Show Me the Money vs Follow the Money
Sure, Woodward and Bernstein were told to follow the money, however that is so ‘1970s,’ so instead we will show you the money.
Picon started to dive into the Nevada Secretary of State Contribution and Expense Reports back in April 2022, after the required April 15th filling date – meaning all political candidates need to file a C&E Report showing contributions and expenses. Usually, the reports are chucked full of gold nuggets; meaning they reveal who is supporting who and the people running the campaigns, but this time not so much. In fact, some candidates with robust campaigns didn’t show that they had raised enough money to support the websites, campaign signs, billboards, television and print they were purchasing for their campaigns. The law requires “in-kind” to be reported as well. If I cannot donate money, maybe I can do your webite; that is a typical “in-kind” donation that must be reported.
Take Mariluz Garcia and Wendy Leonard. We wondered how campaigns were affording all of the creative marketing, and may now know. In some of the reports their campaign management team wasn’t listed and some reports were blank. We did learn a deep, dark secret (or we were told one); this election cycle candidates were asking donors to ‘delay’ their contributions so who was doing what for whom would remain a bit murky.
Well, it worked, and we are anxiously awaiting the filings for this next cycle – April 1 – June 30, 2022, which must to be reported by midnight on July 15, 2022. We were ‘deep throated’ a bit ourselves, and had a meeting with someone asking to remain off the record regarding the tactics of reporting versus delaying the inevitable as candidates will have to report the funds and costs eventually. However, it is due to a 2020 judicial race where the money was the teller in the long run. And one needs to ask themselves if a large company becomes angry with a verdict is it ethical to vote the ‘verdict giver’ out?
Case in point, in 2020 a long-time judge, Elliott Sattler was challenged by Kathleen Sigurdson. Sattler had been on the bench since 2013 and Sigurdson, a personal injury attorney for 20+ years in Reno. The ‘scuttlebutt’ on the street was she didn’t have a chance and the law firms who normally are the main contributors to judicial campaigns found themselves hindered to give to anyone opposing the judge a contribution because that lawyer/law firm might be in front of this very judge. For nine long months, the judge could spend some off hours pursuing Secretary of State C&E Reports. Sure, judicial are supposed to be impartial but if you see a heavy $5,000 contribution to an opponent, after all judges are human, how will your case end up – win/lose? It turns out however, Ms. Sigurdson didn’t need to reach out to many law firms because almost all her support came from the owners of the Grand Sierra Resort and companies they control, work with, or use as vendors. The amount contributed to Ms. Sigurdson’s campaign was nearly $150K. In contrast, Mr. Sattler raised nearly $250K and his donations came primarily from local law firms and individual lawyers.
When we stumbled upon Judge Sigurdson’s C&E it took us awhile to research what case might have put Judge Elliott in the crosshairs of the Grand Sierra Resort and we believe it to be CV12-02222 – Albert Thomas ETAL vs MEI-GSR Holdings ETAL.
Thus, proving who gives to whose campaign is very, very important indeed. Follow the money.