Friday, Aug. 1, 2003 | 9:15 a.m.
Most political eyes are looking ahead to the 2004 elections and have long ago shelved any lasting memories of the balloting last year.
Well, it seems state investigators have the same approach when it comes to allegations of campaign finance impropriety by unsuccessful Democratic attorney general candidate John Hunt in 2002.
Although the complaint was filed last October as the election cycle wound into the homestretch, it wasn't until late this spring that the Secretary of State's office finally turned the probe over to the Nevada Division of Investigations (NDI), which is the investigative branch of the Department of Public Safety.
Now, the Secretary of State's office says the NDI is the one stalling a final answer.
"A month ago when we checked, NDI said they had no manpower to look into the issue," said Steve George, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office. "We were under the assumption that it was being done all this time."
NDI officials did not respond to e-mail or phone requests for information, but George said they are now officially looking into the allegations.
The initial probe was requested by Republican consultant Pete Ernaut on behalf of then-GOP attorney general candidate Brian Sandoval. Sandoval's campaign said $158,500 of Hunt's donations came from Vestin Group, its founder, Mike Shustek, and company employees, and asked whether the company granted raises or bonuses to cover the employees' contributions.
The allegation was that employees were donating to Hunt as a means for Shustek to skirt contribution limits.
Hunt and Shustek have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claim the investigation was a political tool to hurt Hunt in the election, which Sandoval won handily.
The secretary of state's office was initially stymied in completing its investigation because seven of the donors were not responding to requests for information. Another 33 donors, including Shustek, told the secretary of state's office they had done nothing illegal.
Now it's up to NDI to sort it out, and maybe by next year's elections, tell us what they found.
Reform on the way
After spending a year on a national mental health care commission, state Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, says Nevada can learn a lot from some of the national findings.
Townsend was one of 22 appointees to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, a group that issued its final report last month.
"The system is in shambles," Townsend said. "We need to focus on how to track people through the system and keep them from becoming lost."
The commission's report will spur a six-member Nevada legislative committee to spend the next the six months looking at ways to implement some of the findings.
Townsend said some reforms are already under way as Clark County has been given legislative authorization to establish a mental health court and money to build a 150-bed mental health hospital.
"That hospital will be like my friends who opened the Lexus dealership in Las Vegas," Townsend said. "The day it opens, it will be out of parking spaces."
Townsend also said some of his fellow Republican lawmakers who wanted to cut spending on the hospital were misguided.
"We've seen the success with our investment in a hospital and mental health court in Washoe County," Townsend said. "To not support the same basic services in the population center of the state would be criminal."
The legislative committee is expected to start meeting in a few weeks with three assembly members and three senators. Committee members have not yet been appointed.
"This can't be a top-down approach but has to be something that works from the ground up," Townsend said.
The Nevada Tax Commission
will talk about the state's new taxes and regulations Monday, Aug. 4 at 8:30 a.m. in Reno. You can watch the meeting via video conference at the UNLV Corporate Extension Learning Center, 2590 Lindell Road, Rooms B and C.
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