Berkley attack ad sets off Heller

WASHINGTON - Tensions have grown in the Nevada race for U.S. Senate as Rep. Shelley Berkley, battling a House ethics probe, releases ads accusing her opponent, Sen. Dean Heller, of indiscretions.

On Wednesday, the Berkley campaign's latest commercial set Heller off.

"Probably the most unethical, corrupt person I've met in my life is Shelley Berkley," Heller told reporters in the latest drama surrounding one of the key Senate showdowns this year.

Heller, a Republican, was reacting to a Berkley ad that highlighted his past ties to Eddie Floyd, a Reno businessman who pleaded guilty in 2006 to laundering drug money and who was sentenced to four years in prison.

"Meet Eddie Floyd, a crooked businessman ... a friend of Dean Heller's," the ad's narrator said over a mug shot of Floyd and a video clip of Heller introducing Floyd as "my friend" on a Pahrump television show in January 2005.

Heller, then Nevada secretary of state, and Floyd professed a mutual friendship. One of Floyd's companies was a sponsor of a race car driven by Heller, a Carson City racing enthusiast.

Floyd was indicted in February 2006 and pleaded guilty later that year. Heller was not implicated in the case.

After his release, Floyd formed a company called Nevada Matters Media that produces radio programming and buys time on local stations for them, selling ads to generate a profit.

Heller's campaign said the two have not had a relationship since 2006. Heller said Wednesday the ad is "just an old story. This is just (Democrats') next tier of desperation."

Heller added of Berkley: "She's saying all these people I know are corrupt and unethical. She's the most corrupt and unethical person I have met."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called attention to a Heller-Floyd connection during Heller's first campaign for Congress in 2006. Then-opponent Jill Derby denied having anything to do with it, while Heller decried it as dirty politics.

The latest Floyd ad is the second Berkley commercial that has sought to link Heller with shady business. The first accused Heller of failing to do anything to stop a $64 million diamond investment scam when he was secretary of state.

Heller and Republican activist groups have run commercials declaring Berkley to be corrupt as she is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for possible conflicts in lobbying on kidney health issues that may have profited her husband, a prominent Las Vegas nephrologist.

Floyd stepped into the fray on Wednesday, saying he took exception to Berkley's commercial. He said Berkley was in Reno on Sept. 7 to record a talk show he produces with host Chip Evans, former chairman of the Washoe County Democratic Party, but she gave no hint of the attack to come.

"I'm a bit puzzled and surprised that Rep. Berkley has such a low opinion of me and of my media company," Floyd said in a statement. "Two weeks ago when Rep. Berkley was in my studios for an interview on my progressive talk show 'Get Real America,' she was warm and friendly to me and to the entire Nevada Matters media staff.

"If Mrs. Berkley was so appalled at my friendship with Mr. Heller almost a decade ago, perhaps she should have declined the interview," Floyd said.

Berkley spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said the issue was not Berkley's appearance on a talk show but the ties between Heller and Floyd.

"That's not what the ad is about," Hinojosa said. "The ad highlights how Dean Heller used his position as secretary of state to promote one of Floyd's companies, which served as a laundering operation for drug money."

The Berkley campaign said it found new ties between Heller and Floyd in the years before Floyd's indictment, including a 2004 Floyd company newsletter in which he said Heller "was instrumental in speeding" the incorporation process for one of Floyd's firms.

Heller's campaign spokeswoman said that the ad was "absurd," and that Berkley "has reached another level of desperation" in the race.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Follow him on Twitter @STetreaultDC.