Jon Ralston on Herrera, Kincaid-Chauncey convictions showing how far we have to go

Sunday, May 7, 2006 | 9:08 a.m.

During the 1997 Legislature, a veteran pol made an ominous prediction during a conversation about a youthful Assembly rookie.

Dario Herrera, he told me, was headed for a fall. No one he had seen in his years of being around politicians was so enamored of the trappings of power as was Herrera. The end may not be near for him, but it would come, the insider foretold.

On Friday it happened. A jury convicted Herrera of all but two of the public corruption counts against him, an exclamation point on his tragic downfall.

Perhaps even sadder was the conviction of Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, thus affixing a black mark that essentially erases a quarter-century of public service and an impeccable reputation.

Many are rejoicing this weekend, reveling in the ruination of these former county commissioners, declaring that acrid smell of corruption has been fumigated from Las Vegas politics. But Friday was a profoundly sad day in the history of Las Vegas, both emblematic of how far we have yet to go from the great rotten borough and yet how far we have come because we now have big-city scandals.

The implications of these verdicts - and the scheduled public flaying of ex-Commissioner Lance Malone in August - will reverberate long past Election Day. Whether this is seen as an important cleansing that scared other crooked elected officials onto the straight and narrow, or a superficial dabbing at the dirty underbelly of the political world will not be known for years.

In the short term - the one that expires in November - this is a debilitating blow for local Democrats, some of whom have echoed national leader Harry Reid and bleated about a GOP culture of corruption. It is a thoroughly inconvenient - and perhaps coincidental - fact that both Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey are Democrats. (I wonder how many Democratic contenders for offices, high and low, are wondering how many pictures exist of them with the convicted ex-commissioners.)

The career trajectories of Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey make two startlingly different but nevertheless trenchant and relevant statements about politics.

Herrera was the classic overachiever, surmounting a hardscrabble upbringing to become a 23-year-old assemblyman, a 25-year-old commissioner and a national Democratic figure by 26. As a well-spoken Hispanic, he was a symbol of the party's future.

But his too-much-too-fast lifestyle began to come apart six years ago when he ran for Congress against Jon Porter and was dismembered by a campaign that exposed various ethical transgressions. And already, in a harbinger of G-Sting, there was talk of what one wag, doing a riff on the Ricky Martin lyric, said was Herrera's living libido loco.

When the sex, lies and audiotapes came to light in 2003, the reaction of most political insiders was not head-shaking but head-nodding. Few were surprised.

By contrast, Kincaid-Chauncey's indictment shocked most everyone, including, it seemed, herself. Another Carson City story: During the 2003 session, shortly after the FBI had raided Mike Galardi's strip joints, I ran into Kincaid-Chauncey in the Legislative Building. She wanted to know what was happening in Las Vegas and I told her that Cheetahs and Jaguars had been raided.

"Jaguars?" Kincaid replied. "Isn't that the one Lance (former County Commissioner Malone) works for?"

Kincaid has, remarkably, maintained that apparent daze for three years, seemingly at a loss to what this has been all about, publicly declaring her innocence. She is an effortless liar, a breathtaking naif or a denial queen.

It's quite possible Kincaid-Chauncey believes she did nothing wrong, which is a story unto itself. As a veteran of the North Las Vegas City Council and the County Commission, Kincaid may have seen asking Mike Galardi for money as harmless, the way business is always done, just asking a potential commission favor-seeker for a favor.

But that fact that her behavior may have been more passive and more ignorant than Herrera's aggressive and knowing extortion does not mitigate her guilt. If Herrera is an emblem of youthful hubris brought to Earth, then Kincaid-Chauncey is a symbol of a good old girl getting her comeuppance.

This case sets the baseline for corruption and few people, not just the hectoring masses, think nothing worse has occurred or is occurring. The message the feds want sent here is that this is the beginning, not the end.

But with legalized incest flourishing, de facto bribery through campaign contributions booming and common-sense ethical precepts vanishing, seeing will be believing.