Jon Ralston explains why Oscar Goodman’s refusal to reveal his political action committee’s activities are Nixonian

Sunday, March 12, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

News item: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman refuses to disclose contributions and expenses to OPAC, his political action committee.

- Las Vegas Sun, March 9

So maybe he is more like Richard Nixon than George Washington, this dissembling and secretive mayor of ours.

The miracle of Oscar Goodman, the true measure of his super-Teflon, is that no other politician in the world could get away with what he does.

Despite all his populist patter about his advocating for open government and his boasting of being the "George Washington of mayors," Goodman once again has been unmasked as the opposite of what he says he is.

Don't misunderstand: It is unlikely to affect his standing with the public, which seems to adore his Vegas-cheerleader, gin-swilling, say-anything persona. Goodman is fun and funny, and most politicians are not fun or funny. Even if some people are starting to notice, he can still fool most of them most of the time.

But this latest - and inexplicable - flip-flop, where Goodman has contradicted the assertion a year ago by one of his agents that his political action committee would be "transparent," is part of a pattern that the hoi polloi either ignores or doesn't care about because they don't take Goodman seriously.

The mayor actually told the Sun's Dan Kulin that he would not disclose the activities of Oscar's Political Action Committee because "he does not want the information made public out of concern that some members of the media would try to misrepresent it if it was released."

That sounds like a good government policy in general: Don't release information that should be public because the media will distort and twist it. Damn the Fourth Estate!

Next thing we'll hear he has a Nixonian-like Enemies List. Oh yes - The New Yorker reported long ago that he has one.

What could Goodman possibly be afraid of? That he hasn't raised that much money? That some of the contributions won't look too savory, especially when they were given vis-a-vis council actions? We don't know because he won't tell us. And why?

Even if we forget the ever-present issue that Goodman constantly fudges the truth, that he claims to be candid when he rarely is, that consistency must be the hobgoblin of small egos, he clearly is hiding something and circumventing the law.

Circumventing but not breaking.

Nevada Revised Statute 294A.140 and NRS 294A.210 provide that the reporting requirements for PACs aren't triggered unless the PAC "makes an expenditure on behalf of a candidate or group of candidates."

So we have to assume Goodman has not done so - and almost all PACs report their financial activity, regardless of whether such expenditures have been made. So the mayor simply is exploiting a loophole in the law. No, not Oscar Goodman! Exploiting a loophole in the law? Never.

All of this raises another question: When is a PAC not really a PAC?

When OPAC was formed, Goodman & Co. made all kinds of representations about how they were not going to form a nonprofit entity because the reporting requirements for those are less stringent, and that a PAC would be more transparent.

But now the mayor wants it more opaque, and he is not spending money on candidates while taking contributions from who-knows-who, so OPAC is not really a PAC, is it? Of course not, especially since the law requires a PAC to take money and show an intent to spend money for political purposes.

What Goodman has created is really a personal slush fund that he refuses to itemize because of some Nixon-like paranoia that the media might misrepresent it, whatever that means. And if he really is using it only for city-related business - such as the $100,000 donation to the Alzheimer's clinic - doesn't he have even more of an obligation to disclose?

There really is no reason to be suspicious, except for who is involved. Goodman's ethical laxity has been well-documented. If that's not enough, the man in charge of OPAC, Michael Mack, was one of the biggest embarrassments in Nevada political history and could not spell or find ethics, and yet does business with the Family Goodman and runs this enterprise as the mayor's mini-Me.

And now the Goodman-Mack PAC won't disclose who is funding it and where the money is being spent, and they are thumbing their noses at the media and the public.

Richard Nixon would be proud.