Ross calls foul over Mack’s support of Gillins

Dan Kulin

Thursday, May 12, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack is throwing his support behind one of his potential replacements, Ward 6 candidate Mary Gillins, whose opponent said Mack is being paid to help Gillins.

Mack, who decided not to seek re-election, said he has been making fund-raising calls for Gillins for three or four weeks. Mack said he is supporting Gillins because she too supports a proposed sales tax increase that would be used to hire more police officers. Also, Mack said he feels candidate Steve Ross has attacked him in campaign literature and recent statements to the media.

Ross, who won the April 5 primary, said Mack is getting paid to work on the Gillins campaign, so of course he has been making fundraising calls.

"He's getting paid by my opponent, so take it for what it's worth," Ross said.

Mack is a paid consultant for Southwest Strategies, which is working for Gillins' campaign. But Mack said he is helping Gillins on his own time and is not getting paid for his work on her campaign.

Southwest Strategies once worked for Ross, who said the company's mid-campaign switch doesn't seem ethical.

Ross and Gillins will face off in the June 7 general election, which begins with early voting from May 21 through June 3. The two candidates made it to the general election by running first and second in the primary, where Ross received 1,489 votes, or 31.6 percent, and Gillins received 1,291 votes, or 27.4 percent.

Gillins said Mack's support has been a big boost for her campaign, and said it shows Mack "has confidence in me."

The Ross-Gillins race has been primarily defined by their opposing stands on a proposed increase to the sales tax that would be used to hire more police, and which the City Council will not be voting on, and some mudslinging that had died down since the primary.

Ross opposes the so-called More Cops Initiative, which proposes one-quarter percentage increases to the sales tax is July and again in 2009. Supporters are waiting for the state Legislature to give the Clark County Commission the power to raise the county sales tax from 7.5 percent.

Ross said he supports hiring more police, but feels the money should come from other sources. For example, the money that state leaders are currently talking refunding to taxpayers such as Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposal to return $300 million to taxpayers through their vehicle registrations, is an example of the surplus funds he believes state and some local governments have available. Ross said he does not know what specific funds he would like to see go toward hiring more police.

Gillins supports the tax increase, as do most local elected officials, and said the issue isn't one for the council race because the council won't vote on the increase. She also has promised to work to lower the city's property tax rate, although she said she does not know what specific budget cuts she would make to afford a tax cut.

Ross said that if elected, he would use his position on the council to lobby against the sales-tax increase.

When talking about Mack, Ross said the incumbent has done well in some respects, but is critical of Mack doing business with some companies that come before the council.

Mack is a marketing and fundraising consultant who has had to abstain from council votes in the past because of his private business relationship with some companies.

Ross said Mack's abstentions leave constituents without a voice on the council.

Mack said he also felt that he was the target of some of Ross' campaign literature that boasted that Ross would not have any ties to special interests.

Ross has said voters would be affected by Gillins' ties to Metro Police, which would require her to abstain from council votes affecting the police.

Gillins, 43, is a legal assistant and operations manager for the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the union for Metro Police officers. Also, her husband is a Metro officer who works as a lobbyist for the department.

Ross, 42, is general manager of an electrical contracting business co-owned by his wife.

Mack said he feels Ross has drawn him into the race with comments about "abstentions, conflicts of interest and ties to developers," which Mack said call his integrity into question.

The incumbent then lashed out at the candidate, saying Ross has no standing to make such comments because of his past run-ins with the law.

In 1983, a 20-year-old Ross paid a fine for tampering with a vehicle without the owner's permission after he was caught trying to steal parts from a neighbor's car.

Then in 1991, Ross was charged with domestic battery after hitting his then-wife. Ross has said the charge was dismissed, but also said that incident prompted him to reevaluate his life and led him to focus more on his family, community and church.

Allegations of domestic abuse were the focus of two anti-Ross pieces mailed to voters just before the primary election. One came from Gillins' campaign, and another from a political action committee formed by an employee at Southwest Strategies.

Since the primary, Ross' campaign has sent a piece to voters that included a letter from his former wife that said she was "appalled by this vicious, unfair attack" on Ross.

Ross and his campaign team have been critical of Southwest Strategies for the company's actions since leaving the Ross campaign.

First, for apparently backing the anti-Ross mail piece, and now for working for the opposition.

Ross' campaign manager Gary Gray said jumping campaigns like Southwest did is something political consultants "just don't do," because they probably were privy to much inside information about the campaign they left.

"Ethically it doesn't seem right to me," Ross said.

Southwest CEO Billy Rogers said this is the first campaign in his 25 years in politics in which he has switched sides.

Rogers said Ross initially lied to him about the domestic violence incident and then asked if the police records could be sealed.

Ross said he never lied to Rogers and has always been upfront and honest about his past.

"I take responsibility for my actions," Ross said.

The two men also disagree over whether Ross fired Rogers or Rogers quit.