Transparency Review (7/25-7/29)

• Transparent Nevada continues adding 2010 public employee salary data. This week, Lyon, Mineral, and Storey counties were added, as well as the LVCVA salaries. Continue checking http://transparentnevada.com for updated information.
• Former North Las Vegas City Councilman Richard Cherchio will challenge his election recount in court. Cherchio lost his Ward 4 election to Wade Wagner by one vote and Cherchio's attorney told the Las Vegas Sun "There's at least one invalid ballot cast in Ward 4."
• Disgraced Congressman David Wu, D., OR, could receive over $1 million in his congressional pension plan. According to The Oregonian, even though congressional pensions aren't public records, the National Taxpayers Union was able to estimate his pension based on his age, seniority, and life expectancy.

Oregon congressman resigns amidst rape allegations

On Tuesday, Congressman David Wu, D., OR, announced his resignation, effective once the debt-ceiling vote is taken,  after allegations surfaced he had an "unwanted sexual encounter" with a teenage girl last Thanksgiving.

Originally, Wu insisted he wouldn't resign and instead stated he wouldn't seek reelection in 2012. However, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D., CA, requested an Ethics Committee investigation into Wu's behavior.

If Wu hadn't resigned, the Ethics Committee couldn't have charged him with a crime but they could have referred his case to the Department of Justice, as they did with the John Ensign case.

Wu has a history of erratic behavior, such as sending an infamous picture of himself in a tiger costume to campaign staffers during last November's elections.

Transparency Revew (7/18-7/22)

• TransparentNevada recently updated its database with 2010 public employee salaries. Compiled by NPRI's Eric Davis, the data includes payrolls from most major cities and counties, as well as the state's higher education system. Transparent Nevada's announcement was featured in news reports on local Las Vegas channels Fox 5, CBS Channel 8, and ABC Channel 13.


• Secretary of State Ross Miller enacted an emergency regulation to reimburse Nevada counties participating in the September 13 CD-2 special election. According to the Nevada News Bureau, the emergency regulation allows counties to submit invoices and documents to the state for election reimbursement, even though Miller admitted neither the counties nor the state budget for special elections.


• NPRI's Steven Miller reports that Assembly Speaker and recently announced Congressional candidate John Oceguera contradicted himself on how much he was paid by the NLV Fire Department during the legislative session. According to payroll documents obtained by Nevada Journal, Oceguera was paid at an 18-hour-per-week rate for most of the session as opposed to the nine-hours-per-week Oceguera claimed he worked.


• Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston breaks down the campaign finance reports from the past Las Vegas City Council elections. Ralston notes that donations received after June 30 won't be disclosed until January 2012, at the earliest.

Ensign's campaign spent over $650K on attorney fees

Former Senator John Ensign, R., officially drained his campaign's bank account by refunding supporters and paying legal fees.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Ensign returned nearly $97,000 to donors and paid over $50,000 in legal fees during his Senate Ethics Committee investigation.

Furthermore, the RJ reported Ensign's campaign spent $650,000 in lawyers fees in the two years he disputed his ethics violations.

Ultimately, the Senate Ethics Committee found Ensign guilty of several campaign finance and obstruction of justice violations, including the use of campaign funds to cover up his extramarital affair, and referred his case to the Department of Justice.

SOS Miller floats names for redistricting panel

Secretary of State Ross Miller has offered his own suggestions for the potential "masters" of the court-ordered redistricting panel.

Miller listed seven names on his Twitter feed last Thursday night, with notables including former U.S Senator and Nevada Governor Richard Bryan, D., former State Senator Bill Raggio, R., and former State Senator Terry Care, D.

Lawyers for both parties are expected in court again on Wednesday, July 20 to present their respective "masters" recommendations. Judge James Todd Russell hasn't announced a timeline for appointing members to the panel.

Transparency Review (7/11-7/15)

• Governor Brian Sandoval, R., agreed to eliminate 18 executive branch committees, counsels and panels as recommended by the Governor's Sunset Task Force, reports the Nevada News Bureau. Additionally, the Task Force, chaired by former State Senator Bill Raggio, R., Washoe, recommended all future panels be established with a mandate to follow the state's revised Open Meeting Laws.
• NPRI's Karen Gray reports how Clark County School District trustees plan on limiting new superintendent Dwight Jones's authority despite the district's Policy Governance® paradigm they've followed for years.
• House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-CA, is investigating the White House for "an array of potential illegal fundraising behavior," according to Politico. Issa is specifically targeting a March meeting at the White House organized by the Democratic National Committee.
• Speaking of White House fundraising, President Obama scheduled a "birthday fundraiser" in Chicago on August 3. Ironically, the fundraiser is being held one day after the government deadline for raising the nation's debt ceiling. The fundraiser announcement comes one day after Obama's re-election campaign announced it raised over $86 million in the second quarter.

