Quinn led money race but lost City Council election

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, March 2, 2005 | 8:36 a.m.

The final campaign finance reports from the Las Vegas recall election in January show unsuccessful candidate Vicki Quinn remained the top fundraiser, and then contributed $3,709 to her friend and opponent Lois Tarkanian's campaign once the election was over.

Tarkanian, the former Clark County School Board member who won the Jan. 25 special election, was a close second to Quinn in fundraising during the final two weeks of the campaign. The donations to Tarkanian's campaign included $5,000 from Bob Stupak, the former owner of the Stratosphere who supported former Councilwoman Janet Moncrief's first campaign.

Moncrief was the target of the recall election, which was prompted in part by criminal charges against her for allegedly filing false campaign finance reports in 2003. Following the recall election, Moncrief agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and admit to civil violations of campaign finance law to settle the case.

According to the campaign finance reports filed by the three candidates for the period from Jan. 14 to Jan. 25, Quinn raised $64,500 plus received $1,550 in in-kind contributions and spent $117,020; Tarkanian raised $59,750 plus $3,793 in in-kind donations and spent $75,575; and Moncrief raised $26,761 plus $10,000 in in-kind donations and spent $12,566.

Contributions to Quinn's campaign included $5,000 from three Republic Service companies, Coast Casinos, and Southern Highlands Development Corp.

Donations to Tarkanian's campaign also included $5,000 from Coast Casinos and Southern Highlands Development Corp.

Donations to Moncrief included $10,000 from Richard L. Carson and Gateway Technologies.

The candidates ranked similarly in fundraising and spending during the prior reporting period, which was from Jan. 5 to Jan. 13.

During that period Quinn raised $121,725 and spent $69,204; Tarkanian raised $86,850 and spent $39,157; and Moncrief raised $12,000 and spent $6,148.

In the recall election, Tarkanian won with almost 42 percent of the vote, Moncrief received almost 30 percent of the vote, and Quinn received just under 29 percent of the vote.