Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Assemblywoman settles complaint over use of campaign funds

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Kathy McClain

Sun Coverage

Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, settled a complaint with the Secretary of State on Friday for using campaign funds to pay her health and public employee retirement benefits.

McClain agreed to donate $7,276 to a charity, the same amount she used to pay into her public employee retirement fund this year because of time she missed from her Clark County job.

The Nevada law says, "It is unlawful for a candidate to spend money received as a campaign contribution for his personal use."

Secretary of State Ross Miller sent a letter Friday that said the payments to her retirement fund "do not relate to her service in the Assembly and are more properly characterized as a personal obligation."

There were a total of nine payments to retirement, health benefits and for rent. Miller said in an interview that rent while legislators were serving in Carson City was an acceptable expense, but retirement and health benefits were not.

Two other Assembly members, in 2005, used campaign funds to pay for health benefits while serving in the Legislature.

Miller said most of the other charges were dropped because the statute of limitations had passed on the payments; he said a $1,945 payment McClain's campaign made to her health benefits in February of this year wasn't addressed because of the agreement to settle.

McClain, in reaching the deal with fellow Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller, avoided prosecution, as she faced a fine of $5,000 for each violation.

Miller, in an interview, said that despite previous interpretations of the law on what campaign funds can be spent on, "we intend to aggressively enforce those violations in the future."

He cited the consideration of future legal costs, as well as the fact that McClain reported all the contributions, as reasons for not pursuing legal action.

McClain maintained that she did nothing wrong, but the letter by Miller stipulated that Miller's "conclusion could be sustained" in court. McClain, who is running for state Senate, said, "To this day, I think it was allowable ... But it was more complicated than I could ever imagine."

McClain's primary opponent for state Senate, fellow Assembly member Mark Manendo, said in a statement, "Just because Kathy McClain didn’t ‘mean’ to break the law doesn’t change the fact that she still broke the law."

McClain said, "That's his opinion. This race is based on qualifications. I feel strongly I'm a much better candidate."

McClain's donation will go to Safe Nest, a Las Vegas nonprofit for domestic violence victims. McClain said it will come from her own pocket.

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