Full disclosure is needed

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009 | 2:08 a.m.

Nevada richly deserves its reputation as having among the nation’s weakest laws when it comes to disclosure of money in politics.

Candidate disclosure forms have often contained illegible handwriting. Candidates aren’t required to list campaign donors’ employers or occupations. Companies can circumvent campaign donation limits by giving maximum contributions through subsidiaries.

The disclosure laws are so weak that Gov. Jim Gibbons created a legal defense fund but initially hid its donors’ identities, only to release the information in 2007 after being pressured by the media.

As reported Monday in the Las Vegas Sun by Sam Skolnik, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and former North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon, a candidate for governor, have also taken advantage of a provision in the law that allows elected officials to raise unlimited sums of money through political action committees without having to disclose donors or expenditures unless the money is spent on candidates.

Montandon, at least, has voluntarily disclosed his information. But Goodman has refused to do so, which is a troubling blow to open municipal government.

The Las Vegas Valley has experienced its fair share of public corruption, which has contributed to distrust of government. What Southern Nevada does not need is for any elected official to have access to a secretive PAC.

Although Goodman told the Sun the money in his Oscar’s Political Action Committee fund has gone to worthy causes, there is no public documentation filed with the secretary of state to back up that claim. If the money has gone to worthy causes, why can’t the donors simply give money to those organizations directly?

Donors may feel pressured to give money to the mayor’s PAC for purposes of access and to get on his good side.

Goodman should put to rest such fears through full disclosure of his PAC donors and recipients. And the Nevada Legislature, when it meets in 2011, should require all elected officials to do likewise.