Gaming Commission member serving as alternate delegate

Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

A member of the Nevada Gaming Commission is serving as an alternate delegate to this week's Republican National Convention in New York City, despite a state law barring members of the five-person panel from serving as members of political conventions.

Las Vegas lawyer and accountant Radha Chanderraj said Monday night that she didn't know of the prohibition. After talking with the state Gaming Commission Chairman Pete Bernhard, she said believes that because she is only an alternate, and not a delegate, her attendance doesn't violate state law.

"I'm an alternate delegate, so I didn't think I'd be violating any statutes," Chanderraj said by phone from Madison Square Garden Monday evening. "I intend to ask the attorney general's office whether my serving as an alternate violates the statute, and I will abide by whatever the AG's office says."

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval is also a delegate and in New York, but Chanderraj said today that she had not yet talked to him about the law, NRS 463.025.

"No (commission) member shall be: a member of any political convention or a member of any committee of any political party," the law written in 1959 notes.

The law does not spell out a penalty, but a previous section of the law notes that the governor can remove a commissioner for malfeasance or neglect of duty or with the consent a majority of the Legislative Commission.

Michael Hillerby, Gov. Kenny Guinn's chief of staff, said this morning that he did not know about the situation but would have the governor's legal adviser look into it.

Sandoval, a former Gaming Commission chairman, said this morning that he had heard about the issue but didn't want to comment because his office might become involved. He said he would have a staff member look into the situation.

The Nevada Gaming Commission is one of the state's two gaming regulatory bodies. While the full-time control board acts as the casino industry's policeman and tax collector and makes initial recommendations on licensing, the part-time commission makes final decisions on whether to grant gaming licenses and enact gaming regulations.

Commissioners earn $40,000 per year for their part-time duties, work that requires them to attend monthly meetings that take place, alternately, in Las Vegas and Carson City.

Chanderraj was appointed to the commission in 1999 by Guinn. Her current term ends in April 2006.

Chanderraj told the Sun last week that she wanted to attend the convention to learn how she can help President Bush's re-election effort.

"What can we do in the coming months? We need to do everything we can," she said before departing for New York for her first political convention. "I want to be able to come back with renewed energy."

She said that she would never have attended the convention if she thought she was breaking a state law, and she'll abide by Sandoval's guidance.

Bernhard declined to comment on Chanderraj's attendance at the convention, but said as of Monday evening no one had asked him whether her convention attendance violated state law.

Commission member Art Marshall said Chanderraj is a woman of integrity, and wouldn't knowingly violate the law.

"Knowing Radha, she's so careful, she must not have known about the law," Marshall said. "She's serious and smart. It must have been an oversight on her part."

Nevada Democratic Party spokesman Jon Summers declined to comment on Chanderraj's convention attendance, but noted that the commission regulates the state's biggest industry.

"In Nevada, where gaming is our number one industry, the credibility of the Nevada Gaming Commission is very important," Summers said.

Former Gaming Control Board Chairman Steve DuCharme said he was pretty sure Chanderraj's attendance violated state law, but also said he believed the violation wasn't intentional.

"I'm guessing it's an inadvertent mistake," DuCharme said Monday.