Telling tall tales

Friday, July 28, 2006 | 7:46 a.m.

Maybe it was the pressure of their first - and probably only - face-to-face debate. Maybe it was the pressure of being in front of a television camera. Or maybe the two Democratic candidates in the heated Clark County Commission District E race were just trying to pull a fast one.

Whatever the case, both candidates stretched the truth during a joint appearance Thursday on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston."

It's the only debate scheduled between the two candidates - incumbent Myrna Williams and Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani - before the Aug. 15 primary election. Victory in the Democratic primary will be tantamount to election in November. The race in the heavily Democratic district lacks a well-known Republican candidate.

Thursday's debate featured much of the strong rhetoric that has inundated residents' mailboxes for months in the forms of attack and counterattack mailings.

In fact, Ralston once had to tell an overly eager Williams to let him host the show.

"You're filibustering," he said. "You're not in the Legislature anymore."

Perhaps it was the nature of a televised debate - and the pressure to knock down your opponent in 30-second sound bites - that led both candidates to tell tall tales.

First, Giunchigliani at-tacked Williams for not being accessible to constituents.

As evidence, Giunchigliani charged that Williams had not published her home phone number until recently.

"For 16 years I have always published my address and home phone number. I published my cell phone number this year," Giunchigliani said. "Mrs. Williams finally published her home phone number."

Williams countered: "My phone number has always been in the phone book Check your research before you make those kinds of statements."

Indeed, Williams' home number has been published in phone books each year from 2003 through 2006, as has Giunchigliani's.

Another debate issue involved ethics and corruption.

Giunchigliani has said Williams should have known about the corruption of her former colleagues, several of whom have been convicted of taking bribes from a strip club owner.

"I think there is a culture of corruption," Giunchigliani said. "I'm saying you can't change a system you never challenge."

Williams, though, called Giunchigliani's position on ethics into question.

"You talk about ethics. The county sent a very strong ethics bill up to the Legislature," Williams said. "Twice when you were chairman of that committee, you killed it."

However, a close look at the 2005 legislation reveals that Giunchigliani did not vote against the bill. While she did support some amendments that proponents of the original bill felt watered it down, Giunchigliani voted for the bill.

Moreover, she no longer headed the Assembly's Elections, Procedures, Ethics and Constitutional Amendments Committee at that time.

UNLV political science professor David Damore said the pressure of a debate sometimes can result in inaccuracies.

"With the pressure, you might get the facts mixed up," he said. "For a presidential candidate it's a little different because they are going to have a staff and practice debates. These guys are sort of just winging it. They are not going to have the time and resources to double-check everything."

Damore doubts that the truth-stretching will have an impact when voters go to the polls.

"The people watching this debate are going to be people who are already pretty politically informed," he said. "Most already know who they are going to vote for."

The debate will air on Cox Cable Channel 1 in two episodes. The first will air today at 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Part two will air at the same times Monday.