Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.
It was the best of land deals. It was the worst of land deals.
Harry Reid already got his - and he made hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to the actions of his old friend, Jay Brown, and the Clark County Commission. Bill Walters isn't going to get his - at least not this time - after the attorney general, joining a loud chorus, said it was terrible for taxpayers.
In this tale of two land deals, the common elements were influence over a couple of local governments whose top officials have long seemed willing to leave their backbones at the door, especially when it comes to those they know.
In one transaction, a U.S. senator made a lot of money when his partner, who has more juice than Minute Maid, persuaded the County Commission to rezone the property. In the other, a developer, who has almost as much juice as Reid's partner, nearly made a lot of money when the Walters/Goodman Council wrote him a check that bounced only after law enforcement intervened.
Moral of these stories: Walters needed more than his friend and former attorney, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman; he should have hired Reid's associate, Brown, to consummate his land deal.
I mention these two land deals together not because they are inherently linked or even equivalent, nor did I do so simply because I felt like being Dickensian. But when stories such as these - one national and one local - break within a few days of each other, the chattering of the chattering classes is matched only by the massing of the voting masses.
The energizing effect these stories must be having on the Clark County electorate cannot be so easily measured - mainly because the latent distrust remains from the G-Sting hangover. The broad-brush painting that goes on from dyspeptic voters who believe that LynetteDarioMaryLanceErinMyrna are on a first-name basis with the same corruption surely will only be reinforced by last week's developments.
Even if there is no equivalency between Reid making a high-six-figure profit thanks to Brown - the issue of proper disclosure notwithstanding - and Walters insinuating himself into all the corridors of power on Stewart Avenue, the commonality here is land. There is so much money in land in this valley and so many people have made so much money from being in the right place at the right time or having the right friends or the right lobbyists or the right people in government.
The perception that certain developers and their friends have access to insider information gleaned from their government contacts has persisted for years. The reality that elected officials worth five or six figures when they take office and then are worth seven or eight when they leave, or shortly thereafter, only fuels suspicions.
Harry Reid can argue - and he has been doing so vociferously - that this is a simple land transaction by him and Brown and that there may be a technical disclosure issue. But considering the controversy over LLCs (you can have silent partners), considering they tried to split hairs over the difference between a "sale" and a "transfer," considering that Brown has immense influence with the commission, especially with Yvonne Atkinson Gates and at one time with Dario Herrera, it's no wonder people are suspicious.
Walters can argue - and before he dropped the idea he had been doing so relentlessly - that lifting a deed restriction for a fraction of what the land is worth was a good deal for the city. But after an attorney general's probe revealed Walters' tentacles stretching into all corners of City Hall and staffers were revealed as futilely trying to get the elected officials to see the light, it's no wonder people don't trust the government to fulfill its public purpose.
Reid and Walters have used similar methods to try to tamp down the stories - killing the messenger. But that never works for long and often inflicts more damage because messengers and their friends tend to circle the wagons.
As media and legal guillotines are rolled out, Reid and Walters might have found it was a far, far better thing not to do what they had done before.
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