Columnist Jon Ralston: Trying to sort through the double talk that would-be secretary of state Brian Scroggins has gone on record with regarding campaign fundraising

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006 | 8:18 a.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program Face to Face with Jon Ralston on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the daily e-mail newsletter RalstonFlash.com. His column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or through e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Brian Scroggins had better be careful or the would-be secretary of state might develop a slight credibility problem.

Scroggins has been insisting that he has done nothing wrong in raising money from construction types while sitting on the Nevada Contractor's Board, even going so far as to repeat a cute little mantra about asking permission and not forgiveness from the state Ethics Commission to engage in the practice.

But now, according to his own campaign contribution disclosure, it is apparent Scroggins solicited quite a bit of cash from those he regulates before the ethics tribunal gave him the green light to engage in the same kind of legalized extortion most elected officials who regulate commerce get to do.

And now, after using the ethics panel's imprimatur as a shield against criticism, Scroggins has resigned from the Contractor's Board, claiming he just didn't have the time but looking like he was bowing to the hopefully obvious conflict, no matter what the ethics panel said.

"I still believe that I was aboveboard," Scroggins said Tuesday. "But now it's time to focus on the campaign."

Indeed. And it is the Republican's campaign for secretary of state against Danny Tarkanian and ex-Assemblywoman Merle Berman, with the winner to face Democratic Anointed One Ross Miller, that seems to be driving this decision.

Problem for Scroggins is that he has botched this every step of the way. Whether it is tone-deafness to ethics or rookie campaign missteps will become clear in time, but the issue will not go away with his departure from the contractors' regulatory body.

After the ethics panel gave him the go-ahead on March 9 to raise money from those he regulates and the written opinion was released two months later, Scroggins said to various outlets that he "wanted to get permission rather than forgiveness," as he told the Sun. He placed himself above other politicians, who he implied only ask about a potential conflict after already acting on it.

And yet Scroggins had been raising money from contractors for at least a month before the ethics panel said he could, his campaign report clearly shows. In fact, he had raked in about $20,000 -- about a sixth of his total receipts -- before he ever appeared before the ethics panel.

The names include some of the bigger names in the business -- Martin-Harris, MJ Dean, for example -- and the umbrella group, the Associated General Contractors, which gave him his biggest contribution of $5,000 on Feb. 22.

By coincidence, Feb. 22 is the day Scroggins received nine contributions from contractors worth $8,300 -- the same day his request for an opinion from the ethics panel was received.

"Give me permission before I do it again," he must have been saying to the Ethics Commission.

The panel cautioned Scroggins not to use his position to raise money, but found he was not prohibited from raising money from contractors in the same way that a county commissioner or city councilman is not barred from taking donations from those on their agendas.

In fact, Scroggins has used that analogy as a defense. So is it more wrong than commissioners or councilmen beefing up their reports with cash from folks who want their votes? No, it is exactly as wrong. And exactly as common.

Scroggins acknowledged that his "permission not forgiveness" blather was one of those "catchphrases" he had gotten used to brandishing when asked about it. Catchphrases, though, would be better used if they were true, which this was not.

Consider this exchange at the ethics hearing between Scroggins and then-Chairman Rick Hsu: "You haven't approached them yet, or have you?" Scroggins: "No. Again, I haven't begun fundraising. Again, it's not at a point where, you know, whenever the decision is made. I have had people who have donated to my campaign, so yes, I have begun fundraising."

So he hasn't begun fundraising, he has begun fundraising. He's asking permission, but he acted before he got permission. So he resigned because he's busy, but he resigned after a lot of heat.

Did I mention a slight credibility problem?