The fallout from Rory Reid’s attack

By Jon Ralston

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

A headline of Democrat-on-Democrats violence to die for:

“Rory Reid accuses fellow Rep. Dina Titus, two of his County Commission colleagues, and ex-Gov. Bob Miller of responsibility in a banking crisis he says cost Nevadans $1.2 billion.”

That’s not what the Democratic gubernatorial nominee intended. But it is what he has inadvertently accomplished with his new attack on Republican Brian Sandoval. Rarely has an ad campaign provided so much fodder by being so false and yet so revealing, so well crafted and yet so slimy, so portentously serious and yet so unintentionally funny.

Desperate to break though after a campaign that has been mostly about his last name — and that has been enough to cripple him — Rory Reid has embarked on a late effort to portray Brian Sandoval as having been lured off the bench by banking lobbyists, who have used him before and will again. Cue the ominous music.

Almost nothing about this is right. But so much of it is irresistible.

In his first ad in this series, Reid the Populist suggests “big banks and other powerful interests crashed our economy” and “recruited Brian Sandoval to run for governor.” That is the set-up for the second ad, which is even stronger, running clips from “Nevada Newsmakers” showing the Republican apparently saying these putative banking lobbyists “asked me if I was interested” and then declares: “No wonder.” Then it says Sandoval’s law firm (Jones Vargas) lobbies for “nearly every bank in Nevada” and wrote a bill deregulating banks that had “devastating consequences and left the rest of us to bail them out.”

Where to begin?

The lobbyists are Pete Ernaut and Greg Ferraro. Neither is a banking lobbyist (Ferraro, who has lobbied for decades, lobbied for one bank for one session). But both have lobbied extensively for big business and especially gaming. Why not call them gaming lobbyists unless you are afraid of repercussions from Las Vegas Boulevard South?

That not only has more resonance; it has the other advantage of being true.

The measure referred to in both ads is Assembly Bill 360 of 1997, which was sponsored by Sandoval. This is where the story really gets humorous. Let me count the ways:

1. It actually was written not by Jones Vargas (although partner John Sande lobbied for the bill) but by Lionel, Sawyer & Collins attorney Dan Reaser, who is now Rory Reid’s law partner. Reaser brags about the accomplishment on the firm’s website.

2. Does anyone actually believe that a bill passed 13 years ago “crashed our economy”? What? The measure hardly deregulated banks; it simply changed anachronistic language in the law. If it were controversial, why would it pass unanimously? Which brings me to the best part of all…

3. If this bill truly helped crash the Nevada economy and had those devastating consequences, then aren’t Titus, who was a state senator at the time, and County Commissioners Tom Collins and Chris Giunchigliani, who were in the Assembly at the time, also partly responsible? As is Speaker Barbara Buckley and every other Democrat who voted for it, right? And what of Miller, who signed it? Hello, quicksand.

So the ad campaign, beautifully constructed and perhaps compelling, is complete sophistry. But there is one bit of elemental truth the campaign reveals, quite by accident and after misleading editing by Team Rory. In the second ad, Reid edited Sandoval’s interview with Sam Shad to make it seem as if he were agreeing that Ernaut and Ferraro are running his campaign: “Yes. They are folks that I trust,” Sandoval is shown saying, with bad grammar, in the ad.

Here’s what really happened after Shad asked the question:

“Yes,” Sandoval said, then quickly corrected himself,” They are not running my campaign, they are advising my campaign.” The part where he says Ernaut and Ferraro are “folks that I trust” comes from another part of the interview.

That is totally out of bounds, splicing an interview like that. But I do find some perverse humor: Sandoval actually told the truth initially — Ernaut is running his campaign. But he quickly downgraded the lobbyist’s status for appearance’s sake.

It is highly unusual for a federal judge to step down — former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in town to promote appointing judges, was stunned when she heard of it. And there’s little doubt Sandoval would have done so if Ernaut had not promised him the welcoming bosom of Jones Vargas and if both he and Ferraro did not see an opportunity to elect a future governor who might look favorably upon their lobbying list.

If Sandoval wins, maybe they can get some banking clients in 2011.