Heller-Berkley race getting ugly over ethics

The U.S. Senate race took another brutal turn on Wednesday as Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller launched a harsh TV ad accusing his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, of having "a history of public corruption" dating from the late 1990s through an ongoing House ethics investigation.

Heller said he stood by the attack "100 percent," but stopped short of saying Berkley is unfit for office.

"I think it's true," Heller said of the ad in an interview. "I don't even think it's true; I know it's true."

Asked if he believed the string of ethics issues involving Berkley dis­qualified her from public office, Heller said: "That's for voters to decide, not for me. But everything that's said in that ad is true."

Berkley tried to turn the tables on Heller last Friday by launching her own TV spot that accused him of allowing a $64 million diamond stock trading scandal to happen while he was Nevada secretary of state.

In his first comments on the TV ad, Heller dismissed the Berkley attack as unfounded. He said 30,000 corporations file every year in Nevada and he can't be blamed for one company's misdeeds.

"We have one rogue corporation out there, and for them to try to link this to me is absolutely ridiculous," Heller said. "And those who have tried to put that link together realize that at best it's laughable."

The harshening tone of the Senate race comes as the two candidates reached out Wednesday to core constituencies for support in one of the closest contests in the nation.

The outcome of the Nov. 6 election could decide which party controls the Senate, now run by Democrats led by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Berkley spent the morning addressing Hispanic activists and drawing a sharp distinction between herself and Heller on everything from immigration and Medicare to women's pay and reproductive rights.

Several hours later and one mile away in downtown Las Vegas, Heller addressed a joint luncheon of the North Las Vegas and Henderson chambers of commerce. Most of the business-friendly groups' members favor GOP efforts to extend all Bush-era tax cuts to help small businesses.

Heller has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as the Chamber of Reno, Sparks and Northern Nevada.

Heller's new ad, the second dealing with Berkley's ethics, reached back to when she was a lawyer working for Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson, a Republican who ended up firing her over union differences.

"Shelley Berkley urged her boss to give money to judges and county commissioners to get special favors," the ad says. "She got fired."

Berkley hasn't denied giving the advice to Adelson. The information came out when recorded phone conversations were leaked as she ran for Congress for the first time in 1998. She won anyway.

"Fact: In Congress, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee has voted unanimously to investigate Berkley for using her office for personal gain," the Heller campaign commercial says.

Berkley said she did nothing wrong in working with Heller and other law­makers to keep the kidney transplant center from closing at the University Medical Center. She didn't disclose at the time, however, that her husband, Dr. Larry Lehrner, had a financial interest in the kidney center.

The ethics panel also is examining bills Berkley pushed to keep Medicare reimbursement rates high for dialysis treatment, which also could have helped her husband's dialysis centers. Berkley has said her only goal in advocating on kidney issues and other health matters is protecting Nevada patients.

Her campaign slammed Heller's ad, which was released the same day Crossroads GPS, an independent GOP-funded Super PAC, put out a new ad hitting Berkley on ethics as well.

"Another day, another over-the-top attack ad from Senator Dean Heller and George W. Bush's political hit man Karl Rove," said Xochitl Hinojosa, Berkley's campaign communications director.

Hinojosa called it "an attempt to distract from the fact that Heller's plan to essentially end Medicare is getting national attention after Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan, the proposal's architect, as his running mate."

The TV ad Berkley launched against Heller on Friday accused him of allowing CMKM Diamonds Inc. to cheat investors out of $64 million by selling penny stocks in shares of the company with the promise of profits from diamond mines that didn't exist.

In 2009 and 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission indicted about a dozen people in the scheme.

CMKM Diamonds incorporated in Nevada in 2002. Heller was secretary of state from 1994 until 2006.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.