Tea Party of Nevada candidate Ashjian to remain on ballot

CARSON CITY -- Scott Ashjian of Las Vegas can run for the U.S. Senate as a Tea Party of Nevada candidate because he "substantially complied" with state election laws when he filed his candidacy, a judge ruled Thursday.

An attorney for the Independent American Party of Nevada, which challenged Ashjian's candidacy because he was a registered Republican when he filed his candidacy March 2, said it had not decided whether the decision will be appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court.

The decision is important to Republicans who are concerned that as a Tea Party of Nevada candidate, Ashjian will take votes from their candidates and help U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., win re-election.

Ashjian admitted in court Wednesday that he filed his candidacy at noon at the secretary of state's office in Carson City and didn't change his party registration to the Tea Party of Nevada until three hours later in Las Vegas.

"The best approach is to look at the end of the day on March 2, 2010, to determine if all laws have been complied with," Carson City District Judge James Todd Russell said in his decision. "A technical sequential filing of documents should not control, but an overall good faith attempt to comply should control."

During the court hearing Wednesday, Ashjian's lawyer Allen Lichtenstein said that no one was misled by the sequence taken by Ashjian.

Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Matt Griffin also testified that his office looks at the dates of filing, not at the hours when candidates file.

Ashjian hailed the decision and predicted that he was "100 percent sure" he can beat Reid and the Republican nominee in the November election "by a large margin" because of widespread support among the public for Tea Party ideals of limiting taxes and following the U.S. Constitution.

"The other side claimed I tried to mislead the voters," Ashjian said. "The judge saw right through that."

Ashjian said he filed for office because people who hold Tea Party values have been "duped by the Republican Party."

"Danny Tarkanian and Sue Lowden (Republican U.S. Senate candidates) are showing up at Tea Party events claiming to represent the Tea Party. The GOP is trying to co-opt the Tea Party. That is one of the reasons I did what I did. I don't see a difference between Democrats and Republicans."

While he said he likes Sharron Angle, a GOP Senate candidate who earlier Thursday received the endorsement from the national Tea Party Express, Ashjian said that she cannot win the race and that "Republican attack committees are running the (national) Tea Party show."

But Debbie Landis of the Reno-based Anger is Brewing organization joined the lawsuit against Ashjian's candidacy. She has organized Tea Party events throughout the state, including on Thursday at the state Capitol.

Landis called the Tea Party a state of mind, not a true political party, and contended Ashjian has not attended Tea Party events.

Nonetheless, a group of Ashjian supporters in January filed more than the required 250 signatures to create the Tea Party of Nevada.

"The official Tea Party of Nevada is the party I am a candidate for," Ashjian said Thursday.

Las Vegas lawyer Joel Hansen, who argued the Independent American Party case, said he cannot understand how Russell made his decision.

"The law was clear," Hansen said. "If you make a false statement on a declaration of candidacy, the candidate's name must be stricken from the ballot. I don't know how the judge got around that, but he is the judge."

Hansen, the Independent American Party candidate for attorney general, compared what Ashjian did with someone who gets married before he has gotten a divorce from his current wife.

"You get married in the morning when you are already married and then that afternoon you get a divorce from your first wife," Hansen said. "That is called bigamy."

He had not discussed the decision with party leaders, and they have not decided whether to appeal.

"I don't know what we are going to do," added John Wagner, the Independent American Party's state chairman. "There seems to be one set of laws for the IAP and another for the others."

Contact reporter Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.