Jon Ralston delves into the ethics complaint filed against Sen. Sandra Tiffany

Friday, March 10, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

Someone is out to get Sandra Tiffany.

Maybe it's the Democratic activist who filed an ethics complaint against the Republican state senator alleging she used her public office for private gain. Maybe it's some employee of the state treasurer's office who doesn't like her.

Or maybe it's all those out-of-state employees who say she misrepresented her intentions when she visited them.

Or, perhaps, the words of some wise man, be it Cassius (who tried to explain to Brutus not to look for celestial explanations but to take personal responsibility for being an underling) or Jimmy Buffett (who eventually and bravely takes responsibility at the end of "Margaritaville" for his problems), should be echoing in Tiffany's head about now.

Tiffany, who did not return a phone call or an e-mail, has been defending herself in other venues by crying political motivation, trying to kill the messenger rather than arguing the facts. Her problem is that there are too many messengers, as evidenced by a slew of affidavits that makes the case against her as potent as any I have seen in a long time.

Twenty violations in all are alleged against Tiffany, generally revolving around her use of her elected position to further a private business, an online auction company. The ethics panel investigation alleges that Tiffany took trips around the country, presented herself as a state senator to gain access to government employees and then tried to use that information to bolster her company.

The affidavits include statements from government staffers in California, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Utah, Nebraska and Texas. They uniformly declare that Tiffany presented herself as a state senator and there is plenty of correspondence that indicates she used her official legislative stationery. All said they were under the impression that she was seeking information in her capacity as a state senator and then later brought up her own business.

Tiffany has tried to argue that she did not gain any information that anyone else could not have obtained and that she misled no one - statements contradicted by these employees from other states.

Are they out to get her, too?

Some of the most damning evidence comes in the testimony of Ted Irwin, a government analyst for the state of California who said he first understood Tiffany was visiting "in her official capacity as Nevada state senator, to research methods for marketing unclaimed contents found in safe deposit boxes."

He goes on, though: "That only after I provided Sen. Tiffany with substantial and detailed information about our online auctions and bidding procedures did she reveal that she was the one interested in the online contract. She then requested that her private company be put on the list to receive a Request for Proposal to conduct online auctions for the California State Controller's Office." Wonder why she identified herself as a state senator, as all the other affidavits also indicate?

Irwin's final paragraph of his affidavit is tremendously damaging to Tiffany:

"That it is my opinion that Sen. Tiffany clearly misrepresented her intentions, pretending to be gathering information on Nevada's behalf. Sen. Tiffany ultimately gained insight into areas that I normally would not provide to other contract bidders. It appears she ultimately planned to use the information for her own benefit and enrichment. Because of Sen. Tiffany's position, she was provided with information that gave her an unfair bidding advantage in preparing and submitting an online auction proposal."

So either Irwin is out to get her or Tiffany has some serious problems.

His statement - and others - seems to comport quite nicely with the "unwarranted privilege" section of the state ethics laws. And there is a lot more in this voluminous complaint that indicates she used her official capacity for private gain, although Irwin's affidavit itself might be enough to find a willful violation.

In a couple of television interviews this week, Tiffany has attacked the woman who filed the complaint, even tying her to ex-Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich; she accused an unnamed employee in the Nevada treasurer's office of being the person behind her troubles; and she accused the investigators of asking "leading questions" to the other state employees.

She actually told Jeff Gillan of "NewsOne at Nine" that she went on those trips "as a senator and I went as a senator to help my state."

Funny. That's not what those affidavits say at all.

If someone were out to get Tiffany, it would be a "Murder on the Orient Express" kind of suspect list - she will never contend for Ms. Congeniality and she has publicly criticized her own majority leader, Bill Raggio. There are any number of Democrats and Republicans relishing her predicament.

This also isn't a mystery where the services of Hercule Poirot are required because, from the looks of the evidence, Tiffany should be pointing the finger at the woman in the mirror.