Monday, Jan. 18, 1999 | 9:56 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Kenny Guinn didn't stop collecting campaign money after he was elected Nov. 3.
He took in more than $400,000 beyond that date, most of it from big contributors, to give him a record $6.1 million for his campaign, $3.1 million more than Bob Miller when he won re-election in 1994.
Campaign financing reports, filed Friday with Secretary of State Dean Heller, show Guinn also shelled out a record $5.9 million for the campaign, the most costly statewide election in Nevada.
The financial reports detail activities from Oct. 22 to Dec. 19, 1998.
Guinn was able to recoup at least $100,000 of $450,000 he put into the campaign.
The reports were due Friday but are considered filed if they were postmarked by midnight Friday. Many candidates mailed in the documents, which are expected to arrive some time this week.
The voting may have ended Nov. 3, but contributions continued to pour into the Guinn coffers. For instance, affiliates of Harrah's in Illinois, Kansas City, Shreveport, La., and Vicksburg, Miss., kicked in $40,000 on Dec. 30.
The Clark family in Las Vegas -- Bernice, JoAnn and Pat -- all donated $10,000 each in mid-December. After the election, other $10,000 contributions from Las Vegas came from Moroccan Advertising, casino owner Michael Gaughan, Cardinal Rose Inc., Bennett Realty Inc., the Boardwalk hotel-casino and Aristocrat, Inc.
On the day before Christmas, Guinn received $10,000 from the Walters Group, owned by Billy Walters, who has twice been indicted on money laundering charges in Las Vegas. Each time the indictments have been tossed out, and Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa is now considering whether to appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court to reinstate the allegation or go back to the grand jury to try for a new indictment.
Walters had previously given money to Guinn, who returned it after it was disclosed Walters was under investigation.
Guinn also received $5,000 each after the election from the Las Vegas topless nightclub Olympic Garden, Golden Nugget Finance Corp., former Frontier hotel-casino executive Tom Elardi and Casino Data Systems.
Guinn spent $1.7 million on television, $481,775 on radio, $38,738 in newspapers, $655,997 for his staff, $537,091 for consultants and $368,501 for polling.
In the last two weeks of the campaign, Guinn reporting paying Bayer, Brown, Forsythe & Ernaut LLC, $148,473, and made another payment of $141,845 on Dec. 29. Guinn's campaign manager and now chief of staff Pete Ernaut was a partner in that firm. Guinn paid Ernaut's mother, Nancy, $10,500 in the last month of the campaign for her work in rural Nevada. Nancy lives in Elko and was a former leader of the state Republican Party.
Jones' reportLas Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, Guinn's Democratic opponent in the governor's race, received $2.4 million in contributions during the last reporting phase, her 14-page report shows. This includes $26,655 in contributions that totaled less than $100.
During that period Jones spent $246,075 in television advertising -- bringing the TV total for the entire campaign to $1,735,849.
Her expenses for the third reporting period were $402,502, bringing the campaign total to $2,388,678.
The largest contributions listed were each $10,000. Those contributors were: Guam Industrial Services Inc. of Santa Rita, Guam, the Hard Rock hotel-casino, Medley Advisors L.L.C., of New York City, U.S. Utilities of Texas, of Houston, Destron Inc. of Las Vegas, the MGM Grand Hotel Inc. and MGM Grand Inc.
In addition to those contributions, Jones received $10,000 loans from both LaDawn and Michael Kern of Las Vegas and received a $10,000 in-kind donation from Shonkwiler & Marcoux of Las Vegas.
Other notable donations include: $5,000 from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which runs the Spa Casino in Palm Springs, Calif.; $5,000 from Phyllis Binion on behalf of Binion's Horseshoe hotel-casino; $5,000 from Harrah's Laughlin; a total of $20,000 from four members of the Herbst family of Las Vegas; $5,000 from International Game Technology; $5,000 from Mountain Spa Land Management Inc.; $300 from Peppermill hotel-casino in Reno and $5,000 from Sassy Sally's Casino.
Keller's reportDuring the last quarter of 1998, Sheriff Jerry Keller raised $34,250 in what amounted to a near cakewalk to keep his job.
His opponent, Bobby Hitt, dropped out of the race Sept. 14. But people kept on giving.
The vast majority of this money was contributed by Don and Barbara Romano, who each donated $10,000 on Nov. 11.
"I've known Jerry for years, he's doing a terrific job," said Don Romano, a Las Vegas real estate broker and developer. "He's a very bright guy and I support him."
Romano said he doesn't expect anything in return for his and his wife's donations.
"I don't expect anything beyond what he has already given this community -- a good job."
Romano said he remembers when Keller was growing up in Las Vegas and watched his career in law enforcement evolve.
Other reportsNevadans for Medical Rights, the organization that pushed the medical marijuana initiative petition, reported spending $598,568. It collected $609,589 with its biggest contributor, Americans for Medical Rights based in Santa Monica, Calif.
Newly elected Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt reported spending $588,382 but collecting only $407,206.
Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, elected to her third term, collected $403,782 and spent $371,967. Her Republican opponent, Scott Scherer, reported receiving $664,231 and spending $657,499.
Treasurer Brian Krolicki collected $168,115 and spent $157,524 to win his first elective office.
Justice Miriam Shearing, who was unopposed for a second term on the state Supreme Court, received $164,000 and spent $81,143, of which $50,000 went to consultants.
Clark County District Judge Nancy Becker, unopposed for the Supreme Court, collected $158,096 and spent $105,720.
District Judge Myron Leavitt reported spending $278,263 and collecting $284,534 in his victory for the Supreme Court over Mike Powell, who collected and spent $20,913.
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