Sandoval’s $400,000 credit card payment reveals campaign finance flaw

By David McGrath Schwartz

Friday, Feb. 10, 2012 | 2 a.m.

When the time came to pay for some of the expenses for Gov. Brian Sandoval’s inaugural gala in Las Vegas, the inaugural committee made a $400,000 payment to its consultant’s American Express card.

The $400,000 credit card payment — covering over a third of the total cost of the events — stands out, even though using credit cards for political expenses is common in Nevada. It also highlights how state law allows campaigns and political action committees to spend their funds without itemizing how the money is used.

Public oversight of who funds campaigns and how they spend money took a giant leap forward this year, with adoption of mandatory electronic reporting and searchable databases. But, as the credit card payment underscores, holes remain that obscure how funds are used.

Mike Slanker, Sandoval’s campaign manager whose companies organized Reno and Las Vegas inaugural balls in January 2011, said the $400,000 payment was for costs related to the Las Vegas event, held at the Wynn. Wynn also gave an in-kind contribution of $40,000. The inaugural committee sent the money directly to American Express because “we had run up a lot of charges in very short order ... That was a big number and we wanted to get it paid,” Slanker said.

Slanker’s firm, November Inc., organized the event and received $213,000.

According to the publicly filed expense and contribution report, the money came from donations from large Nevada companies and the sale of $100 tickets to individuals.

Officials said such blanket payments are allowed under state campaign law.

“That in itself, doesn’t appear to be a violation,” said Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, a Democrat. State law, he said, does not require itemization of expenses.

“It’s something to be corrected, in my opinion,” he added. “The more you can do to put transparency in the process, the better the public is served by that.”

The inaugural committee paid for the Reno event directly, a $110,000 to the Silver Legacy. The committee also made three $15,000 contributions to drug counseling programs, one in Reno, one in Las Vegas and one in Virginia City. The Inaugural Committee had promised to donate excess funds to charity.

Denise Roth Barber, managing director of the National Institute on Money and State Politics, said, “Clearly the best practices in this situation is for the campaign to itemize its expenditures. It’s likely the expenses are quite legitimate. But the public can’t see that, one way or the other.”

At the federal level, public watchdogs say credit card payments obfuscate how much money is spent.

While a $400,000 payment would likely draw scrutiny from federal regulators, smaller payments, in the tens of thousands, are common, said Bill Allison, editorial director of the government watchdog Sunlight Foundation.

Republican GOP leader Rep. Eric Cantor’s PAC, for example, listed American Express as its seventh-largest recipient of funds, at $37,797 on its latest report.

Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley listed American Express as her biggest vendor, with 12 payments adding up to $61,994.

A more detailed report available on the Federal Election Commission website does detail those expenses.