Thursday, May 20, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JANE ANN MORRISON: Some cry foul as Shaffer, wife play both sides in Senate race

It was Sen. Ray Shaffer's idea, says his wife, Sharon.

Ray Shaffer was a lifelong Democrat until switching to the Republicans before the 2003 Legislature. His reward was a committee chairmanship, a helpful tool for fund-raising.

Now he's looking at the downside of leaving the Democrats: He could lose his election because Senate District 1 is heavily Democratic, with 5,000 more Democrats than Republicans.

As Review-Journal political reporter Erin Neff and I chortled about the ridiculousness of the last day of filings (on which a reverend filed for the County Commission from jail and a sex offender filed for the Assembly), Sharon Shaffer moved to file.

Ray pointed it out. "She's filing to run against me," he said with a smile Friday.

He had suggested to his wife that she enter the Democratic primary, hoping that a woman might have an advantage against four Democratic men. He'll donate $10,000 to help her.

If she wins the primary, it's unlikely she'll mount much of a campaign against him in the general.

Is this a strategy to help her husband win?

"Yeah, probably," Sharon said Tuesday. "I feel deep down he'll win out in the end. It wouldn't bother me if I didn't make it."

There's certainly no political difference between Democrat Shaffer and Republican Shaffer. She couldn't think of one political issue on which they disagree. (Consider how riveting and enlightening it would be if they debated.)

The best known Democrat in the primary, former Assemblyman John Lee, cracked jokes about her filing against her husband.

"Sharon Shaffer is a constituent of Ray Shaffer, and she was probably just as dissatisfied as everyone else," he chuckled.

But when the laughter stopped, some serious questions had to be asked: Does this political trick make a mockery of the political system? Is it a way for the Shaffers to squeeze more dollars out of the same donors?

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, whose open contempt for both the Shaffers was one of the reasons the senator left the Democrats, said the couple's ploy "seems to me corrupt and reinforces people's bad image of politics. It undermines the process."

But using the same or similar names to confuse voters isn't a new trick and isn't illegal.

Early in his political career, former Gov. Bob Miller dropped "Robert" because someone named Robert Miller filed against him in a 1976 justice of the peace race.

Assemblyman David Parks in 2002 faced a salesman with the same name, until the salesman was booted off the ballot because he was a legal resident of California, not Nevada.

State Archivist Guy Rocha couldn't remember another case where a married couple ran against each other.

The closest comparison occurred in 1982 in the Democratic primary when John Gojack ran against his ex-wife, Mary Gojack, in her House bid. "He intended to take votes from her out of spite," Rocha recalled.

Spite didn't work. He came in sixth in the seven-person field; she came in first.

The practice of using the same name "is an unfair manipulation of the system. It's not forthright," Rocha said.

"Those who pursue this rely on the ignorance of the voters," he said. "You can do things like this and make P.T. Barnum proud."

The Shaffers obviously are hoping that Barnum was right and that they can sucker North Las Vegas voters.

They're not the first. The initial name-game twist in this race occurred when perennial candidate, disbarred attorney and former Republican Mike Schaefer, filed as a Democrat, also an effort to obfuscate.

Democratic voters will have to ask themselves what will happen if they elect Sharon Shaffer and she runs in the general against her husband and wins. Then will she pull a Ray Shaffer and switch parties?

And because her husband routinely is at the top of the list of legislators accepting free meals from lobbyists, and she always accompanies him, shouldn't she be criticized for that?

The reality is that her Democratic opponents -- Lee, Schaefer, Chris Colasuono and Gary Rogers -- are unlikely to pound on Sharon Shaffer the way they would challenge her husband.

However, her admission that her filing is a ploy to help elect her husband almost makes John Gojack's motivation of running for spite look sincere.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.