In Business Las Vegas

Jon Ralston on Politics

Murky by design

ByJon Ralston / Staff Writer

As shareholders in the enterprise known as Nevada Government Inc., you should be very upset about the lack of transparency in the executive pay packages.

Indeed, as many of you attended the biennial meeting this week, where various venues are used for you to vote to retain or install new officers, you had very little information about the people on your ballot. And that's the way they like it.

The campaign finance disclosures made last week by candidates and political action committees provide some information. But they are designed to mislead about the true bank accounts or omit crucial information that might be useful in making a decision on whether to bring in new blood or let the veterans continue at the helm.

Nowhere in private business do investors have as little information as voters do when choosing candidates - and I don't just mean about those judicial hopefuls whose names were mostly unfamiliar to you.

I'm not talking about willful ignorance of a contender's positions; I speak of a system designed to protect incumbent and anointed candidates at all costs - literally.

The problem lies not just in the forms for disclosure, but the deadlines for filing them.

The forms: The lines for contributions on the disclosure documents give the appearance of great detail. Total received in excess of $100 contributions. Total of those received less than $100. A line for loans. A line for in-kind contributions, such as venues for fundraisers or billboards, perhaps.

That's a lot of information, right. And then you can see the individual contributions are detailed on a separate page.

Great. But one line is not on the form and it is crucial: Cash on hand.

There is no way to tell from these forms how much a candidate carried over from a past campaign or past year. Thus the first report of 2008 tells you only what a candidate took in during the first seven months of the year. He or she may well have had $1 million on hand at the end of 2007, but you wouldn't know that. You might think they were broke if you saw a like amount of contributions and expenses. Or see deficit spending during the reporting period and figure the candidate was DOA - only to learn later he or she had six figures carried over from last year.

It's just one little line. Anyone listening up there in the secretary of state's office?

The deadlines: These are the real travesty. In off years - i.e. odd-numbered ones - candidates only have to file an annual disclosure at the end of the year. So county commissioners can be taking contributions in February from a developer with a key vote in March and not have to report them for almost a year.

Who does that benefit? Answer: The donor and the politician.

During the election year there are only three disclosure dates. For the first seven months, candidates and elected officials can rake in cash without telling anyone where their funds are coming from. So, as happened this cycle, one state Senate candidate can say he had his campaign seeded with $50,000, but then refuse to say whence it came.

Who does this benefit? Answer: The donor and the candidate.

Finally, the disclosure dates also leave windows - one week - for anyone to take tons of money that will remain hidden until after the balloting. So a casino owner, for instance, could bundle significant contributions during the last week to help pay for mail pieces or TV spots that could make the difference. Sure it might become an issue after the election - but by then, if all has paid off, it would be too late.

Is there any good reason why contributions should not be posted on a Web site within 48 to 72 hours of being received? Yes. Because that would not benefit the donor and the candidate at all. Send out another SOS for the SOS.

Yes, you should be upset about this obliqueness in the state's campaign financing system, considering that more openness inevitably would produce better government. You should be.

But my guess is you don't care. And that's the way they like it.

In Business commentator Jon Ralston also hosts the news discussion program "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE, publishes the daily e-mail newsletter "RalstonFlash.com" and writes columns and a political notebook for the Las Vegas Sun. To subscribe to Flash, go to www.RalstonFlash.com, or call 990-2550. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

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