Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Money matters: What recent campaign finance reports tell us about Nevada races

Joe Heck and Catherine Cortez Masto

Republican Congressman Joe Heck reports having $3.8 million in cash on hand in his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto reports $2.5 million on hand in her run for the Senate. Both want to replace Sen. Harry Reid, who is retiring.

The main event of the 2016 election will happen in November, but Nevada's congressional candidates are ramping up both their fundraising and their rhetoric ahead of the state’s June primaries.

Two of the state’s congressional districts and one of its Senate seats are in play this year. Campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission by Friday offer a glimpse into how those elections have developed over the past few months and who are the top contenders in each race.

The heaviest primary battles are between the Republican candidates in the 3rd Congressional District and the Democratic ones in the 4th. Candidates in those districts have already participated in a series of debates and forums as they court Nevadans who will vote in the June 14 primaries. At the same time, they’ve been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote their message gets out in other forms, like through costly paid advertisements.

Here’s a look at how the fundraising numbers shaped up last quarter and how that fits into what’s been happening in each election.

4th Congressional District

The primary battle in the 4th District continues as a three-person fight between state Sen. Ruben Kihuen, philanthropist Susie Lee and former Assemblywoman Lucy Flores after former Assembly Speaker John Oceguera dropped out of the race last month.

The winner of the June primary will go on to challenge Republican Rep. Cresent Hardy, who won the seat in an upset over Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford in 2014. Hardy raked in $191,000 in total contributions and does not face a serious primary battle. He ended the quarter with $760,000 in the bank — the most of any candidate in the congressional race, ahead of what is expected to be a tough fight in November.

On the Democratic side, Lee maintained a fundraising advantage, bringing in $230,000 in the first quarter of the year. That includes $50,000 in loans she made to the campaign plus about $17,600 in campaign expenses she personally paid for. She ended the quarter with about $642,000 in the bank.

“The support this campaign has received so far has been overwhelming to me,” Lee said in a statement.

Kihuen’s campaign, meanwhile, declared victory in the fundraising fight, bringing in about $191,000 in total contributions — without any candidate loans or contributions — and ended the quarter with about $424,000 in cash on hand. Kihuen’s campaign contends it is equally situated to Lee in cash on hand headed into the primary, once money that can only be spent in the general election is subtracted out.

“We outraised our primary opponents and raised the same as incumbent Tea Party Congressman Hardy in Q1,” campaign manager Dave Chase said in a statement.

Flores raised $143,000 in total contributions, and had almost $159,000 on hand at the end of March. She has a significant advantage in name recognition among the three candidates thanks to her run for lieutenant governor in 2014.

The other five Democratic contenders either have not filed their fundraising reports yet or only raised a small amount of money. They include Dan Rolle, Brandon Casutt, Mike Schaefer, Air Force veteran Rodney Smith, and Morse Arberry Jr., a longtime Nevada assemblyman who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for fraudulent appropriation of money.

At a debate last week, the three front-runner candidates pledged to release weekly updates on their fundraising numbers starting this coming Friday. Lee’s campaign released her update early, last Friday, showing she had raised about $8,000 in the first two weeks of April.

On Monday morning, Kihuen’s campaign released his update, showing about $16,000 in contributions over the same time frame. He also released his tax returns for the last two years and called on Lee and Flores to do the same.

Flores’ campaign has yet to release its first update on fundraising numbers, with campaign manager Monica Perez saying the campaign is working on gathering the information but would not release it on Monday. Flores is expected to receive a boost in numbers following a fundraising solicitation sent out last week by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on her behalf.

Kihuen’s campaign also called on Lee on Monday to identify the recipients of $17,600 in campaign expenses she personally paid out. They are itemized generally on her FEC returns as campaign supplies, event sponsorships and supplies, and postage.

Lee’s campaign responded in a statement saying, “The compliance professionals we use who work closely with the FEC group in-kinds by purpose. These were expenses for things Susie paid for directly, including office supplies and Democratic party events.”

3rd Congressional District

Though a handful of Republican hopefuls have thrown their hat in the ring, the numbers show that state Sen. Majority Leader Michael Roberson and businessman Danny Tarkanian continue as the two serious contenders in the fight for the Republican nomination in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District.

The congressional seat is open, as incumbent Republican Rep. Joe Heck is running for U.S. Senate.

