Columnist Jeff German: Del Papa leaves mess for Heller, Sandoval

Tuesday, March 11, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

There has never been any love lost between Secretary of State Dean Heller and former Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.

Though Del Papa no longer is in office, she still gets under Heller's skin.

On Monday the Republican Heller accused Del Papa, a longtime Democrat, of dropping the ball in failing to file lawsuits against 15 candidates who missed campaign reporting deadlines in 2000.

The allegation is sure to heighten a rift between Heller and Del Papa, but more importantly it will have repercussions on how Heller and the attorney general's office hold candidates accountable for not filing timely campaign expense reports.

Heller learned from Del Papa's Republican successor, Brian Sandoval, that a two-year statute of limitations for filing the suits passed in January, which means the AG's office no longer can go to court to seek fines up to $15,000 against the 15 errant politicians.

While the 15 are allowed to duck the law, the attorney general is proceeding with suits Del Papa filed against 18 other violators in 2000. Another 27 offenders voluntarily have paid fines or are making payments.

So you can see the legal dilemma now facing Heller and Sandoval.

How long will it take for the candidates under scrutiny to question why some offenders were targeted and others weren't?

Among those being sued are Independent American Party candidates Jonathan and Joshua Hansen, who have sought publicity for defying the campaign reporting laws. Have they been given more ammunition in their quest? And what about Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, a regular offender in recent years? Is he wondering why he paid a $6,800 fine while others skated?

Sandoval promised to put checks and balances in place to make sure that future cases aren't mishandled.

But that won't help him explain why his predecessor followed a policy of selective enforcement in 2000.

To Heller this is either an example of negligence or political favoritism under Del Papa's watch.

Given his stormy relationship with Del Papa, favoritism is what Heller would like to believe happened here.

Last October Heller made a strong case that Del Papa played politics with his investigation into the campaign contributions of a Democratic candidate for attorney general. He documented that a Del Papa deputy was pressured into giving him legal advice to back off the probe.

But in this instance, Heller offers little evidence that Del Papa was playing politics.

Frankly, it looks as though the 15 campaign reporting cases just fell through the cracks. Eight of the violators are Democrats, six are Republicans and one is a member of the Independent American Party.

Even if this is simple negligence, it still could create big problems for Heller and Sandoval in their future efforts to enforce campaign reporting laws with an even hand.

It's too bad others have to clean up Del Papa's mess.