Porter rejects request

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006 | 9:16 a.m.

E-mail transcripts

These relate to Rep. Jon Porters fundraising efforts from his office in Henderson on April 21, according to former Porter staffer Jim Shepard. The persons involved are Mike Hesse, Porters chief of staff; Lindsey Slanker, and Mary Mai, both of November Inc., a campaign consulting firm Porter uses. Some time stamps appear inconsistent, which is common when clocks differ between computers.

From: Lindsey Slanker

To: Jim Shepard; Michael Hesse

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 10:11 a.m.

Subject: Calls Today

I understand you want Mary to just drop off the calls which she will. We are counting on both of you to make sure he does them.

Please let me know if you need anything else.

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 10:10 am

Subject: Re: Calls Today

What do I get if I get him to do them? :-) I want something good.

We should be able to get him to do them. He knows about them, we talked about it last night.

From: Lindsey Slanker

To: Jim Shepard; Michael Hesse

CC: Mary Mai

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 1:37 p.m.

Subject: Calls?

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker; Michael Hesse

CC: Mary Mai

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 1:33 p.m.

Subject: Re: Calls?

Yes!

From: Mary Mai

To: Jim Shepard; Michael Hesse

CC: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 1:44 p.m.

Subject: David Dahan

return JPs call please have him call Mr. Dahan at 702-XXX-XXXX

From: Lindsey Slanker

To: Jim Shepard; Michael Hesse

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 2:43 p.m.

Subject: How are calls going?

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 2:38 p.m.

Subject: Re: How are calls going?

Hes doing them

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 2:48 p.m.

Subject: Ron Boeddeker

Will give 7K

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 2:50 p.m.

Subject: Brooke Dunn

Will give, but didnt commit a specific amount. But JP thought he would come through.

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 3:32 p.m.

Subject: Will resume calls later this afternoon

He is now attending to official business.

He will resume later this afternoon.

In the meantime, I am working on getting him a campaign phone (I spoke with MS).

From: Lindsey Slanker

To: Jim Shepard

Sent: Friday April 21, 2006, 3:40 p.m.

Subject: Re: Will resume calls later this afternoon

Thanks for keeping us up to date it is really important that he make more calls.

Did he only make 2?

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 3:38 p.m.

Subject: Will resume calls later this afternoon

No, he made like 5.

He knows this, we just spoke about this not even 30 seconds ago.

From: Lindsey Slanker

To: Jim Shepard

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 3:49 p.m.

Subject: Re: Will resume calls later this afternoon

Do you know who the other three were? We have Brooke Dunn and Ron Boeddeker.

Thank you

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker

Sent: Friday April 21, 2006, 3:46 p.m.

Subject: Re: Will resume calls later this afternoon

They were messages. I know for sure one was Bill Richardson, I have to double-check the names of the other two, I dont remember off the top of my head.

From: Lindsey Slanker

To: Mary Mai; Jim Shepard; Michael Hesse

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 4:46 p.m.

Subject: Re: David Dahan Have calls resumed?

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker; Mary Mai; Michael Hesse

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 4:41 p.m.

Subject: Re: David Dahan

Later this afternoon.

From: Lindsey Slanker

To: Mary Mai; Jim Shepard; Michael Hesse

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 4:49 p.m.

Subject: Re: David Dahan

How much later? It is Friday Sorry to be so pushy but we are already at the 11th hour ...

From: Jim Shepard

To: Lindsey Slanker; Mary Mai; Michael Hesse

Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006, 4:49 p.m.

Subject: Re: David Dahan

As soon as he can. He is attending to official business.

Rep. Jon Porter refused Tuesday to release phone records or copies of his daily schedule, even though his office says the documents would disprove charges by a former aide that the congressman made dozens of illegal fundraising calls from his government offices.

The Sun originally requested copies of the phone records and daily schedule last week. The request went out after the former aide, Jim Shepard, spoke to the Sun about the calls and the newspaper obtained two e-mails supporting his claim.

The Sun renewed the request for Porter's schedule and phone records on Tuesday, after obtaining a series of 18 more e-mails from April 21. Porter has issued a statement denying the accusations, but his office continues to withhold the records it says would bear out the truth.

Porter is seeking his third term in Washington as representative of Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, which includes most Las Vegas suburbs. He is locked in a tight race with Democrat Tessa Hafen, a former press secretary for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev .

The Cook Political Report, a respected Washington analytical newsletter, now rates the race as a tossup - a change from the "leaning Republican" classification it has held much of the year.

Shepard told the Sun last week that he saw Porter making the illegal calls on at least five occasions. The congressman made five to 15 fundraising calls from a campaign cell phone at his district office in Henderson on April 17, 18 and 21 and at his Washington office on June 15 and 16, Shepard said.

Federal election laws and House ethics rules explicitly forbid lawmakers from making fundraising calls from their government offices. Shepard is a 10-year veteran of Capitol Hill. He served as Porter's executive assistant and scheduler from late March to the end of June.

The new e-mails obtained by the Sun are exchanges between Shepard and three others: Porter's chief of staff, Mike Hesse; Lindsey Slanker, and Mary Mai, both members of the congressman's campaign staff. The e-mails were sent in a span of seven hours April 21, three days before President Bush appeared at a fundraiser for Porter in Las Vegas.