Court orders special redistricting panel

Ninth District Court Judge James Todd Russell ruled that he will select a "panel of masters" to draw Nevada's new state and Congressional districts.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Russell plans on appointing the voter registrars from Clark and Washoe counties and Carson City to the panel, as well as a demographic and software expert from the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

"I don't want anybody with political agendas," Russell said during the hearing.

Russell's panel sounds similar to the independent panels used in states such as Arizona and California for redistricting, and, since Nevada's politically divided Legislature was the reason maps weren't passed during the Session, it sounds nice for Russell to attempt to remove the politics from redistricting.

However, Russell didn't weigh in on another crucial aspect of the redistricting battle: the interpretation of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which both political parties have accused each other of violating in their respective maps.

Russell gave both parties until July 20th to create lists of suggested "panel masters" and other "legal issues" that must be decided.

While removing the politics from redistricting sounds like a good outcome, Russell's silence on the VRA and his postponement of other "legal issues" sounds more like he's kicking the can down the road.

Keep checking in with Transparent Nevada and Nevada Journal, because there is still plenty to be written in this story.

Nevada ranked 10th-best paying state for judges

Nevada is ranked 10th in the country for best-paid judges, according to a report by the National Center for State Courts.

According to the report, Nevada State Supreme Court justices are paid $170,000 annually, nearly $30,000 above the national median of $146,917.

Additionally, Nevada is ranked 8th in the country for general jurisdiction trial court pay, with the average judge earning $160,000 compared to a $132,500 national median.

This is yet another report showing how well-compensated public employees are in the Silver State.

Transparency Review (7/4-7-8)

• The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that each political party can select one candidate to run in the CD-2 special election, overruling Secretary of State Ross Miller's "ballot royale" interpretation of the election law.



• State and congressional candidates may face a difficult time plotting their campaign strategies because Nevada's redistricting maps could be stuck in the courts until next spring, according to the Las Vegas Sun. If the court battle does drag into next spring, candidates will not know the location or voter registration make-up of their district until a few months before the 2012 elections.



• In the first six months of 2011, the Republican Governor's Association has raised $22.1 million and the Democratic Governor's Association raised $11 million, according to Politico. Since the associations are not federal committees, both can raise unlimited contributions and corporate money.



• On Monday, the White House released their list of employee salaries. According to USA Today, total pay for all employees is $37 million and nearly one-in-three employees earns over $100,000.

State Supreme Court rules for one candidate per party in CD-2

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled yesterday that each political party can select one candidate to run in the Second Congressional District special election.

The court's ruling ends Secretary of State Ross Miller's "ballot royale" interpretation, which would've allowed multiple candidates from each party to run in the election.

The ruling may end up favoring Republicans more than Democrats, according to Eric Herzik, a political science professor at University Nevada-Reno. Since CD-2 is a solid Republican district, the Court's ruling "eliminates an ugly intra-party fight," Herzik told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. If Miller's "ballot royale" interpretation held up, more Republicans could have ran, which would have diluted the Republican vote.

Republicans have nominated Mark Amodei, and Democrats have nominated State Treasurer Kate Marshall as their candidate. The election is currently scheduled for September 13.

Transparency Review (6/27-7/1)

• Nevada Journal's Steven Miller reported Wednesday that City of North Las Vegas staffing records showed Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D., Las Vegas, was working full-time for the North Las Vegas Fire Department during the 2009 and 2011 Legislative sessions. Despite Nevada Jounal giving NLVFD Chief Al Gillespie a chance to provide evidence refuting the staffing records and noting Gillespie's and Oceguera's explanations in the story, Gillespie scoffed at Nevada Journal's report while failing to note any factual errors in it. The City of North Las Vegas later confirmed that Oceguera was double-dipping during the 2009 and 2011 Legislative Sessions.



• On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued another campaign finance ruling, this time striking down Arizona's "trigger" law, which provided matching funds to publicly-funded candidates based on amounts spent by privately-funded rivals. The Court voted 5-4 with all five conservative judges ruling the AZ law was unconstitutional while the four liberal judges dissented.



• The Federal Election Commission is considering a Democrat request to solicit unlimited contributions from corporations, unions, and individuals into new super PACs. The Democrat group which filed the request is closely linked to Nancy Pelosi and Nevada's Harry Reid, and Politico ironically noted both Reid and Pelosi criticized Republican super PAC spending during the 2010 midterm elections.



• The average lobbyist-turned Congressional staffer took more than a $100,000 pay cuts just to work on Capitol Hill, according to a report in The Hill. The average pay cut for an ex-lobbyist in the House is $94,000 and $149,000 for ex-lobbyists in the Senate.