Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.
There were major shakeups in Tuesday's primary election, and the winning candidates weren't the only ones who emerged smiling.
Often, those smiling were the people -- and interests -- behind the state's key races.
Political watchers point to a variety of factors in Tuesday's race, including the grumpiness Nevada voters showed toward incumbents, especially ones touched by scandal or controversy.
"Some frustration was expressed at the ballot box," said longtime political consultant Billy Vassiliadis. "I still think you've got an undertow of dissatisfaction among the electorate that usually is harder on the incumbents."
Interests who successfully capitalized on that dissatisfaction included:
Gaming
Some political watchers wondered if the casino business was losing clout after last year's legislative session. The industry pushed hard for a gross-receipts tax, which failed in the Legislature.
"I think it's fair to say that gaming was unable to deliver in the last legislative session," said political consultant Gary Gray. "They couldn't persuade people to vote (for their tax proposal) and they clearly have to do something to reestablish themselves as a political influence."
They did that in part by taking out one of the senate's most entrenched fiscal conservatives, Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, who fought the idea of a gross-receipts tax.
In an orchestrated advertising campaign, the Citizens for Fair Taxation, a group that spent at least $200,000 of mostly gaming money in the race, portrayed the fiscally conservative O'Connell as a tax-and-spender. They cited a bill she co-sponsored last year to increase service and property taxes that would have cost $1.6 billion over a two-year budget.
O'Connell lost to political newcomer Joe Heck, 48 percent to 52 percent.
"That is one of the strangest campaigns I have ever seen," said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "Ann O'Connell was painted as a big spending taxer? I don't think she knew how to respond to that. How could you possibly say that?"
The campaign against her noted that O'Connell, who typically fought taxes, co-sponsored a tax plan of more than $1 billion in the last Legislature. She said she did that to offer an alternative plan to the gross-receipts tax.
Mike Sloan, a Mandalay Resort Group vice president, said gaming did not target O'Connell simply because she opposed the gross-receipts tax. She protected big businesses such as banks and developers -- her supporters -- while looking to unfairly tax gaming and average citizens who would have paid more in service taxes, he said.
"We didn't oppose Ann O'Connell because she didn't support gross receipts," Sloan said. "We opposed her because she singled us out for taxation."
Sig Rogich, a longtime consultant in the state who supported Heck, said it was natural for the state's largest employer to take on a candidate who not only targeted them but also supported a sales tax that "struck a little fear in the heart of the average voter."
"When she argued that gaming of all people was doing something wrong, it didn't hold water," Rogich said. "People looked around and said, 'it's them against her, and as I see it, I'd rather be with them because they're the ones providing my job and providing the prosperity we're seeing here in Nevada.' "
Third party groups
Just as MoveOn.org and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have suggestions on how to vote in the presidential election, Nevada has its own third-party groups, including the Citizens for Fair Taxation.
While that group might have been the most prominent, it was hardly the only one to emerge this election season.
You might have heard from the Coalition for Legislative Integrity, Legislative Watch, the Citizens for Ethics in Government, the Committee for Truth in Politics, or the Alliance for Striving Students Educating Together.
All found some success in major races, though the Citizens for Fair Taxation, which attacked O'Connell, was the most noteworthy this election.
"My only objection to them is the number of cute names they come up with," Gray said. "If it had been The Committee to End Ann O'Connell's Career, it would have been more aptly named."
Major interests in other states have been doing this for years, but Nevada has just realized it's an effective tool, Vassiliadis said.
"It's sort of the old, 'Everybody's doing it,' " he said. "There's no one out there who doesn't have some kind of third-party campaign in the works."
Sloan said that gaming interests invested in several third-party groups this year, but he doesn't expect that the industry will regularly take on candidates like it did O'Connell.
"You get a situation where someone has $400,000 or $500,000 and is an incumbent, it's very difficult for a challenger to raise that kind of money," Sloan said.
"And this was probably an unusual circumstance. I don't think it's something you're going to see a lot of from the gaming industry, but it appears there are a number of groups in a number of mailers."
Unions
The Culinary Union is a perceived winner in Senate District 4, where the union pulled out its grass-roots machine for Steven Horsford, the Democratic candidate that pulled ahead of a pack of five candidates with 50 percent of the vote.
The union has a string of victories that hold up in Nevada political folklore, including in 2002, when it helped moderate Republican Mark James win the County Commission F seat.
"Culinary has always had some of the premier ability to organize and deliver when they really get plugged into something, and they were plugged into this one," Gray said of Horsford's big win.
Added Sloan: "I think they're back. That was an amazing win. Look at the margins there -- I think that demonstrates they have real organizational strength and they know how to produce turnout."
The union's priorities in the general election could include Democrat David Goldwater, who is vying for James' old District F seat against Republican incumbent Lynette Boggs McDonald.
Since most candidates in the County Commission B race were reluctant to talk about incumbent Mary Kincaid-Chauncey's impending trial on federal corruption charges, the Service Employees International Union finally addressed the elephant in the room with a series of fliers highlighting the charges against her.
Few campaign watchers expected Kincaid-Chauncey to top the Democratic primary, but her third-place finish -- far behind winner Tom Collins, who snagged 42 percent of the vote -- came as a surprise.
Money matters
This year, the candidate with the most money didn't necessarily win, said political consultant Billy Rogers, who participated in nine successful races.
Several watchers say that Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, didn't beat Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, simply because Beers fought taxes last session. Beers, like other successful candidates, has turned to a door-to-door approach instead of the traditional media campaigns that used to win seats.
"He threw an awful lot of personal energy into it," Gray said. "Ray Rawson has always had more of a style of a professor than as a campaigner."
Successful candidates on Tuesday often were disciplined and willing to sink money into grass-roots efforts to identify supporters at their doors, record their concerns, and allow the candidate to follow up by phone or in person.
Meanwhile, campaign managers get daily printouts of how many new supporters have been mined.
"Candidates can't go knocking on 25,000 doors," Rogers said. "What we do is deliver that message person-to-person. It has tremendous impact on turnout."
Rogers predicts that local candidates will reduce their reliance on television and radio ads, opting instead for the more time intensive -- but cheaper -- route of grass-roots campaigning.
He pointed to O'Connell and Kincaid-Chauncey, who both sunk money into television and both lost.
"That's an impersonal way to get votes," he said. "You can let voters know a lot more about a candidate at the door than you can in a slick 30-second television commercial."
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