According to Shepard, the e-mails were sent while Slanker was at November Inc. offices at 900 S. Pavilion Center Drive in Summerlin. Porter and Hesse joined Shepard in Porter's district office at 2501 N. Green Valley Parkway in Henderson after lunch, which is when the calls began, Shepard said.

Under federal law, Porter could have made the calls legally from November Inc. But the drive would have taken time from his schedule. The campaign office and district office are 30 to 45 minutes apart, depending on traffic.

Just four days earlier, Shepard said, he sent an e-mail to Porter's deputy chief of staff, Brooke Allmon, noting that the congressman did not want to make the 20-mile drive to November Inc. to make calls that day.

The e-mails of April 21 started in midmorning. In one, time stamped 10:11 a.m., Slanker tells Shepard and Hesse that Mai will "drop off the calls," a reference to hand-delivering the list of contributors Porter is to telephone.

"We are counting on both of you to make sure he does them," Slanker told Hesse and Shepard.

Later in the afternoon, Slanker asks Hesse and Shepard: "How are calls going?"

Shepard responded: "He's doing them."

Shepard says that he saw Porter making the calls while he sat across from Porter at the congressman's desk and in a conference room in the district office.

At 2:48 p.m., Shepard e-mailed Slanker with the subject of "Ron Boeddeker."

The brief message said only: "Will give 7K."

Campaign disclosure reports show that Ronald and Catherine Boeddeker contributed $3,500 each, or $7,000 total, to the Porter-Nevada Victory Committee on May 4, according to Federal Election Commission records. Boeddeker did not return phone calls from the Sun on Monday .

In late afternoon, Slanker asked Shepard and Hesse: "How much later? It is Friday - Sorry to be so pushy but we are already at the 11th hour."

Half of the 18 e-mails included Hesse as a recipient. Asked about those e-mails Tuesday, Hesse said, "I don't remember any of them." Hesse also said he had "no idea" where the calls were made from, except that they were "not from the district office."

Slanker did not return phone calls from the Sun.

Hesse also turned the tables on Shepard. "If you assume everything he is saying is true, and I don't think it is, he would be violating federal law," Hesse said of Shepard's e-mails to Slanker. "As a federal employee you are not allowed to do those things at work."

Shepard said he felt that Porter expected him to correspond with the campaign, even if it was illegal.

"On April 21, I am brand new to him," Shepard said. "He is my boss."

Hesse acknowledged that he could ask for copies of the e-mails from House computer archives to verify them, but he said Tuesday he hadn't done so.

Shown copies of the e-mails, Hesse said that "Congressman Porter is not even mentioned in these things." None of the e-mails specifically name the congressman, although his involvement is unmistakable and one does request that "JP" return a phone call.

The allegations by Shepard and Porter's phone records and schedule have been the subject of extended discussions between the Sun and Hesse for nine days. Initially, Hesse said Porter would not provide campaign cell phone records, but would be willing to share office phone records and the congressman's schedule for the dates in question.

But when the records were not provided by late last week, the Sun warned that it needed the congressman's records soon because the newspaper did not want to raise such serious allegations in the final days of the campaign. When Hesse still did not provide the records, the Sun published its story on Sunday.

Tuesday, Hesse said that the Sun's decision to go forward with that original story is responsible for the congressman's change of heart about the records. Because the Sun would not wait, he said, Porter is no longer willing to provide the documents.

Porter has refused requests for an interview and, as of Tuesday, had not spoken with the media about the allegations. He did, however, release a written statement Monday.

It said: "The allegations printed in the Las Vegas Sun are completely false. Never, as a Boulder City Councilman, the Mayor of Boulder City, a State Senator, or as a Member of Congress, have I violated the ethics rules of my elected office."

The Nevada Democratic Party asked the U.S. attorney's office on Monday to investigate Shepard's claims.

Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the Las Vegas U.S. attorney's office, said the request is under review. She declined further comment.

Hesse said that Porter welcomes an investigation and described Shepard as a "former, disgruntled staffer who is lying."

"If he really felt this was a big deal and he felt what he saw was accurate, then he should have filed it appropriately," Hesse said. "This is nothing but baloney. This is a last-minute attempt to hurt Congressman Porter in the heat of an election."

Hesse noted that Shepard, who worked previously for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. , and Sen. David Durenberger, R-Minn., has contributed to Democratic campaigns in the past.

Shepard contributed $500 to the campaign of Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in 2004. Shepard said he also contributed $25 to Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., in 2002.

After the Sun's original story appeared Sunday, a Porter ally sought to discredit Shepard by telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was "let go" after he used Porter's name to get tickets to special events from her clients The accusations were made by Terry Murphy, a government relations consultant.

In an interview with the Sun on Monday, however, Murphy said she couldn't be positive that Shepard had been fired. "Nobody told me he was fired," she said.

Shepard said he "categorically denied" Murphy's accusations about his behavior. He said he resigned from Porter's office because of concerns about the fundraising phone calls and the way Hesse ran the office.

Murphy also would not give specifics about Shepard's alleged requests, such as what tickets he requested or which of her clients were involved. She said confidentiality agreements with her clients prevented her from revealing more information.