Thursday, May 06, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Voters focus on lap dance

Commissioner faces queries, challengers in re-election bid

Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey re-affirmed her innocence Wednesday as she filed for re-election while under federal indictment on public corruption charges.

Kincaid-Chauncey, a Democrat, filed for re-election to her District B seat saying she thinks she has a "good chance" of getting through a four-person primary and an expected tough challenge from Republican North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Shari Buck.

"I am innocent and there have been a lot of untrue statements made," Kincaid-Chauncey said. "One thing I can tell you, because I've hounded my attorney long enough, is that I never, ever asked anyone to give my son or anyone else a lap dance."

Kincaid-Chauncey, 65, was indicted Nov. 6 on charges she accepted money from strip club owner Michael Galardi in exchange for political favors. Indictments were also handed down against former commissioners Dario Herrera and Lance Malone, Galardi and three city council members in San Diego, where Galardi also had a strip club under federal investigation.

Former commissioner Erin Kenny has pleaded guilty to charges in relation to the case and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Kincaid-Chauncey's attorney, Richard Wright, was in court last week seeking to have the trial occur Aug. 12. Due to the complexity of the two-year investigation and the amount of telephone transcripts some of the other defendants' attorneys must review, the trial was pushed back to 2005, after this year's elections.

Kincaid-Chauncey's statement about the lap dance refers to a section of the federal indictment in which federal agents discuss a conversation Kincaid-Chauncey had with Malone on Oct. 24, 2001. The conversation revolved around a strip club Kincaid-Chauncey's son and his friends wanted to go to, according to the indictment.

The next day, Malone called a manager at Cheetah's.

"Two rounds of buckets of beer, and for (Kincaid-Chauncey's son) only, you know, give 'em, you know, a hundred dollars, uh, in lap dances," Malone said, according to the indictment.

The indictment states Malone went to Kincaid-Chauncey's house that day and gave her $5,000 in cash. Kincaid-Chauncey then used Malone's cell phone to call Galardi: "Lance is here, so I told him to let me call you and say thanks," the indictment states.

Kincaid-Chauncey also thanked Galardi for taking care of her son, the indictment says.

"It's amazing to me some of the things I read or see on TV," Kincaid-Chauncey said. "It's especially hard for me because I have such a need to explain it."

But the commissioner said she believes in the right to a trial by her peers and said she has "faith in the general public."

She said Wright advised her to run.

"Before any of this happened, I had really considered not running, even," she said. "He thought that I should run. ... And, I really think I still have a lot to offer."

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, a Democrat who filed to run for Kincaid-Chauncey's seat Monday, said she is trying to base her campaign on county issues but still is repeatedly asked to comment on the incumbent's indictment.

"It's something that I'm always having to address, which shows me how important it is in people's minds," Chowning said. "I think it's a huge, huge cloud. It is a very negative image that is cast over, not only Commission District B, but because of the other (former) commissioners' actions, this whole thing has cast a very negative image of the entire commission."

Chowning said she couldn't believe Kincaid-Chauncey would bring up the lap dance issue on the day she filed.

"It's so embarrassing and it's just disgusting," Chowning said. "It seems to me what she's trying to say is, `Oh gee, I'm innocent, and the only thing people want to do is pound me about that indictment.' "

Buck filed Wednesday for the District B seat and said she doesn't discuss Kincaid-Chauncey's legal troubles.

"I'm just going to run a very vigorous race on issues, and we will see who the opponent ends up being and who makes it through the primary," Buck said. "When I tell people I'm running in District B, which is Mary Kincaid's seat, they might want to talk about Mary. But I never really go in that direction with them, because I want them to know who I am and what I'm about."

Democratic Assemblyman Tom Collins plans to file for the office this morning. Collins said he did not want to talk about Kincaid-Chauncey's indictment.

"She's run a lot of times, so it's her choice to say what she wants to," Collins said. "Anybody I talk to who talks about Mary is either sad about Mary or unhappy with their representation. It doesn't matter to me. I'm focused on winning this race."

Democrat John Bonaventura, a former Assemblyman and chief executive officer of the Energy Ventures Organization, also filed for the District B seat this week.