Sunday, August 22, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN L. SMITH: Moncrief mess presents challenge for notorious huckster Stupak

I knew when Bob Stupak wanted to bet he was working an angle.

It wasn't a tough call. He's always working an angle.

I'd asked him a simple question weeks ago: Had he given money to Janet Moncrief for her controversial City Council campaign? Stupak didn't hesitate.

"No," he said.

He wasn't lying.

You know, technically speaking.

As always, Stupak was doing what he does best.

Namely, shaving reality to fit his game.

The frail, chain-smoking Stupak is a man who will bet you $1,000 he can crank out between two and three hundred pushups. If you take him up on the offer, he'll pump three pushups and remind you three lands between "two and 300."

And there's the time he bet a poker pal that, without touching him, he could get him to leave his seat "by the time I count to 10." The player took the bet, and Stupak commenced counting. When Stupak reached five, he rose from his seat and bid the player good night, thus ensuring victory because he had no intention of counting to 10.

That's Bob. A little casino grift, a little carnival con.

You've heard of sleight-of-hand. His gift is sleight-of-mouth.

Stupak can spiff up and play the high roller, but at heart he's still little Chester Stupak's kid from the South Side of Pittsburgh.

When Bob owned Vegas World, he promoted gadget gambling games, floated coupon campaigns, and even touted the skills of a tic-tac-toe-playing chicken. The games favored the house, of course, and the poultry was a ringer.

He once paid a man $1 million to jump off Vegas World, then charged him a $990,000 landing fee.

Stupak plays politics the way some people play practical jokes. He ran for local offices, nearly won the mayor's seat in 1987, then promoted the entertaining but unsuccessful candidacies of children Nicole and Nevada.

I'd hoped he'd cut politics from his comedic repertoire, but then nurse and campaign neophyte Janet Moncrief surfaced in 2003 in time to challenge and beat embattled incumbent City Councilman Michael McDonald. Moncrief was dating Stupak at the time.

In the middle of the race, McDonald's advisers said they smelled improprieties, but it took a little betrayal from Moncrief's own allies, campaign manager Tony Dane and former Councilman Steve Miller, to send the story from Internet gossip to the grand jury.

When the grand jury transcripts were made public last week, the testimony of Dane and Miller tied Stupak to the partial funding of the campaign.

But Stupak, who for some reason wasn't called before the grand jury, said Thursday he gave Dane casino chips only to pay for campaign volunteers. And Moncrief, believe it or not, knew nothing about it.

Hey, Bob, I believe you're sincere, but I'm not gong to jump off a building to prove it.

"You asked me if I gave her any money for the campaign, and I told you no," he said. "That's a true story. I'm saying I never gave her any money. I gave Mike McDonald $2,000 for a campaign contribution. I gave Dane some money, but I'd swear she didn't know about it.

"If I was a betting man, I'd bet she's 100 percent innocent."

Dane's testimony before the grand jury doesn't refute Stupak's statement. At one point, Dane was asked by Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen, "And how was Bob Stupak involved in funding the campaign?"

Dane: "When some bills needed to be paid, he'd call me over to a casino and sometimes pay me in cash, sometimes he'd pay me in chips."

Hafen: "And was Janet Moncrief aware of that arrangement?"

Dane: "I don't know."

Dane and Miller have a mountain of credibility issues, but at trial Moncrief might need to explain her creative system of campaign disclosure.

All of which leads Stupak to set a line on the outcome.

"I believe she's innocent. I really do," Stupak said. "I'd lay 8-to-1 on it. Maybe I would go for 10-to-1. You have to put a price on everything, right?"

That's the Vegas idea, but in this game it's going to be much harder for our favorite huckster to shave the rules.

Could Moncrief really have been so out of the loop?

Your honor, she was running with Bob Stupak.

How strong could her judgment be?

John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.