CARSON CITY -- A new report says the average amount raised to win a Nevada Supreme Court seat in 2004 was up 73 percent -- to nearly $544,000 per candidate -- compared with the 2002 elections, and most of the money came from lawyers, the casino industry and other special interests.
The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada report says the nine candidates for high court seats raised a total of more than $3 million, and the three winning candidates, Justices Jim Hardesty, Michael Douglas and Ron Parraguirre, took in more than half of those contributions.
Advertisement
The winners also were strongly supported by lawyers and the casino industry, the report says.
"Perhaps the only thing rising faster than the price of gasoline is the cost of winning a Nevada Supreme Court seat," the PLAN report says.
"There are no big surprises on who the donors are," Paul Brown, PLAN's Southern Nevada director, said in releasing the Supreme Jackpot report Tuesday. He said lawyers gave $825,255 of the total, the candidates themselves kicked in $500,558, and the gambling industry gave $395,532.
A breakdown of the casino industry contributions showed $79,455 came from executives or subsidiaries in the Mandalay Bay Group; $53,500 from MGM Mirage individuals or business entities; $33,050 from Boyd Gaming; $26,058 from Station Casinos; and $25,000 from IGT.
Attorneys from the big Lionel Sawyer & Collins law firm gave $31,898, followed by attorney Laura FitzSimmons' office at $25,000, Harrison Kemp & Jones at $21,750, Echeverria Law Office at $21,000 and Jones & Vargas at $20,289.
The PLAN report said other major contributors included: finance-insurance-real estate, $282,293; business, $271,512; communications and electronics, $179,800; and construction, $176,857.
Nevada law limits campaign contributions to $10,000 per candidate from any one individual or company, but Brown said the law "is full of loopholes and routinely skirted."
He added that while donors didn't break the letter of the law on contribution caps, "they certainly broke the spirit of the law."
"Dedicated justices and responsible lawyers do not like this money-driven circus," said Jim Hulse of Common Cause of Nevada, who joined with Brown in detailing the report.
"We must change the perception that seats on the Nevada Supreme Court are for sale," Hulse added. "It is past time to reform judicial elections."
Craig Walton of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics said he was joining Common Cause and PLAN in urging Gov. Kenny Guinn to name a commission on judicial selection.
