Ethics panel says union walked tight line, but no violation

Candidate Richard Ziser complained that the Aug. 30 ad by the Las Vegas Typographical Union No. 933 implied that he did not use union labor in printing a campaign flyer.

The union is commonly referred to as the Printers Union.

The flyer, which contained a union label, was done by a union print shop. But the union was a local of the Machinists Union, not the Printers.

Ziser filed an ethics complaint against his opponent, Jack Levin, who won the Sept. 1 primary, and Printer's boss William Carnes.

William Carnes is the son of Tom Carnes, who is Levin's campaign manager and owner of PDQ Printing.

"The ad implies Ziser didn't use union labor when he did," Commission Chairwoman Mary Boetsch said during a hearing on Thursday.

Ziser argued the ad was false and that Levin or his campaign knew it.

"He knew I would probably lose a lot of votes from union labor and obviously that happened," Ziser said.

But Levin said he had nothing to do with the ad and didn't see it until it appeared two days before the primary.

"I didn't run the ad and didn't pay for it," he said.

In the ad, candidates for various offices who used the Printers Union are shown in bold type. It urges voters to support candidates who "have shown their support for local union workers."

Ziser's name is in plain type.

In addition, a paragraph within the ad criticizes two candidates for reportedly using union labels or something that looked like a union label on flyers when they didn't use union labor. The same paragraph said Ziser "had a machinist union emblem on his campaign material, it was not printed by Printers Union Labor."

But after discussion, commissioners agreed that while the ad implied Ziser was anti-union, the wording was technically accurate and likely would be upheld in court.

Commissioner Hal Smith said it appeared the Printers Union wanted to oust the Machinists Union as the bargaining agent at the shop where Ziser had his materials printed.

The commission voted send a letter to the Printers Union, criticizing the ad.

"I think it's about as close to the line as you can possibly get," Boetsch said.

And while it found no evidence Levin was involved, Boetsch warned him as well.

"In the future, you may want to pay more attention to your campaign," she said. "Ignorance is not going to be a defense for you in the real political world."

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