Nye County shows shift to GOP

Nye County, a traditional Democratic stronghold, has gone Republican.

Figures released by Secretary of State Dean Heller on Wednesday shows the registration at 7,178 for the GOP, or four more voters than the Democrats have. There are now 13 of Nevada's 17 counties that have a majority of Republicans registered.

Heller reported statewide registration at 368,568 for the GOP and 364,252 for Democrats. There are 879,736 voters registered, including 122,329 nonpartisans, 16,216 Independent Americans and the rest scattered through other minor parties.

Democrats in Clark County continue their majority at 243,605 to 212,519 for Republicans. There are 547,199 voters registered in Clark County.

ENSIGN TARGETED -- The League of Conservation Voters announced Wednesday that it is targeting Nevada GOP Rep. John Ensign for defeat in November as part of its $2 million "Dirty Dozen" campaign to thwart 12 "anti-environment" politicians.

"We're working to clean up the environment by cleaning up Congress," Deb Callahan, the league's president, said in Washington, D.C.

Ensign, who is locked in a tough Senate battle with incumbent Democrat Sen. Harry Reid, "doesn't have a lot of empathy for people working to protect the air and water," Callahan said.

In addition to Ensign, the latest targets are Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C.; Rep. Linda Smith, R-Wash.; House candidate Tom Bordonaro, R-Calif.; and Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala.

The first six targets, announced last June, were Reps. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho; Mark Neumann, R-Wis.; Bill Redmond, R-N.M.; Charles Stenholm, D-Texas; John Hostettler, R-Ind.; and former Rep. Bob Dornan, R-Calif., who is seeking to make a comeback this year.

The league, which acts as the political arm for more than 9 million members of national environmental groups from the Sierra Club to the American Sportfishing Association, plans to spend $2 million on ads and get-out-the-vote efforts before the Nov. 3 election.

The league is the second national environmental group to thrust itself into the Nevada Senate race -- one of the most closely watched in the nation. Last month, the Sierra Club endorsed Reid and ran radio advertisements attacking Ensign's environmental record.

Ensign's campaign manager, Mike Slanker, called the groups' efforts "pure politics."

"Harry Reid is strong-arming these guys to come into this race," Slanker said. "He's going to grab every liberal group to run ads on his behalf because he's got nothing to run on," Slanker said.

Reid campaign spokeswoman Jenny Backus said "it's no surprise to us that (Ensign) is being named to the Dirty Dozen list because his environmental record has been disastrous.

"Yet another independent group has a problem with Congressman Ensign and his record," she said, "and instead of facing up to his record, he's ducking behind childish one-liners."

Although Ensign scored points with the environmentalists for his opposition to sending nuclear waste to Nevada, he and the group disagreed on several issues in 1997. For instance, Ensign voted to maintain subsidies for timber companies' road construction. Environmentalists oppose these logging roads, saying they trigger erosion and mud slides and endanger wildlife habitat.

Two years ago, seven of the 12 congressional candidates on the League of Conservation Voters' hit list were defeated, although most were vulnerable for reasons beyond their environmental voting records.

The league said it chose its targets based on their perceived vulnerability and their low rankings on the group's annual National Environmental Scorecard.

"We look at campaigns where we believe we can make a margin of difference of two or three or four points -- enough to affect the outcome in close races," Callahan said.

NO DEBATE -- The Nevada Press Association planned a political debate at its annual convention this weekend in Carson City, but U.S. Senate hopeful John Ensign and GOP gubernatorial nominee Kenny Guinn will be no-shows.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be at the NPA meet, and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jan Laverty Jones also is expected to show. But instead of a debate, the format will be question-and-answer.

NPA executive director Kent Lauer said a spokesman for Rep. Ensign, R-Nev., had been asked repeatedly to confirm whether the congressman would attend, and finally said last week that he couldn't because the House may be voting on Saturday.

