Rory Reid would hold key job as he seeks another

By Joe Schoenmann

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Money is pouring into Rory Reid’s campaign coffers in expectation of his run for governor. The son of the Senate majority leader last month was elected to a third term as Clark County Commission chairman — the first chairman in almost 50 years to serve three consecutive terms. So he appears well positioned.

But will a gubernatorial campaign affect his ability to carry out his commission duties? There’s no example to review because if Reid were to make it through a primary, he would be the state’s first sitting county commissioner to be on the ballot in a general election, according to state archivist Guy Rocha.

The Clark County Commission is arguably the most powerful political body in Nevada. It controls a $5.9 billion annual budget, and the state’s economic engine, the Strip, falls under the commission’s purview.

The county also is gearing up for a fight to keep the state’s hands off money the county needs to serve the largest metropolitan area in Nevada. To make its case, the county will need the help of casino kingpins and their lobbyists in Carson City.

The symbiotic nature of the commission-Strip relationship is evident, to a degree, from the campaign money starting to fill Reid’s war chest. A viable run for governor, after all, takes more money than a run for County Commission. In 2006 Jim Gibbons spent $5.7 million to win; Reid spent less than $1 million that year to win his second term as commissioner.

Some of Reid’s more heavily invested campaign donors might bring matters before the commission in the time leading up to the next gubernatorial election, but there is no law against a politician’s voting on those matters. The ethics policy says a commissioner must disclose possible conflicts of interest before a vote, but goes on to say that the commissioner doesn’t have to abstain if he thinks voting is in the county’s or public’s best interest and if he believes his judgment “will not be impaired” by the possible conflict of interest.

So rounding up more campaign donors and getting larger campaign donations wouldn’t necessarily mean Reid would have to abstain more at the commission.

County records show that since May 2007, Reid abstained from voting more than 100 times, by far the most of any commissioner during that time.

Reid said last week that he has often abstained from votes on matters connected to other lawyers in his firm, even when he thought his personal connection was tenuous, but he said he had never abstained on a matter simply because the person involved was a campaign donor.

He also said he talked with the Clark County district attorney’s office, which told him a previous ethics opinion found no problem with elected officials’ voting on matters brought by campaign donors. Part of that justification is that campaigns publicly disclose their donors.

So although an opponent may seek to make hay of Reid’s campaign donations and his votes at the commission, the more relevant question for his county constituents is likely whether a gubernatorial bid would eat up time and energy that Reid should be spending on commission duties.

Seems like a run for a statewide office, which typically includes campaign trips to far-flung corners, would take time away from being a commissioner, even though it is supposed to be only a part-time job.

“If I run for governor,” Reid said, “that will have to be secondary to my county position, especially given where the county is financially. We have a lot to do, and I’m going to have to be available to do it.”