Tao attacks in telephone campaign

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.

Jerry Tao, a Clark County deputy district attorney trying to unseat incumbent Clark County Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield, is funding a telephone campaign that among other charges says the commissioner is using his office to attack a person "who refused to give him money."

Calls from RTC Research, the nom de guerre of Las Vegas' Rolling Thunder Communications, a company hired by Tao, has called voters in the district to say that Maxfield has used "his public office to coerce, intimidate and harass a local businessman who refused to give him money."

Calls from the same outfit said Maxfield opposes medical benefits for "servicemen fighting the war on terror."

Maxfield, commissioner for District C in the northwest side of the valley, called the charges "an absolute lie," and said the recorded calls heard by the Las Vegas Sun were only two of a number of incendiary charges coming from Rolling Thunder Communications and possibly other groups.

The Maxfield campaign delivered nine affidavits to District Attorney David Roger and asked for an investigation into the source of the calls. The sworn affidavits attest to other charges delivered by phone to district voters, including:

Tao initially said Wednesday that he only funded phone calls for "tracking polls." A half-hour later, Tao said that he used Rolling Thunder Communications for issue-oriented campaign work.

Kevin Ross, Rolling Thunder owner, said the first two charges were products of his automated phone service. He said he did not have a script to confirm that the later charges were from his company.

Maxfield said the source of the charges need to be investigated, and civil or criminal charges should be pursued against the callers.

"We've asked the District Attorney's office to look into this," he said. "These statements are absolutely false. This type of behaviour is deceptive, slanderous. It is an assault and attack on me and my family."

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said he has not seen the affidavits yet, but would review them. Roger said his relationship with Tao, his deputy, would not affect any decision he made regarding the disposition of the issue.

"I may very well refer the matter to another agency, but I will look at it and use my best judgment on what appropriate steps are necessary," Roger said.

Of the charges that came from pre-recorded calls from Rolling Thunder Communications, the charge of coercion, intimidation and harassment refers to an ethics charge filed by a district resident who has been the subject of numerous complaints from neighbors for illegally running a commercial operation in a residentially zoned area. The ethics complaint from Brent Lovett, a developer associated with Matrix Construction Co., alleged that Maxfield tried to cut off business opportunities for his company.

However, the complaint, now in the hands of the Nevada Ethics Commission, did not say that Maxfield demanded money from Lovett.

"I don't harass, coerce or intimidate anybody," Maxfield said.

On the charge in the second substantiated call from Rolling Thunder Communications, Maxfield voted once, in 2001, against extending county medical benefits to county employees serving in the military overseas. Maxfield said he did so because the county resolution did not go far enough to extend benefits to the military men and women.

Since then, he has voted three times to extend medical and other benefits to the county employees in the military, most recently in August, according to Don Burnette, Clark County administrative services director.

Of the calls that, according to the affidavits, the source is not identified, FBI spokesman David Schrom said his agency has no investigation involving Maxfield; Clark County Deputy District Attorney Mary Miller said she has no knowledge of any allegation that Maxfield used county staff for campaign purposes; and Burnette said the county commission, according to state statute, does not make decisions regarding specific traffic lights.

"There's been seven, eight or nine aboslutely false and deceitful things that are being said," Maxfield said. "All of these statements are false. There's absolutely zero truth or fact to any of them."

Maxfield and campaign advisor Brian Catlett said they do not know for sure that Tao is behind the calls, and said the allegations appear to be illegal.

"We thought that the District Attorney should know what is going on in this campaign," Catlett said. "We hope that these calls did not come from the Jerry Tao campaign, and hope that he will join us in denouncing these illegal calls."

Maxfield said that if the calls are coming from the Tao campaign, it is particularly troubling because of Tao's position within the District Attorney's office.

"As an officer of the court, as a prosecuting attorney, he knows he should not be making statements that he knows are untrue," Maxfield said. "If he's behind any of these statements, that is very troubling. It goes well beyond what anybody should ever be doing.

"There's dirty politics, but I would never expect these kinds of tactics. This is a person (Tao) who is supposed to know and understand the law."

Ross said his company's calls are based on information provided by the campaigns he works for, and that his work is "ethical and legal." He said he did not know if the allegations of federal investigation or other issues came from his service.

"We do so many campaigns across the country," he said. "I don't have the scripts in front of me."

Tao said he was not personally aware of what information was included in the calls he paid Rolling Thunder Communications to make.

"You hire consultants and give them articles and stuff," he said.

He said the calls were not examples of negative campaigning.

"We're not talking about family, we're not talking about kids, but when it relates to his votes, that's legitimate," Tao said. "It's staying strictly to his record."

While some of the other four county commission races have been criticized for being overly negative, the Tao-Maxfield match has, until now, been relatively quiet.

However, Tao early this year in campaign materials tied Maxfield to the ongoing investigation and prosecution of three former commissioners and sitting Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey for an alleged cash-for-votes scheme involving a local strip club chain.

Maxfield has not been publicly connected with the scandal, although the former commissioner he knocked out of office, Lance Malone, has been named as the strip club-county commission go between.

Tao has also charged Maxfield, the Republican, with failing to pay employee taxes.

Maxfield's campaign, meanwhile, has pushed for an investigation into alleged improper family financing of the Democrat's campaign.

The contest has been considered lopsided. Tao, as of the beginning of September, had raised less than $67,000 in his effort. Maxfield had garnered more than $582,000 from contributors.

The district also is heavily Republican. According to the Clark County Elections Department, as of Oct. 2 there were nearly 10,000 more active, voting Republicans in the district than Democrats.