Erin Kenny to Plead Guilty in FBI's Political Corruption Probe

(Aug. 13) -- Former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny is reportedly calling up friends to let them know she is pleading guilty in the FBI's political corruption probe.

It is believed that by pleading guilty to charges, Kenny may hope to receive a lesser sentence.

According to Wednesday morning's Las Vegas Review Journal Erin Kenny is a defendant in a sealed criminal case, which was filed in July. Because the case is sealed, the actual criminal charges are not known.

Kenny is one of several local leaders under investigation by the feds for allegedly accepting secret cash payments and bribes from various businesses.

The source also said Kenny expects more indictments to follow and that she will be embroiled in the probe for the next few years.

Kenny was in a pretty nasty battle with Lieutenant Gov. Lorraine Hunt last election, with much mud slung about her personal finances. Here's a November, 2002, Las Vegas Review Journal article on that.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR'S RACE: Polls show Kenny closing in on Hunt

Numbers lead to ratcheting up of rhetoric on both sides

By JANE ANN MORRISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL

The lieutenant governor's race has turned into a roller coaster ride.

Last week, a Review-Journal poll reported Republican incumbent Lorraine Hunt had a comfortable 15-point lead over Democratic challenger Erin Kenny.

At the same time, Republican polls showed Hunt leading Kenny by a scant 2 points.

Hunt had the GOP information, but not the Review-Journal numbers, when she pounced on Kenny Oct. 24, relentlessly challenging the county commissioner during an hour-long televised debate.

The latest GOP polls show Hunt leading by 11 points, Republican strategist Pete Ernaut said Thursday.

"I don't think there is much danger of Lorraine losing, I just think it's closer than people thought it was," he said.

There are two easy-to-understand reasons for the fluid nature of this race: money and television ads.

Kenny has raised more than Hunt, and her ads have been airing longer. Campaign finance reports show Kenny has spent $1.3 million, while Hunt has spent $569,238.

Their respective campaigns said that for the last week of the race, Kenny has bought $230,000 worth of television time and Hunt $100,000. Each campaign plans to air positive ads about their candidate and negative ads about the opposition.

Both candidates have turned aggressive in their television ads, attacking each other's records as businesswomen. And as they head into the final week, both sides say the other is stretching the truth.

Hunt political adviser Steve Forsythe said the first hard-hitting ad against Kenny is being aired "because of a combination of things. From Day One we wanted to make this a campaign on records and stay positive. The problem we have is that Erin was not only hitting us, but was hitting us with spots that were lying."

Kenny's campaign researcher, Dick Cooper, insisted Hunt's new ad is false.

Hunt's ad pounds Kenny, saying: "The lieutenant governor's job is business development. Consider that, and Erin Kenny's background. In Illinois she filed bankruptcy ... twice. She had 14 lawsuits against her including slander and fraud. And she left $1.2 million in debt.

"In Nevada the state has permanently revoked her corporate business status. And as chairman of UMC, she's overseen its plunge into millions of dollars in debt. So think about it. Erin Kenny failed in business. She's failed us as a county commissioner. We can't trust her to be lieutenant governor."

Kenny's ad attacks Hunt, saying: "Lorraine Hunt is attacking Erin Kenny because of a bankruptcy 16 years ago. But Lorraine Hunt repeatedly fails to pay property taxes, sewer fees and homeowners assessments. Not 16 years ago, but as recently as this year.

"And small businesses have taken legal action against her nine times to collect $200,000 in debt. Oh, and all those businesses she brought to Nevada? Thirty-eight percent have shut down. Lorraine Hunt. Can you trust anything she says?"

Kenny has been through the bankruptcy issue in prior elections. She says she filed Chapter 7 personal and business bankruptcies because a bank called in a $25,000 note on her advertising business, and she was trying to protect her parents, who had co-signed.

She filed her business bankruptcy in 1987 and her personal bankruptcy in February 1988. The 14 lawsuits from 1985 to 1987 include six small claims against her advertising company in Illinois.

The $1.2 million in debt cited in the ad refers to debts she listed, including a $1 million libel and slander lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed against her July 27, 1987, by her real estate broker, five days after she had filed her business bankruptcy.

No judgment was ever obtained in the libel and slander lawsuit, which was dismissed.

Although she listed the $1 million as a disputed debt, Kenny said it's incorrect to say she "left $1.2 million in debt" even though that sum was listed on her bankruptcy documents.

About the slander lawsuit, Illinois attorney Terry Slaw said "there was never a debt" because there was no judgment.

If the broker had been serious about pursuing the lawsuit, Slaw said he could have gone to federal court to ask that the bankruptcy court stay of the lawsuit be lifted, but that never happened.

Hunt's claims that Nevada officials revoked Kenny's corporate business license is an exaggeration, Cooper said. If someone doesn't pay the fee to keep the license active, the license is revoked.

He pointed to one of Hunt's companies, the Nevada Motion Picture Foundation, which also has a "revoked" status.

Forsythe and Hunt contend some of the language in Kenny's ads overstate reality.

Hunt blamed late payments for property taxes on the Piazza in 2001 and 2002 on a prior bookkeeper. A sewer lien was a clerical error, Forsythe said. The Hunts also were late paying homeowners association assessments on a new home in Seven Hills.

Liens worth $200,000 were filed against their new strip mall, the Piazza, during construction when the contractor withheld payments, which is fairly routine during the building process, Hunt said.

Forsythe said the 38 percent failure rate of 200 businesses, which Hunt took credit for attracting to Nevada in her earlier ads, isn't a bad rate when nearly 50 percent of all new businesses fail, citing Money magazine.

Forsythe admits the aggressive television ad was sparked by the tight polling numbers. But he said two positive ads have helped widen the numbers.

Gov. Kenny Guinn is featured in an ad that began airing Oct. 24.

In the other ad, working people say Kenny is distorting Hunt's record on pensions, wages and tips.

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