Gibbons urged to halt funds flow

Jeff German and J. Patrick Coolican

Saturday, March 10, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

Top Democratic state lawmakers on Friday urged Gov. Jim Gibbons to stop accepting contributions to his legal defense fund during the legislative session and vowed to plug any loophole that might allow him to continue raising money.

This came as government watchdog groups in Washington criticized the Republican governor for "playing fast and loose" with the rules of the House of Representatives when he set up the fund in November, as he was winding down his congressional term.

The developments came on a day when Michael Pagni, the Reno lawyer who helped set up the legal fund, insisted in an interview that the defense fund had been created properly. He reaffirmed that position in a letter to Secretary of State Ross Miller late in the day.

Miller had sent Gibbons a letter Wednesday asking for additional information about $169,100 in contributions to the fund last year that Gibbons said he had received. The fund received another $35,000 this year, which the governor is not obligated by law to disclose until 2008.

Pagni did not provide Miller, a Democrat, with more details about last year's contributions, saying in the letter that the governor has clearly satisfied the "spirit and purpose" of the state's disclosure laws.

Gibbons has already spent $193,000 of the $204,100 in total contributions to fend off what turned out to be unproved claims he assaulted 32-year-old Chrissy Mazzeo outside a Las Vegas restaurant three weeks before he was elected governor.

And he is attempting to raise tens of thousands more dollars to pay lawyers in Las Vegas and Washington to guide him through an FBI investigation into his ties to longtime friend and wealthy defense contractor Warren Trepp.

Nevada law prohibits the governor, lieutenant governor and state lawmakers from accepting contributions "for any political purpose" one month before, during and one month after a legislative session.

Although it doesn't specifically refer to legal defense funds, the law's intent is to include them in the ban because the same potential conflict of interest exists, Democratic lawmakers said.

"There are plenty of statutes that clearly indicate that it is not acceptable to collect money while the Legislature is in session," Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, said. "This is very disturbing."

If any of the governor's defense fund donors are doing business before the Legislature, added Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, "his ability to govern has been compromised."

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, whom Gibbons defeated last November, called the contributions flowing into the defense fund "a perfect example of pay to play," a political theme she stressed during her bid for governor.

"This is why we have this prohibition at the Legislature, so that people can't have undue influence over lawmakers," she said. "When it reaches the level of the governor's office, something has to be done about it."

The law, Titus said, needs to be better defined if Gibbons is finding a way to circumvent it.

Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, added: "We all have a prohibition against raising money during the legislative session, and I don't think the governor is exempt from that rule."

One of the governor's fellow Republicans, Sen. Bob Beers of Las Vegas, said he didn't have enough information to voice an opinion on whether Gibbons should accept such contributions from people who could have business before the Legislature.

Then he joked, "I took a $6 compass from the Boy Scouts last week."

In Washington, government watchdog groups criticized Gibbons for not setting up the fund under the House's rules.

Gibbons' advisers have acknowledged that the governor, as required by the House, did not obtain that body's permission to create the fund last year. They said they did not believe Gibbons was obligated to do that because he was running for a state office.

Gibbons, it turns out, also did not abide by a House rule that limits single contributions to $5,000 per year. Of the $169,100 collected last year, $120,000 came from 12 donors who each gave $10,000. In that group was the governor's political strategist, Sig Rogich.

"That's an abuse of the public's trust," said Joan Claybrook, president of the nonprofit group Public Citizen. "If he was in the House at the time, he had to set it up under its rules. He's been fast and loose with the law."

Celia Wexler, vice president of advocacy for Common Cause in Washington, added: "You expect members of Congress to abide by the rules, and you expect them to be aware of the impact of their actions on the public confidence in government."

Wexler said the public had a right to know about the donations to the governor's defense fund long before they were disclosed this week.

"Legal defense funds always raise concerns," she added. "They offer donors another way to express support for elected officials."