Lauer said Guinn was invited to attend in early August and a campaign aide, Mike Getto, said at the time that Guinn's schedule was still being decided. Last week, Lauer said Getto told him that Guinn had to attend a Utah fund-raising event.

The "cast and blast" fund-raiser -- featuring fly fishing and skeet shooting -- is expected to raise about $200,000 for Republican governors and GOP nominees from several Western states.

Guinn campaign chief Pete Ernaut said Getto had told Lauer that the request would be reviewed, but Getto didn't realize at the time that the Utah event already had been scheduled on the same weekend as the NPA convention.

ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS -- A Las Vegas executive and his company have paid $160,000 in fines for funneling illegal contributions to Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign.

The payments and a guilty plea by the executive come two years after The Kansas City Star uncovered the scheme at DeLuca Liquor & Wine Ltd., one of Nevada's largest liquor wholesalers.

The Star reported in 1996 that Ray Norvell, vice president in charge at DeLuca, supplied thousands of dollars to his workers and their families. They then wrote individual checks to the Dole campaign, evading a ban on corporate contributions and a $1,000 cap on individual donations.

"Ray Norvell did not know he was doing anything wrong," his lawyer, Ken Gross, said Tuesday. "But he has come to this resolution to put the matter behind him."

In a plea agreement, Norvell acknowledged using the scheme to funnel $10,000 into the Dole campaign. He pleaded guilty to one count of making an illegal campaign contribution and one count of using the name of another person to make a contribution. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Norvell paid a $100,000 criminal fine and a $10,000 civil fine to the Federal Election Commission. His company paid $50,000 to the commission.

In return, prosecutors agreed not to file criminal charges against the corporation. DeLuca is controlled by the William Wirtz family of Chicago, whose half-billion-dollar business empire includes the Blackhawks hockey team.

In an interview two years ago, Norvell said he gave his employees $5,000 each to use for political contributions, and they were free to contribute the money to whomever they liked. Although that arrangement would have been illegal, a resulting U.S. Senate investigation concluded Norvell's true actions were an even more clear violation.

"Documents indicate that those employees who contributed to the Dole campaign were given money specifically for those donations and not as part of some general 'contribution allowance,' " the Senate governmental affairs committee said in a report issued earlier this year.

"The corporate payment stub attached to the check for Norvell actually included the notation 'Campaign -- Dole.' "

The committee found no evidence that Dole or his staff knew of the scheme.

MINORITIES SHUNNED -- Political candidates of minority races are shortchanged when it comes to contributions, a new report says.

The "Color of Money" study, released Wednesday, said in the last election that blacks were at the bottom of campaign fund raising in both the Assembly and Senate. Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, collected $62,427 in 1996; Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Reno, raised $52,184; and Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, took in $20,675.

The average amount raised to win a Senate race was $174,628, and in the Assembly it was $68,100.

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and the NAACP of Northern Nevada said the study shows "people of color, in general, being locked out of the big-money world of politics." The study suggests this could be cured by having public financing of elections rather than relying on private donations.

OFFICERS SOUGHT -- The Clark County Election Department is seeking 1,000 civic-minded citizens to serve as Election Board officers for the Nov. 3 election.

Applicants will be required to attend training sessions and pass an exam in order to qualify for the job. Officers will be paid $100 to $120. Those interested in serving should call 455-2815 for more information.

UPCOMING FORUMS -- The following political forums have been scheduled in the Las Vegas Valley:

The Southern Nevada Domestic Violence Task Force will hold a candidates' night after rededicating the victim's memorial at the Clark County Government Center on Oct. 1. The task force will add the names of eight homicide victims to the memorial at 6:30 p.m., and host the candidates' night at 7 p.m.

On Oct. 2 the League of Women's Voters will hold its candidates' night at the Classroom Building on the UNLV campus. Six candidates for County Commission are scheduled to answer questions from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. KLVX Channel 10 will broadcast the event live.

The Clark County Republican Men's Club is sponsoring a Candidates in the Park Day on Oct. 24. It will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sunset Park.

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