State Sen. Dina Titus was accused Thursday of "laundering" money for her gubernatorial campaign through a committee established to help other candidates.
As head of the Bristlecone Political Action Committee, Titus raised nearly $50,000 in 2004 and 2005, according to reports on file with the secretary of state's office. But instead of devoting the bulk of that money to getting more Democrats elected to the state Legislature, the PAC's supposed purpose, she put $20,000 toward her campaign for governor, according to her Democratic primary opponent, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson.
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The Gibson campaign says that amounts to unethical behavior because, in using the PAC money as "her personal slush fund," Titus betrayed the intentions of the donors -- one of whom was Gibson.
"It's clearer than ever why Dina Titus has failed as Senate minority leader for so many years," Gibson spokesman Adam Candee said. "She helped herself to money that was meant to help others. Nevadans need a leader they can trust, not an unethical politician who cheats Democrats throughout the state by lining her pockets with money intended for other people."
Titus' representatives said the accusations were "way off base."
Not only were the money transfers legal, they were perfectly in line with the PAC's purpose and its donors' intent, political director Marlene Lockard said.
"Dina is in a leadership position" in the Legislature, Lockard said. "People donate to that PAC for her to distribute to Democratic candidates as she sees fit. She is a Democratic candidate."
Gibson is trying to deflect attention from his own ethical problems, Lockard said. "They're trying to muddy the record of a candidate with a stellar record on ethics. It's an old tactic."
Titus has alleged that Gibson improperly took large sums of money from developers and other interests with matters coming before the Henderson City Council.
Each campaign has a cutesy nickname for the other's alleged impropriety: Titus accuses Gibson of "pay to play," while his latest salvo accuses her of "slush and duck."
According to the Bristlecone PAC's registration with the secretary of state in 2002, Titus is the resident agent, president and sole officer of the committee. The "purpose" of the PAC is stated, in full, on the form as "support Democratic legislative candidates."
The PAC took in $47,000 in 2004 from a wide variety of donors, including law firms, unions and Nevada Power. On Sept. 29, 2004, the PAC received $1,000 from James and Lora Lee Gibson.
The PAC gave money to numerous Democrats, with no individual candidate getting more than $500 in 2004. The money didn't go exclusively to legislative candidates, however. For example, Steve Sisolak received $500 for his campaign for university regent.
But the PAC spent less than a quarter of the money it raised in 2004. According to the contributions and expenses report for the end of that year, it spent $10,341.77 of the $47,000.
The PAC raised another $1,832.52 in 2005. In January 2005, the PAC gave $10,000 to Titus for State Senate, even though Titus wouldn't be running for the Senate until 2008 after being re-elected by a landslide to a four-year term.
In June 2005, the PAC gave $10,000 to Friends for Dina Titus, her gubernatorial campaign.
The gubernatorial campaign also got $350,000 left over from Titus' state Senate campaign, money that Gibson's campaign says probably included the $10,000 from the PAC in January.
Lockard couldn't say with certainty whether the $10,000 from the PAC to the Senate campaign was rolled over to the gubernatorial campaign, but she acknowledged two $10,000 donations from the PAC to Titus.
"Rolling over" money from a candidate's campaign for one office to the campaign for another is legal and common. Gibson, for example, took $400,000 raised for his next mayoral run and dumped it in his gubernatorial fund in 2005.
Gibson's campaign says the difference is that Gibson's donors knew they were giving to Gibson, whereas Bristlecone's donors didn't know they were largely giving just to Titus. Besides the $20,000 in donations to Titus' two committees, the PAC gave out just $1,750 in 2005, in individual donations no larger than $900.
Candee pointed to Gibson's donation to the PAC. Gibson gave that money because he hoped to help elect a Democratic Legislature, he said, not because he intended to fund his opponent's campaign.
"There are plenty of ways to give to Dina Titus if that was what the donors (to the PAC) wanted to do," Candee said.
Titus' camp says Gibson is distorting facts to distract from the problems with his own record.
Gibson has been airing a television commercial in Southern Nevada that criticizes Titus for votes in favor of telemarketers and insurance companies and for a 300 percent pension increase. "With all this going on, how can she possibly represent you?" the ad asks.
Titus says those claims are disingenuous. She voted for a bill that would give out driver's license information, but only to a university traffic studies program, not to telemarketers, she said. She pointed to multiple votes in favor of increased regulation of telemarketers.
As for the pension increase, she noted the 300 percent increase was from $25 to $100 per year and that it wouldn't have applied to her , a freshman legislator in 1989. Furthermore, after a public outcry, the pension increase was repealed, and Titus was one of those voting for repeal.
