Guinn recall group refuses to file financial forms with state

Friday, Oct. 24, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The leader of the drive to recall Gov. Kenny Guinn says his committee will not disclose its list of contributors for fear of retaliation by casinos.

Tony Dane, who heads the recall effort, said today "we've decided not to file our report" of campaign expenses and contributions with the secretary of state's office.

That would be a violation of state law, Chief Deputy Secretary of State Renee Parker said. The campaign finance disclosure law requires the recall committee to submit a list of contributors and expenses after the recall petition is submitted.

If the recall committee fails to provide this information, it could face civil fines, said Parker.

To qualify for an election, the recall effort must gather 128,000 signatures of registered voters before Nov. 25.

Christopher Hansen, one of the leaders in the movement, said Thursday, "I don't believe we can make it in the time left because of what the government did." He was referring to his fights to gain access to government buildings to set up desks to gather signatures.

But Dane said today it "looks promising" there will be enough signatures to force a recall election of Guinn. He wouldn't say how many signatures the effort has collected to date. He said he hopes to have a count by the end of next week.

The petitions have been placed in boxes according to counties, and the verification of the signatures, to make sure they are registered voters, started Thursday, he said.

Dane also disputed the statement of Sandy Harmon, who resigned as spokesman for the recall. Harmon said he resigned because "the leadership sucks."

He said there were differences of opinion with Harmon but added, "Sandy's a good guy."

Harmon complained he could not get any information from Dane and others about the drive.

The reason for keeping the names of contributors confidential, Dane said is because of the "Budweiser thing." He was referring to the decision by Harrah's Entertainment Co. at Lake Tahoe to stop buying Budweiser from Capital Distributing Co. after the owner of that business, Kurt Brown, disagreed with the casino over a tax bill in the Legislature.

Dane said "Several of our people who want to contribute do business with casinos." He said they are afraid if they do anything to help the recall petition, they will lose their contracts.