The Las Vegas Sun this week ran a story about financial transparency, or lack thereof, in Rory Reid’s campaign to become Nevada’s next governor.
The angle is that Reid has made ethics and transparency a major theme of his campaign but has not chosen to reveal information about his campaign staff and their salaries on his most recent disclosure report. Brian Sandoval, the GOP nominee, has itemized his campaign payroll by employee and salary.
State law doesn’t require the break down of payroll details campaign expense reports, so it’s difficult to be too critical of a candidate who is simply complying with what is required. Whether Nevada’s campaign disclosure laws are adequate is another question.
Nevada has some of the most lax campaign finance laws in the country. There is no electronic filing system and
the Secretary of State who gave a slap on the wrist to a state assemblywoman who paid her PERS out of campaign funds.
Nevada needs better laws and non-partisan enforcement that is consistent regardless of who the offender is and who the enforcement entity is. Since there is not consistency and since Nevada’s laws are less specific and less stringent than most other states you have a wide variety of what candidates report and don’t report.
I don’t think whether or not a campaign discloses staffers will influence a single vote in this election.