Assemblyman explains checks drawn from campaign account

Kirsten Searer

Wednesday, March 17, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Assemblyman Chad Christensen said he will respond today to a complaint that he abused about $17,000 in campaign funds.

Christensen, R-Las Vegas, said he has worked with a CPA firm to prove that he was reimbursing himself for loans to his campaign when he cut himself 12 checks last year.

He said he has the funds "detailed down to a gnat's butt."

"These were legitimate reimbursements," Christensen said. "Money that I had paid into the campaign and that I paid back."

One of Christensen's constituents filed a complaint with the secretary of state's office on Feb. 12 asking for more clarification into Christensen's campaign finance report, which was filed in January.

On March 2, Secretary of State Dean Heller gave Christensen until until today to respond to the complaint.

In the finance report, Christensen lists the checks he wrote himself for amounts ranging from $393.76 to $5,000. He wrote the first check on Jan. 9, 2003, and the last on Dec. 17, 2003, according to the report.

Most of the checks came after last year's legislative session, starting on Aug. 14, when Christensen wrote himself a check for $3,000.

Aug. 14 was the same day Christensen filed his articles of incorporation for his new business, Christensen and Co.

While Christensen said that media reports have implied he might have been using campaign funds to kick-start his new business, he said the timing was coincidental.

He started reimbursing himself on Aug. 14, he said, because it was soon after the legislative session ended and he was able to cut checks from his campaign.

"I couldn't reimburse myself until about that time anyway," he said. "You have to wait until two weeks after the close of a special session."

And he said he had been operating Christensen and Co., a firm that consults sales businesses, for more than a year when he filed for incorporation.

He said he chose to file for incorporation on Aug. 14 because it was his parents' anniversary -- a date he could remember.

"Whenever you have a company and you're filling out paperwork, the date of incorporation is like a date of birth," he said.

"That's just the way I chose to do it. I waited to incorporate the business until I got around to it."

He said he is renting an office for his campaign next to the new office for Christensen and Co. because he got a good deal on rent. The office is not in his district, he said, but he is paying about "one-third" of what he might pay for an office in his district.

"Just because it's a friend's office space, he gave it to me at cost," Christensen said. "How could I say no to that? I honestly thought people would say, 'Great. He's being sensitive to go ahead and save some money.' "

Previously, Christensen said, he has operated his campaign out of his home. But he said he is facing a tough challenge this election from Democrat Justin Jones and he wanted a more centralized spot.

"With a tough campaign ahead, I've got more people working with me," he said. "We felt like it was something that hurt us the last time not having a place where we could meet and call home and organize."

Christensen admitted that the finance report did not sufficiently detail the money he reimbursed himself. He said he typically has a CPA complete the campaign finance forms, but he was busy in December raising money and had a campaign worker do it instead.

"He's never done one before," Christensen said. "He did his best, but he made mistakes."

The secretary of state's office has three options after reviewing Christensen's response: To ask for more information, to drop the issue, or to refer the issue to either the Nevada Department of Investigations or the attorney general's office.