Atkinson Gates campaign paid son six figures

By Marshall Allen, Tony Cook

Sunday, April 1, 2007 | 7:32 a.m.

Though nothing is certain in politics, Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates' 2004 re election was as close to a lock as it comes.

The three-term incumbent trounced her nearest primary contender by 42 percentage points, then rolled up an even bigger landslide in the general election, taking 74 percent of the vote.

Despite her easy path, Atkinson Gates spent at least $749,136 on the race - $356,166 of which was paid to her son, his future wife and a company that the couple ran together.

Those payments have raised the suspicions of Metro Police, and detectives are investigating whether Atkinson Gates illegally funneled campaign funds to her family and associates, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Candidates have broad discretion about how they use campaign donations. But the sources say police find it peculiar that her son, who as an adult has had two drug-related arrests, and daughter-in-law received nearly half of the money that Atkinson Gates spent in her 2004 race.

Her son, Brian Atkinson Turner, says nothing is unusual about the spending. Though only 21 the year of the election, Turner said he was an experienced campaign strategist paid fairly for his work.

After 14 years on the County Commission, Atkinson Gates resigned last month, mid-term, saying she wanted to concentrate on her family, her home-building business and to finish her doctoral dissertation on public corruption.

In announcing her resignation, Atkinson Gates said she was proud to leave with her reputation intact.

"I don't ever have to worry about a probe," she said in a TV interview. "I don't ever have to worry about going to jail."

By then, police already were investigating her.

Atkinson Gates, the wife of Clark County District Judge Lee Gates, was a political juggernaut entering the 2004 campaign. In addition to her three-term tenure as a county commissioner, she was chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus - and was running in a district with a 3-to-1 Democratic voter registration edge.

Although she was a prohibitive favorite from the start of the 2004 race, she spent three-quarters of a million dollars . (That total could be higher, because overlapping reporting periods and how some expenses are listed on campaign finance documents create uncertainties. For this story, the Sun used the lowest figures.)

Of that, 48 percent went to Turner and to Kathryn O'Gara, who became Turner's wife in March 2005, and the couple's company, Advibe Advertising.

National campaign finance experts and local campaign consultants say those figures are unusual.

"My radar is way up on this," said Joe Doherty, a campaign finance expert at the UCLA School of Law. "It sounds very much like the campaign was funneling money to the children."

One local Democratic consultant, who asked not to be identified, added: "Campaigns are not supposed to be full employment acts for otherwise unemployable relatives."

Turner defended the payments as legitimate because of his prowess as a political consultant. He said he started working on his mother's campaigns at age 7, and has done political work all his life. He started Advibe to get paid for his efforts.

"Normally, it might be suspicious," Turner said. "But not when your son is in advertising and political consulting like me."

Atkinson Gates did not return multiple calls from the Sun.

Advibe was paid at least $168,306 by the Atkinson Gates campaign in 2003 and 2004 for advertising, consulting and office expenses. During the same time, Turner and O'Gara received an additional $81,010 and $106,850, respectively, as paid staff and consultants.

Of the money Advibe received, 75 percent is categorized on campaign finance reports as "office expenses."

Experts say that figure is inconsistent with customary campaign spending. "The overhead seems extremely high," said Bob Stern, a campaign finance expert at the Center for Government Studies in Los Angeles. "Usually it would be 75 percent on advertising."

It also raises a crucial question: Were Atkinson Gates' dollars being spent primarily for her political benefit, as donors intended, or to provide an income to her son and future daughter-in-law while also setting them up in a business?

Turner told the Sun that much of the money paid to Advibe went toward glossy fliers, radio air time and other expenses. He estimated that the fliers cost $150,000, with door hangers and radio time accounting for an additional $20,000 and $25,000, respectively.

"I wish it was cheaper, believe me, then I'd make some money in this world," Turner said.

Turner says he has invoices and receipts to document Advibe's expenses during his mother's campaign, but he declined to show them to Sun reporters. He did, however, refer the Sun to several vendors to verify his services.

An accountant with Las Vegas Printing Press said Advibe spent about $75,000 on printing for multiple candidates from September 2003 to November 2005, much of it for the Atkinson Gates campaign.

Turner said Advibe also hired the direct mailing company SPS Group Inc. for his mother's campaign. An SPS partner said Advibe paid $4,142 to mail 18,830 Atkinson Gates fliers. Turner's check bounced, but he paid the debt, the official said.

In May 2005 Turner allegedly bounced another check, for $2,560, to SPS for work on a different campaign, court records show. Turner now has an outstanding arrest warrant on felony charges of passing a check with intent to defraud.

Turner worked on other campaigns during and after the 2004 election season - among them, Andres Ramirez's unsuccessful 2005 run for North Las Vegas mayor, County Recorder Debbie Conway's 2006 race and County Commissioner Rory Reid's 2006 re election. None, however, paid nearly as well as Atkinson Gates. The highest payment from those other campaigns was $22,962.

While the couple was receiving money from Atkinson Gates' campaign committee and in the months after, they had multiple misdemeanor arrests by Metro Police.

Turner was arrested in October 2003 and December 2004 for possession of narcotics paraphernalia. He said he was caught twice by police with a marijuana pipe. Both cases were dismissed, the one in 2004 after he forfeited $250 bail to charity.

He does not consider the arrests to be a serious problem.

"I had a pipe on me, what about it?" Turner said. "I'm partying. What do you expect? I wasn't even caught with weed. I was caught with a marijuana pipe. In college that's like nothing."

O'Gara was arrested on an allegation of battery domestic violence in October 2003, the same day as one of Turner's drug paraphernalia arrests. Turner said O'Gara slapped him, but it was a minor dispute. Her sentence was suspended and the case was eventually dismissed.

Turner and O'Gara have owned and operated two companies together: Advibe and Exotica Entertainment, an outcall service that provides adult entertainment to hotels and residences. Turner also owns Motion Media, a mobile billboard company.

Turner and O'Gara's companies vacated their shared office space about a month ago. Advibe, Motion Media and Exotica operated out of a suite in a strip mall on Industrial Road.

Building manager David Starrett said last week that Turner is months behind on his rent and about to be evicted. The cramped office is strewn with boxes and the remains of the business - lusty calling cards for Exotica Entertainment, a white board listing "blonds, brunettes and exotics" and several lava lamps.

Starrett said he has not seen Turner in about a month. The manager said that repeated calls to Turner have not been returned, and that he might tow Motion Media's three flatbed trucks, still parked behind the building.