Diving into the LG money

Ten days ago, lieutenant governor hopeful Sue Lowden received a $20,000 infusion for her campaign from the most important Republican donor in Nevada.

Sheldon Adelson and his family gave the money to Lowden a week before the disclosure deadline, partly compensating for her own failure to infuse the campaign with a lot of personal money.

One Lowden corporation put in $5,000, Paul Lowden put in $2,000 and a few other Lowden entities and the candidate gave about $5,000. Hardly significant.

That’s one highlight of a look at the 2014 money going into the lieutenant governor’s race, one where Lowden raised much less than state Sen. Mark Hutchison again. Hutchison, the governor’s anointed choice, took in $400,000 and spent $920,000 to try to entomb Lowden – his expenditures are as much as he raised last year. Lowden raised $150,000 to go with her $200,000 last year (half of that her own), and spent a quarter of a million dollars in 2014.

Lowden managed to keep her personal relationship with Adelson intact despite the acrimonious departure of Bill Weidner from Adelson's inner circle. The Weidners and the Lowdens have been close friends for years, so that finessing of the Adelson relationship has, ahem, paid off.

On the other side, Assemblywoman Lucy Flores raised about $315,000 and spent about a fourth of it. Downtown Las Vegas savior Tony Hsieh gave her $10,000. Some of her money was raised out of state because of her national connections and with the helping hand of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

I have attached spreadsheets of the GOP and Democratic sides here.

Some more highlights of the disclosures in the state’s most important race:

LOWDEN

Number of contributions $1,000 and above: 41

Like last year’s filing, the 2014 report reeks of or is scented with, depending on your perspective, old Vegas money: Donna Ruthe, Jonathan Fine, Gloria Fine, Carolyn Sparks, Don Mosley.

Others:

Ex-MGM boss Bob Maxey                  $10,000

Boxing promoter Bob Arum                  $5,000

Adelson family pals, the Chaltiels         $8,000

McDonald Carano                                    $2,000

HUTCHISON

Number of contributions $1,000 and above: 120

Nearly a fourth of Hutchison’s donations came from six $10,000 contributions and $15,000 each from MGM Resorts International and Frias. The $10,000 club: Three from banker Dennis Troesh, one from the candidate’s law firm, one from Nevada Yellow Cab and one from businessman Peter Rozok.

Others:

Vegas chamber                           $5,000

Sandoval campaign                    $4,000

Steffens                                         $8,000

Siegfried                                         $1,500

FLORES

Number of contributions $1,000 and above: 102

One-fifth of Flores’ money came from six $10,000 contributions from Hsieh, the national trial lawyers PAC, one of the largest plaintiffs firms in the country (Baron & Budd), the plumbers and pipefitters Vegas local, erstwhile Facebook executive Chris Kelly and former CA Speaker Fabian Nunez.

Reid gave $5,000 through his leadership PAC, and controversial diet supplement producer Herbalife gave Flores $4,000. Other unions gave about $30,000, many of her Democratic legislative colleagues lent a hand and NV Energy thanked her for her ongoing legislative service, as did many trial lawyer types and other legislative lobbyists. She also took $1,000 from controversial Reid donor Peter Palivos.

Others:

Rep. Javier Becerra                         $2,500

R&R’s Billy Vassiliadis                    $1,000

Ex-Rep. Shelley Berkley                 $500

 

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