Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

GOP operative targeted in extortion case says he’s doing God’s work to kill tax plan

Is the GOP Assembly extortion probe the product of a top-down conspiracy or a warranted investigation?

That depends on who’s talking.

The case is a sideshow that pits the far right versus the centrists in the Assembly Republican Caucus and has sent local law enforcement on a multistate hunt for information. The root of the investigation points to the GOP’s ideological differences on tax hikes this legislative session and demonstrates how far party members are willing to go to get what they want.

At the center of the drama are Nevada’s infamous robocall operator, Tony Dane, and freshman Assemblyman Chris Edwards, R-Mesquite.

Metro Police said Edwards may be the victim of extreme, anti-tax Republican operatives who were offering him money for votes.

Dane says Edwards was the one soliciting bribes. The Virginia-based consultant also said that Metro, with the backing of the state’s political brass, have wrongly targeted him as a suspect as a way to silence critics of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed $1.1 billion tax package for funding education.

“It’s not extortion to tell a member of the Assembly that if I don’t like the way you vote I am going to file a recall election against you,” Dane said.

Dane touts his innocence but appears to be Metro’s No. 1 suspect.

This week law enforcement obtained a warrant to seize computer servers and robocall equipment from Dane at a location in Salt Lake City. Last month, Metro raided Dane’s home in Virginia and the Las Vegas home of Rob Lauer, a former GOP candidate for secretary of state, in January.

Dane and Edwards have a history. The two worked together on Edwards’ failed congressional bid in 2012. Edwards says his former partner is prone to conspiracies.

“Metro has gone to the district attorney and judges three times now, which means there must be a whole lot of credible information,” Edwards said. “... It’s going to be a good place for me and a bad place for others.”

A few of Edwards’ peers in the Legislature accused him of wearing a wire in Assembly Republican Caucus meetings as part of the investigation. The wire rumors sparked Watergate-esque jokes and concerns about candid speech in private meetings among Republicans. GOP Assemblywoman Michele Fiore blasted Edwards, a retired Navy commander, on her AM radio show and on Twitter: “Get Frisked - Get Naked - or Get Out - No wiretaps allowed in my office,” she wrote on the social media site.

Dane doesn’t sit within the tight-knit mainstream of Nevada’s political consultants. He is a far-right fringe operator who’s been known to play dirty in campaigns. Robocalls are his specialty. He’s also known for sending mailers with unflattering pictures of politicians and fielding candidates with the same name as the opposition to cause confusion in political races.

Since January, he has paid at least $12,000 for mailers and robo calls in hopes of sparking recall elections against Edwards and John Hambrick, the GOP Assembly speaker. One round of mailers had a Star Wars theme.

A round of robo calls used soundbites of Edwards talking about his legislative peers. Dane’s equipment is still in police custody. To continue his work, he’s purchased new dialers and computers, saying he’s not going to be silenced.

“You can call it a trick or being a huckster,” he said. “But what I am doing is the right thing. I believe I am answering God,” Dane said in regards to recall campaign efforts.

To oust Edwards, residents will need to collect at least 3,000 signatures to file a recall petition with the Secretary of State’s office. A group in Mesquite mobilized but has yet to collect the necessary signatures. A group to oust Hambrick is doing the same.

The money to help bankroll the recall efforts is at the center of a state-led campaign finance investigation triggered by Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and now run by the attorney general’s office.

The two are investigating whether Dane failed to disclose names of donors after $240,000 funneled into CRC PAC, a political action committee run by Dane.

The attorney general declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Dane told the Sun in January he used his own money to fund the PAC. He said he was hired to "straighten out certain members of the Legislature," but no one told him to fund the PAC.

"Nobody controls the PAC but me. Nobody funds it but me," he said.

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