Local firm under Federal Election Commission scrutiny for contributions to Reid

A local architecture firm that recently won an $8.3 million federal contract to redesign a U.S. border crossing in California is being investigated by the Federal Election Commission for irregular campaign contributions to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is up for re-election next year.

  Full story in Thursday's Las Vegas Review-Journal

Henderson resident Randy Spitzmesser prompted the FEC probe of his former employer, Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects.

On behalf of the architecture firm, Las Vegas attorney Stan Hunterton told the Las Vegas Review-Journal by fax last month, “We do not believe that anything was intentionally done wrong” regarding campaign finances.

Spitzmesser also thinks Henderson-based Tate Snyder Kimsey did not adequately disclose its recent history of legal disputes to the agency that awarded the border-crossing job.

His FEC complaint alleges the architecture firm illegally forced him to donate $1,000 to Reid in February and then covertly repaid him after he complained he didn’t have the money to spare. The firm hid the transaction, he said, by adding an extra $1,000 to a check that was also his reimbursement for legitimate business expenses. Federal laws prohibit campaign contributions that come from corporations, disguise the true donor’s identity or involve coercion.