Harter says consultant jumped ship to Gregory

Judy Odierna

Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 | 9:58 a.m.

Judicial candidate Mathew Paul Harter said he was shocked to learn recently that political consultant Gary Gray was working on incumbent Toy Gregory's campaign in the race for the Las Vegas Municipal Judge Department 1 seat.

Shocked because Harter said he revealed key details of his pending campaign against Gregory to Gray before filing to run against Gregory. Denise McCurry is also running in the race.

"I disclosed to him how much money I intended to spend and my (strategy)," Harter said. "(Gray) knew Gregory could bring in the most money so he jumped ship."

But Gray says the two never spoke about Harter running against Gregory. They spoke only about the possibility of Harter running for the open Municipal Court seat in Department 6, Gray said.

"The entire discussion was about (Department) 6," Gray said. "It was always concentrated on that. I certainly was not obligated to him. He asked me if I would be interested and I said I didn't know and I would get back to him, and I never did."

Harter said running against Gregory was something he considered doing early in the process.

"The truth be told I was originally looking to run against Gregory at the end of last year," Harter said. "Then Department 6 opened up and we considered that. There are a lot of quality people in 6, so I went back to my original intent to try to make a change."

His decision was solidified after a meeting with Gray, Harter said.

"I sat down and told him those were my two choices," Harter said. "He never said it word for word but basically it was implied that (I) would be a fool to run in 6 against (favorite Abbi Silver)."

Gray was the campaign consultant for District Judge Jackie Glass last year in her race against incumbent Jeffrey Sobel. In a contentious race marked by negative ads, Glass defeated Sobel, who had served in the seat for more than a decade.

Glass was the only challenger to defeat an incumbent in the election.

Gregory said Gray told him he had met with Harter before he was hired by Gregory.

"He didn't tell me he convinced him to run for (Department) 1," Gregory said. "At the time he didn't represent me so if he did say it I can understand him making that statement."

McCurry also considered going for the Department 6 seat vacated by Jessie Walsh in November after Walsh was elected to District Court.

But that race quickly filled up. In the end there were seven candidates running for the seat, including Silver, a chief deputy district attorney who ran unsuccessfully for district attorney last year.

McCurry, along with Harter, ultimately opted to file for Department 1.