncrief in her statement said she only met Christoff twice, the first time at an election debate, the second time on Sun columnist Jon Ralston's Face to Face program.

However, Christoff says he congratulated Moncrief after her win and pledged his support.

"I congratulated her after the primary three or four days later," he said. "I told her if you need any support or additional funding you let me know and I will take it out of my account to give to her. She didn't say yes or no. I pledged it to her. She didn't ask for it."

Christoff said many people have approached Moncrief about helping her after her win in the primary.

"All I know is a multi-multimillionaire approached her about moving billboards," Christoff said. "A lot of people, well-to-do community-minded people, have offered to help her."

Michael Bowers, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the complaint is a good strategic move for McDonald.

"McDonald's reputation is damaged with (his previous) ethics complaints so really the only thing he can do is to try to damage Moncrief but without appearing to go negative," Bowers said. "They've stumbled on a pretty good way to do that."

However, Bowers said it could also be a sign of fear.

"It suggests his camp is starting to worry," he said.