Metro men on inside track

Thursday, May 18, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.

Clark County sheriff candidate John Murdoch has "zero" in his campaign war chest but thinks his vision for Metro is worth millions.

Seeking the same office, Jerry Airola has millions and can use that money to plaster his vision on billboards all over town.

Murdoch, 30, has worked at the Clark County Detention Center for 10 years. Airola, 41, made his fortune in water purification and helicopter training services and is a sworn deputy sheriff in Merced, Calif.

The two very different candidates have one thing in common: Neither will be invited for an endorsement interview with the Police Protective Association, the union that represents about 2,400 Metro officers.

In fact, police union officials are meeting with only six of the 19 candidates running to replace Sheriff Bill Young. Of those six, all are current or former Metro officers.

Sheriff candidates who feel slighted, however, should take heart - the union wouldn't even meet with the head of the New York Police Department, should he express an interest in the position, Dave Kallas, executive director of the union, said.

Only a high-ranking, highly respected Metro insider, he said, can meet the challenge of running the unusual hybrid police department, funded by both Las Vegas and Clark County.

"The other candidates couldn't understand the organization and the organizational needs for this department," Kallas said. "It's not just about law enforcement experience but about Las Vegas, our downtown area, our Strip corridor, the tourism that comes here - it's about understanding this community and this environment."

The union became active in making endorsements in 1982, when John Moran successfully rallied police support and won the seat from then-incumbent John McCarthy. The two sheriffs who followed Moran, Jerry Keller and Young, came from Metro and both received the union's endorsement.

"That is our mentality," Kallas said. "We realize that you have to have some institutional knowledge, not just of the organization but of the job that you have to do. The fact that he has to get his budget from two different government entities - does he understand the political climate?"

Eric Herzik, a UNR political science professor, said that union endorsement is often very important in county elections not waged along partisan lines. Voters often turn to union support as a sign of viability - creating favor for handpicked union candidates who are historically more conservative and less likely to make more radical changes, he said.

"When the voters don't know about the candidates, they rely on some sort of shorthand from the experts," Herzik said. "But the experts have their own agendas, so sometimes you have more of the same in office."

In Las Vegas, an endorsement from the police union can be campaign quicksilver, said Nevada political consultant Gary Gray, especially when an ever-changing voting population isn't likely to know the ins and outs of each candidate.

Herzik suggests that outsiders who want to challenge the union endorsement should have their checkbooks ready.

"Whether the union has carried the day every time, they still have a voice that is going to be heard," he said. "If you are the outside maverick, you better have a lot of your own money."

Airola says he's committed a million of his own dollars and has raised half a million in campaign contributions from the Las Vegas business community. He entered the race Friday and is confident he's going to win.

Other candidates aren't so sure.

Murdoch can't afford to advertise but doesn't want to tap any special interests - a dilemma that he says makes him an honest underdog.

"I don't see the point of cluttering up the valley with another sign. What does a sign tell you but my name?" he said. "I may not have the million-dollar war chest that other candidates have, but I'm going to start going out there into the community and seeing what momentum I can build."

Michael Thomas, a Clark County School District police officer who also filed Friday, isn't ready to discuss the depths of his war chest and says he's running on principal more than any hope to win.

"I don't know that I have the greatest chance of winning," he said, "but I didn't want it to be another situation of merely passing the baton."