Berkley staff mistakenly makes potential foe privy to strategy talk

A recent conference call in which U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley sought to counter campaign maneuvers by potential opponent Michele Fiore had an unexpected listener: Michele Fiore.

The call was captured by Fiore's voice mail, apparently because a Berkley staff member had called Fiore and didn't hang up the phone. Fiore is one of several Republicans seeking the nomination to challenge Berkley in November and provided a copy of the voice mail.

It records Berkley staff members as they discuss a telemarketing drive Fiore initiated to urge voters in Berkley's district to call the congresswoman's office to register opposition to pending health insurance reform legislation. Berkley has said she supports the bill.

One Berkley staff member can be heard saying callers overwhelmed the congresswoman's office.

The Berkley people successfully traced the call back to Fiore by calling a number that showed up on caller identification as the source of the telemarketing call. They had suspected it belonged to one of Fiore's businesses.

"I just used the number calling from a phone that shows 'unknown number' so it couldn't be traced," one staff member said, describing the call made to Fiore's phone. Their mistake was to keep the connection open while planning a response.

Berkley can be heard asking whether they should leak the information to a local Las Vegas columnist. Berkley made the suggestion after speculation the telemarketing push could have violated campaign laws, perhaps because the number was traced back to Fiore's business. If Fiore used her business line to make the call, it could amount to a violation of corporate contribution restrictions.

Richard Urey, Berkley's chief of staff who was on the call, said in an interview that questions about potential campaign finance violations were legitimate.

Urey and Berkley wondered aloud who paid for the call and how Fiore's business number was involved. Urey said in an interview he also wondered whether Fiore had properly filed for office with the Federal Election Commission. Fiore filed in Nevada on March 12 but the FEC Web site doesn't yet reflect her candidacy.

David McGowan, Fiore's campaign manager, said the call traced to Fiore's line because Voice Blaze, the auto-dialing firm that actually did the calls, requires clients to provide a phone number that will show up on caller identification and that was the number Fiore provided.

A script for the automated call shows Fiore disclosed her identity as a candidate and told listeners her campaign was behind the call.

Fiore said if Berkley suspected the call violated campaign restrictions she should have alerted authorities, not sought political advantage.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman
at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.