Different official, different party, same result: Campaign finance bill stalls

Once again, and this is certainly nothing new, a Nevada secretary of state proposed a bill that would make it easier to follow the money in state and local races. And once again, Nevada legislators treated it like a roach in the bathtub.

It doesn't matter whether it's former Secretary of State Dean Heller, a Republican, or current Secretary of State Ross Miller, a Democrat. Their bills requiring more disclosure end up flushed down the legislative toilet.

Miller is kinder about it than I am.

When asked why his omnibus bill, Assembly Bill 82, didn't pass, he said, "In a simple sense, the Legislature ran out of time. We were very close to getting it passed. Another hour of the session and it would have passed. It's the closest we've come to passing comprehensive election reform," Miller said. "I can't speculate why it didn't move forward."

Guess that's my job.

It didn't move forward because lawmakers don't want the press or the public to be able to turn on their computers and search quickly to see whether someone contributed to them. They don't want to make it easy for anyone to compile a list of candidates a particular campaign donor gave to, or discover patterns of who gets paid.

The Legislature ran out of time because lawmakers never wanted this bill to pass, and they don't give a hoot that Nevada is consistently ranked at the bottom of lists regarding open access to campaign finance records.

"We're the only state that's moving backward," Miller said. Nevada has gone from the 43rd worst state in campaign transparency to 48th, but Miller promised to try again if he's re-elected. "All the campaign transparency language was stripped out before it left the Senate."

When AB82 failed, it included the last hope for moving municipal elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years and saving the cities in Clark County a combined $1 million every other year. Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, tried again and again to make that change, first as its own bill, then as an amendment to others, but in the end, legislators caterwauling about saving wasted dollars allowed it to fail.

Talk's cheap and it wouldn't have saved state dollars, so apparently local dollars aren't worth saving.

Miller didn't even try to win one fight. He didn't try to change the campaign finance forms so politicians would have to actually reveal how much money they have, including prior elections.

Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, had the guts to propose a bill that would do that. Every year, the annual total balance of the campaign accounts would have to be reported. Lee's Senate Bill 210 would have required people who leave office with war chests to submit proof of how they disposed of the campaign kitty. The law says they can't keep the money or use it for personal use, but how do we know they don't do that?

Lee's bill never had a chance, which tells me Nevada politicians don't want us to know how much money they are stashing away in campaign accounts and political action committees. They've got something to hide and they are going to hide it.

For decades now, I've written a version of this column every two years, stomping Nevada lawmakers for killing campaign transparency bills.

And every two years, they do it again, demolishing bills that would provide us a more honest look at what state and local politicians are doing with all the money you give them.

The crematorium is usually the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections. Two years ago, I hammered the Republican chairwoman of that committee for killing these bills. This year the chairwoman was Democratic Sen. Joyce Woodhouse of Henderson, who got a watered down version of AB82 and SB210 out of committee.

Miller's omnibus bill died when it passed the Senate with amendments and there was no time left (or will left) for the Assembly to concur.

Lee's bill wasn't even heard in the Assembly Elections Committee chaired by Democrat Ellen Koivisto.

So this year, the Democrats deserve the thwacking.

When it comes to protecting their campaign loot from prying eyes, Democrats are just as self-serving as Republicans. But you knew that already.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison/.