Tarkanian brought in more in total contributions than Roberson — $186,000, including about $13,000 in personal in-kind contributions to his campaign. Most of those were listed as contributions to be reimbursed for a variety of expenses including meals, parking and events. He ended the quarter with about $555,000 in cash in the bank.

Over the same time frame, Roberson raised almost $176,000, for a total of $685,000 in cash at the end of the quarter.

Tarkanian said on Twitter on Friday that the two campaigns were “virtually tied” as far as cash on hand, once money that can only be spent during the general election is subtracted out.

It has been an intense fight between Tarkanian and Roberson.

Tarkanian has repeatedly gone after Roberson for helping Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval pass a $1.4 billion tax increase for education through the Nevada Legislature last spring. His campaign launched an ad on Fox News criticizing Roberson’s voting record on issues like taxes, immigration and Common Core. The campaign also released a radio ad last week calling Roberson a “Hillary Clinton protege” for not releasing emails from his official legislative account in response to a records request.

Roberson’s campaign, meanwhile, has tried to paint Tarkanian as unfit for the job, sending out multiple memos detailing past lawsuits against him — including a $17 million judgment against Tarkanian after a land deal went south and allegations made by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation about his record-keeping and accounting practices.

Roberson’s campaign has launched online ads to highlight an “F” grade Tarkanian received from the National Rifle Association in 2006.

Tarkanian has significant name recognition advantage as the son of the late basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian and from several unsuccessful runs for public office, including state Senate, Secretary of State, Congress and U.S. Senate.

Several other candidates also are running for the Republican nomination, but none has come close to reaching the amount that Tarkanian and Roberson have stashed in the bank.

Assemblywoman Michele Fiore raised $165,000 last quarter, but ended with $74,000 in the bank. Physician Annette Teijeiro raised $16,000, and ended the quarter with $110,000 — including a $100,000 personal loan from Teijeiro to her campaign.

Andy Matthews, former president of the conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute, raised $30,000 and had $86,000 in the bank at the end of the quarter. Air Force veteran Kerry Bowers raised $8,100 last quarter, for a total of $4,700 in the bank.

On the Democratic side, synagogue president Jacky Rosen, who was encouraged to run by Sen. Harry Reid, and lawyer Jesse Sbaih are vying for the nomination.

Rosen raised almost $205,000 last quarter, including $35,000 in personal loans to her campaign. She ended the quarter with $166,000 in the bank.

Sbaih has mainly pumped his own money into his campaign, collecting $54,000 in total contributions last quarter while loaning himself another $100,000. At the end of March, he had $603,000 in cash, including a total of $500,000 in personal loans.

Rosen has mainly stayed out of the media since she entered the race in January. Sbaih, however, made headlines in March when he said Reid told him that a Muslim could not win the race. Sbaih is a Muslim immigrant from Jordan. However, representatives from Reid’s office have repeatedly said that Sbaih’s religion was not the reason he was told he couldn't win.

Other Democratic contenders are not expected to raise a significant amount of money. They include Barry Michaels, Steven Schiffman, Alex Singer and Neil Waite.

1st and 2nd Congressional Districts

Neither Democratic Rep. Dina Titus nor Republican Rep. Mark Amodei is expected to face serious fights in June or November as they seek reelection to Nevada’s 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts, respectively.

Titus brought in $108,000 in total contributions last quarter, for a total of $307,000 in the bank. Amodei collected $151,000, and ended the quarter with $286,000 in cash on hand.

U.S. Senate

Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, former Nevada attorney general, won the fundraising battle last quarter over Heck.

Cortez Masto brought in more than $2 million in contributions last quarter, compared to Heck’s nearly $1.7 million. However, Heck ended the quarter with $3.8 million in cash on hand compared to more than $2.5 million for Cortez Masto.

“Every day, more Nevadans are joining our campaign to elect a bipartisan problem solver like Catherine Cortez Masto who will focus on helping Nevadans, not furthering partisan gridlock,” Cortez Masto spokesman Zach Hudson said in a statement.

Though other candidates have entered the race, the two are heavily favored to duel in November to replace Reid, who is retiring from the U.S. Senate at the end of his term. Cortez Masto also is backed by Reid.

“With a $1.3 million cash on hand advantage, we are well positioned to replace Harry Reid with a proven leader,” Heck campaign spokesman Brian Baluta said in a statement.

Former U.S. Senate hopeful Sharron Angle, a Republican, entered the race in March, but her fundraising numbers were not immediately available online.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy