Thursday, October 31, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

'Dirty tricks' hit race for Senate

Late-night calls foul District 9 contest

When hundreds of Senate District 9 voters received middle-of-the-night calls Wednesday touting the candidacy of Democrat Terry Lamuraglia, those awakened were not amused.

Robert Scher said he was called at 4:25 a.m. and answered the phone to a recorded message urging him to vote for Lamuraglia.

"If they (Lamuraglia's staff) are doing it, they are morons, and they're going to lose my vote," said Scher, one of 455 voters called between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

The calls originated from an AFL-CIO computer, and labor leader Danny Thompson said a computer hacker broke into the system and launched the calls to try to annoy voters.

"It's dirty tricks time," said Thompson, secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO.

The likely beneficiary, Republican Dennis Nolan, insisted his campaign was not to blame.

Nevada Republican Party consultant Joe Brezny, creator of a series of hard-hitting mail pieces targeting Lamuraglia, denied any involvement. "We would never hack into someone's database to win," Brezny said. "We're not going to break the law."

The sleep-depriving calls were yet another sign that District 9, one of two Senate districts where both parties feel they have a chance to win, has become a nasty battleground.

District 9 is critical in determining which party controls the Senate. Republicans now have a 12-9 advantage, and Democrats would have to win two more seats to gain the majority. The other seat in play is in Washoe County, where GOP incumbent Maurice Washington is pitted against Democratic challenger Joe Carter.

The state GOP's mailers targeting Lamuraglia highlight his former job as a county lobbyist and his current job as a supervisor in the county, questioning the one-time firefighter's loyalty to his fellow firefighters.

Although the fliers use humor and have prompted some Democrats to call them among the most imaginative of the election season, Lamuraglia isn't laughing.

One Republican mailer "infers I was some sort of drunk. It's showing me as some sort of alcoholic, and I think it's horrible," Lamuraglia said, noting that he's not attacking Nolan in his campaign materials.

Nolan said he asked the party to pull the fliers but politely was told the party would not, as it has a stake in the outcome. Thousands of the fliers have gone out to the district's 61,000 voters.

Nolan, who defeated Richard Bunker in the GOP primary, had written to voters in the district saying he and Lamuraglia had met and agreed "to run our campaigns free from mudslinging politics. It's easy to spin half-truths and distribute them as fact."

That's exactly what Lamuraglia charges the GOP has done. Brezny, who also serves as executive director of the Senate Republican Leadership Caucus, insisted the fliers are factual and don't stretch the truth.

The first mailer sent to voters featured an armadillo and the message "Treating Taxpayers Like Roadkill." Inside, a rat holds a stop sign up telling voters to "stop Terry Lamuraglia." The text oversimplifies Lamuraglia's current job, saying he "is paid $116,080 to supervise Animal Control while he runs for state Senate."

Lamuraglia, a former county lobbyist, was reassigned to supervise park police, code enforcement and animal control to avoid a conflict of interest after he decided to run for office.

Another anti-Lamuraglia mailer depicts a sleazy-looking lounge singer wearing a houndstooth jacket. The message is that as a lobbyist, Lamuraglia "spent over $15,000 on meals and bar tabs" but didn't report spending anything on lobbying legislators. "But he made us pay the bill anyway. Maybe he was drinking to forget."

Brezny said that in three sessions as a lobbyist, Lamuraglia had been reimbursed more than $15,000 on meals and bar tabs. None of the expenditures was reported as a lobbying expense on behalf of a legislator. An examination by the Review-Journal over the summer of the records of all the county lobbyists showed that in the 2001 session, Lamuraglia was the big spender on the lobbying team at $7,779, or an average of $65 per day, in reimbursed expenses for meals and entertainment.

Another GOP mail piece, expected to arrive today, knocks Lamuraglia for lobbying on behalf of a collective-bargaining bill in the 1995 session, his first as a lobbyist for the county. The county supported the bill, which died in the Assembly. But the mailer says Lamuraglia "cut a backroom deal to cut firefighter and teacher salaries."

"The backroom stuff is not accurate at all," Lamuraglia said. "I wasn't allowed in anybody's back room in 1995. I was a newbie."

Lamuraglia is focusing primarily on positive mailers and television spots featuring himself and his mother.

His one hard-edged piece against Nolan raps the Republican for supporting a statewide property tax.

Nolan said the state party ads make him uncomfortable. "I don't think they help. Democrats will cross party lines if they like a candidate, and this won't help them like me."