Monday, July 12, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: GOP consultant aims to help get Nader on ballot

Wark raised money for petition drive

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader speaks on June 27 at an evening state nominating convention on the University of Washington campus in Seattle. Nader's petition drive to get on the Nevada ballot was helped by Republican political consultant Steve Wark. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Steve Wark GOP consultant has raised money to help Ralph Nader qualify for the Nevada ballot Jerry Tao Chip Maxfield Bill Young Sheriff key to Bush-Cheney First Responders Coalition

A Republican political consultant is largely responsible for Ralph Nader's successful petition drive in Nevada.

Steve Wark helped establish Choices for America to raise money to help Nader qualify.

Democrats won't be surprised to learn of the GOP's involvement in Nader's efforts in Nevada, so Wark isn't pulling any punches.

He did it solely to help President Bush's efforts. Does he think Nader will make the difference in the Silver State for Bush?

"I would hope so," Wark said. "I didn't do it for my own health."

Wark is a political consultant working on a number of political campaigns, most notably the U.S. Senate bid of Richard Ziser and the re-election campaign of state Sen. Ray Rawson. His mother-in-law is Earlene Forsythe, Nevada Republican Party chairwoman.

Democratic voter Lorraine Blank suspected some kind of Republican link to the Nader signature qualifications when she first read about Nader's petition in the newspaper.

"I think it's dirty tricks," Blank said. "It's just like the 2000 election, discounting the votes in Florida."

Wark's Choices for America helped solicit cash to get the signatures on the ballot by reaching out to Republican chairmen in Nevada's counties.

"Please join me in this gallant effort to give our President the best chance possible of winning in November," ended one e-mail, sent by Republican Stu Richardson to a variety of Republican operatives.

The e-mail asks for money to be sent to Wark's home in Las Vegas, and estimates that $30,000 will be needed to qualify Nader for the ballot in time for the July 9 deadline.

Wark said he didn't consider his work to be akin to the Republican Party efforts in Michigan and Oregon to get Nader on the ballot there. He insisted Nader had a representative in Nevada working on the efforts.

"I raised money from friends of mine who are nonpartisan," Wark said. "It wasn't all Republicans, just folks I do business with."

Wark's Image and Design consulting firm has a stable of political clients this year. In addition to Ziser and Rawson, he's got two out-of-state Republican Senate clients, Republican Assembly candidate Jon Petrick and Republican Supreme Court candidate Don Ashworth.

Clarification sought

The secretary of state's office is asking Jerry Tao, a Democrat running for the Clark County Commission, to clarify what he's reported on his campaign finance forms.

The campaign of incumbent Commissioner Chip Maxfield filed a complaint last Tuesday alleging Tao has accepted $150,000 above the allowable amount for his campaign thanks to two loans reported in November from both himself and his father, Louis Tao.

A candidate is permitted to loan his campaign unlimited amounts, but another person may only contribute up to $10,000 in an election year.

Tao said there was nothing nefarious about the loans or the promissory notes attached to them which state that Tao's campaign would repay the candidate's loan with interest.

"That language is kind of borrowed from standard loans," said Tao, a deputy district attorney. "I just copied that language. I'm not going to sue my campaign for not paying interest."

Tao said the loan is secured by equity he has in two homes, one in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and one in Virginia. The Virginia home took some political observers for surprise when he mentioned it in a newspaper account because he doesn't list that home on his financial disclosure report.

State financial disclosure reports only require notice of property owned in adjacent states.

In the complaint filed with the secretary of state, Maxfield campaign consultant Brian Catlett said: "Mr. Tao is an attorney and should be able to legally navigate the state of Nevada campaign finance laws."

Tao agrees he made some mistakes.

"Obviously, that whole loan thing was kind of a screw up," Tao said. "It's just a couple of clerical errors on the form."

He has until July 27 to convince the secretary of state.

Young's many hats

Sheriff Bill Young wears many hats this election year.

He's the public face of an effort to raise the sales tax to fund police officers. The Republican also stood up to endorse Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Last Friday, he was a key element in the Bush-Cheney campaign's First Responders Coalition.

To that end he got political in ways that might not impress Reid nor Democratic voters who may be key to the tax plan.

Young read from a script supplied by the campaign to condemn the death of Jim "Feisty" Lawson, a man he said died in the summer of 2002 as a result of the closure of University Medical Center's trauma center. That temporary closing came at the height of the state's medical malpractice crisis and just weeks before the Legislature convened in special session to work on tort reform. No deaths have ever before been attributed to the center's closing.

"Both (Sen. John) Edwards and (Sen. John) Kerry have consistently opposed or voted to block tort reform," Young said.

He then talked about the virtues of the USA Patriot Act and then used Jose Padilla, the prisoner the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled deserves a day in court, to highlight successes of Bush's war on terrorism.

"Senator Kerry helped to write the Patriot Act and now says he won't renew it because of bogus claims about civil liberties," Young said.

After the news conference, Young was asked to elaborate on those claims.

"They think there are violations of the act in which it's used outside terrorism cases," Young said. "To my knowledge, it's just not true."

Sage grouse update

As dozens of statements were buzzing across the Internet on Friday commenting on the federal appeals court's Yucca Mountain decision, Gov. Kenny Guinn took time to brief constituents on another pressing matter.

His "Message from the Governor" on Friday discussed, in great detail, the finalization of a sage grouse conservation plan.

Contact political reporter Erin Neff

at 387-2906 or ENeff@reviewjournal.com.