Stupak says he was unaware of district attorney’s probe

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

Nevada Stupak, a candidate for the open Ward 2 Las Vegas City Council seat, said Tuesday he had no idea the district attorney's office investigated allegations of voter registration fraud levied against his unsuccessful 2002 campaign for the Clark County Commission.

Stupak said he was never contacted by the district attorney's office during its investigation, which was conducted from August to December 2002, and no charges were brought against him, the son of former casino owner Bob Stupak.

"I was quite surprised by the (newspaper) articles (Monday) that reported that an investigation was conducted in reference to my campaign," said Stupak, one of a dozen candidates for a June 22 special election to replace Lynette Boggs McDonald, who left in April to serve on the Clark County Commission.

"Like everyone else, I had many people volunteer to go around to places like gyms and supermarkets to register people to vote." The fact that no charges were levied "speaks for itself," he said.

The investigation began after the Election Department received a stack of suspicious voter registration forms that had numbers corresponding to forms issued to a group that claimed to be acting on behalf of the Stupak campaign.

Deputy District Attorney Mary Miller said that while there were suspicions that someone was trying to register voters with fictitious names or at fake addresses, there was not enough solid evidence to bring a case to court.

Investigators found evidence that homeless people were paid to register to vote, got limousine rides to the polls and that out-of-state dancers signed blank forms they thought were petitions against underage dancing, prosecutors said.

Stupak denied he engaged in such practices. "I never paid anyone to register" to vote," he said.

In that 2002 Democratic primary County Commissioner Myrna Williams defeated Stupak.

Stupak had previously lost a bid for the Las Vegas City Council against Gary Reese in 1999. His father earlier ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Las Vegas as well as for the County Commission.