Friday, May 12, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.
As Sheriff Bill Young's campaign for re-election came to a sudden end this week, another campaign continued - out of public sight, conducted in the underbelly of Clark County politics.
Young said this week that he will not seek a second term because he is weary of politics and the toll the job has taken on his family life. He did not cite a quiet campaign being waged from inside Metro Police by a political opponent who claimed to have obtained embarrassing information about the sheriff's personal life.
The campaign manager for Lt. Ron Williams said Thursday that the campaign believes the information about Young is partially responsible for his withdrawal - a claim Young angrily denounced as scurrilous. "This is the lowest form of politics I've ever seen and the worst way to attempt to get elected."
Williams' manager, Michael Zahara, then acknowledged that the candidate had shifted focus and is now making similar charges against the candidate Young has endorsed in the race, Undersheriff Doug Gillespie.
Zahara confirmed that immediately after Young announced his withdrawal Tuesday, the Williams campaign sent an e-mail to Gillespie warning that a "security/intel team" working for Williams was talking to the FBI about personal and "other gross misconduct" on Gillespie's part and intended to make those allegations an issue in the campaign.
"We understand you're running for sheriff," the e-mail said. "Please be advised that we have been cooperating with the FBI for months."
The e-mail suggested that Gillespie might want to inform his wife "before we go public with this information."
Asked by the Sun what evidence Williams had to support the personal misconduct allegation, Zahara said the campaign had it from "a solid source," but that it hadn't been confirmed.
The FBI, in response to an inquiry from the Sun, said it did not give credence to the claims.
"The FBI is conducting no investigation related to Sheriff Young and/or Undersheriff Gillespie," said Bill Woerner, acting special agent in charge of the Las Vegas field office. "Nor has the FBI received any information regarding Young or Gillespie that would cause the FBI concern."
Woerner said the FBI here "enjoys an excellent relationship" with both Young and Gillespie.
Dave Staretz, the FBI's spokesman and chief legal counsel in Las Vegas, took Woerner's words a step further, suggesting that the FBI didn't appreciate being dragged into politics.
"The FBI is a nonpartisan law enforcement agency and will not look kindly on allegations filed against anyone without merit, particularly for political reasons," Staretz said.
Within Metro's high command, the e-mail - coming from a candidate who does not enjoy broad support within the political establishment - was viewed as a threat and an attempt to force Gillespie out of the race.
"Williams has been spreading false rumors about me for months and months," Young said. "And now that Doug's in the race, suddenly he's being accused of the same types of things."
Gillespie said he did not want to give credence to the accusations by discussing them publicly. But he said: "The allegations are totally false."
If the e-mail was meant to persuade Gillespie to bow out, it didn't work. On Wednesday, the day after receiving it, he formally filed to run for sheriff. His campaign is being run by Young's high-powered political machine that includes veteran political strategists Kent Oram, Billy Vassiliadis and Sig Rogich.
Zahara said the e-mail was sent to Gillespie only as a courtesy to his family.
"There was no threat," he said. "We stated what we knew and what we were going to go public with.
"You can't ignore personal issues when you're the top law enforcement officer in the county."
Oram, who is Gillespie's campaign manager, said the Williams campaign had promised to reveal similar things about Young but never made public anything of substance.
"This is garbage," Oram said. "I don't think it has any place in a sheriff's race. If you've got something, throw it out on the table. Put up or shut up."
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