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Friday, June 22, 2012 | 7:41 p.m.
Democrats stalled a $3 million contract to promote tourism in rural Nevada, potentially delaying an advertising campaign to bring visitors to the state that is supposed to be rolled out for the fall and winter.
Lawmakers at the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee questioned Thursday why an out-of-state firm won the competitive bid for the advertising, public relations and digital marketing contract.
When tourism officials said that the national firm, Burson-Marsteller, had partnered with a Nevada company, RedRock Strategies, Democrats questioned that company’s credentials. RedRock Strategies’ Ryan Erwin is a well-known Nevada political consultant for Republican candidates.
One lawmaker, Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, said the legislative committee was exceeding its authority by delaying the contract, which had been competitively bid.
“I think we’re setting a very dangerous precedent,” Kieckhefer said. The Legislature’s “job is to set the policy that guides bidding processes and to appropriate and allocate money to the executive branch to spend.”
But Democrats said the public expected the Legislature to provide oversight of contracts.
“People in the state care a lot about this,” Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, and chairwoman of the committee, said about the issue of the state issuing contracts to out-of-state firms.
The state offers a 5 percent preference in bids to Nevada companies on many contracts.
Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, and a candidate for Congress, said companies in Nevada need work.
“That includes PR firms,” he said.
He questioned what an out-of-state company knows about rural Nevada. Similar concerns had been raised by Valerie Glenn of the Nevada-based Glenn Group earlier in the process.
The IFC’s vote to delay the contract was along party lines. Since Democrats currently control both the Assembly and state Senate, the contract will come back again at the August meeting.
Jeff Mohlenkamp, the state budget director, said after the IFC vote, the contract would not be re-bid.
“This was a valid bid that went through the bidding process,” he said.
None of the losing bidders filed a complaint about the award.
Tourism Director Claudia Vecchio gushed about the winning bid’s proposal Thursday. She gave particular attention to a proposal for a mobile application for smartphones pitched by the company. The request for proposal received 19 bids, which were whittled down to the top five, Vecchio said. None of those were Nevada firms.
The state currently has a separate contract to come up with a new brand for Nevada, which is still being developed.
“It will be difficult to roll out the brand without this agency on board,” said Bethany Drysdale, spokeswoman for the Commission on Tourism. She said the winning bid was chosen unanimously by the selection committee. “They totally blew us away.”
Maury Lane, president of Burson Campaigns, a subsidiary of the winning bidder, said the company is eager to get started.
“Right now, we’re hoping this issue can be solved as rapidly as it can be so we can promote the economy in Nevada and stimulate the economy even further,” Lane said. “We put a great plan together. Now it’s time to implement it.”
He said Burson-Marsteller has been partnering with RedRock Strategies for almost a decade.
Erwin, the principal behind RedRock Strategies, is best known for his political campaigns. His latest campaign was Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, and her failed bid for the Republican nomination to Congressional District 4, where she would have faced Horsford. Another of his clients is Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who heads the Nevada Commission on Tourism.
Erwin said his company does more than political campaigns, including public relations work with 10 of the Fortune 500 companies.
Erwin said the company did not lobby any lawmakers and did not think it would be an issue at the Interim Finance Committee meeting.
Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, raised questions at the Interim Finance Committee meeting, including why RedRock Strategies' website is still under development.
In an interview Friday, she said she wanted to understand how the contract would work better and expected it to come up again at the August meeting.
“Part of it didn’t make any sense,” she said. “An out-of-state company hires a Nevada company. How is this whole thing really going to work?”
While she’d prefer in-state companies to get contracts, she said she recognized that the state couldn’t put up a wall or other states could punish Nevada bidders.
She said the political work by RedRock Strategies did not play a role in her vote.
“I would not vote against a contract for political differences,” she said. “That would be inappropriate. That is not going to happen.”
Now let me preface this with some disclosure. Not only did RedRock Strategies and Mr. Erwin handle Barbara Cegavske's campaign, I also believe they handled or consulted in my opponents campaign Adam Cegavske whom I defeated in this last primary. So as for any allegiance to RedRock Strategies and Mr. Erwin you think I may have, you can put that right out of your mind.
Having said that, I want you to think about what a Political Consultant does, they sell you on a person running for a political position. Win or lose they are the ones that come up with the feel and look of a politician trying to win your votes. Now don't get me wrong, you still have to have some substance as a politician to win, but a Political Consultant can make a non-race a race. So how is that any different than putting together the look and feel of an advertising, public relations and digital marketing contract to bring in people to Rural Nevada.
When you have Bethany Drysdale, spokeswoman for the Commission on Tourism. Say the selection committee chose the winning bid unanimously. "They totally blew us away." You have to wonder if the IFC members that are holding this up, and by the way all Democrats, aren't being a bit partisan, even with Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, stating in the article "She said the political work by RedRock Strategies did not play a role in her vote. I would not vote against a contract for political differences," she said. "That would be inappropriate. That is not going to happen." Then add the other consideration that RedRock Strategies was potentially going to be a Political Consultant working to keep out Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, and a candidate for the newly formed Congressional District 4, which he will know face Danny Tarkanian in the General Election.
I cannot help but think that an outside Nevada Company, working with a Nevada Company isn't the best of both worlds, especially when you have the results that TOTALLY BLEW the selection committee away. So we have once again the cry's of the Dems about jobs and with their apparent Partisan undertones, although they all deny it, we will have a great campaign to bring people to rural Nevada be sidelined at a time where every day matters in keeping Nevadan's working and business's open.
So keep crying foul or playing partisan politics, just remember although the public may have a short memory on some things, when it comes to them being out of work due to a stalled campaigns to bring in more tourists to Rural Nevada and Nevada in general you may have to pay the ultimate price come November. And frankly you should.
TOM BLANCHARD IS THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 35. HE CAN BE REACHED AT WWW.BLANCHARD4NEVADA.COM TWITTER @BLANCHARD4NV
** RedRock Strategies doesn't even have a functioning website yet they are going to implement apps and other technology??
** RedRock Strategies' claim to fame is advertising campaigns for republican politicians?? (and those same republicans are in the decision-making process of awarding the contract???)
Just another web of entangled dirty political juice exposed for the voters.
AND TOM BLANCHARD STATES:
"...I want you to think about what a Political Consultant does, they sell you on a person running for a political position. Win or lose they are the ones that come up with the feel and look of a politician trying to win your votes."
LMAO! "They are the ones that come up with the feel and look of a politician" --- So you hire a consultant to make you look like something YOU'RE NOT - just to get the votes. What? After elected you can then go back to being the REAL you???
This explains everything wrong with our country's government ~ on soooo many levels.
Typical nonsense - steering contracts and favors to your buddies and then whining when you get called out. If this had been a bunch of Democrats giving money to a Democratic political strategist the Republicans in the legislature would have had them all brough up on ethics charges and demanded they all be thrown out of office.
Any "advertising agency" that doesn't even have a website should raise a red flag to anyone.
I don't think the political affiliations of anyone who calls into question this kind of blatant favoritism is relevant to the case at hand. The hyprocisy of the Republican party is simply nauseating.
At last something that the Democrats have done that I'm 100% in favor of. How disgusting that an out-of-state company was chosen to promote Nevada. The lack of loyalty corporations and our government in this state have to companies in Nevada that would benefit from contracts like this disgusts me. In my business, a larger percentage of work leaves the state instead of employing companies in Nevada to do the work. There are several good agenies in town that could handle this contract but yet they award it to an out-of-state company, that doesn;t even have an operational website site. Bethany Drysdale you and your committee don't have a clue, and certainly are not true Nevadans.