BY GABE STERN: Published 4:12 PM PST, June 22, 2023
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo struck down a bill earlier this month that would have required the disclosure of donors for a nonprofit that organized his post-election inaugural events — and has since shifted to attacking Democrats critical of his agenda.
The decision to have a nonprofit instead of a Political Action Committee handle his inaugural planning bucks trends from recent Nevada governors and notably allows the nonprofit to hide its donors. Similar instances have occurred in Mississippi and Georgia, where nonprofit inaugural committees instead of PACs have kept donor information of newly elected governors secret.
Amidst partisan battles over Lombardo’s school choice policies during the state’s biennial legislative session, the nonprofit paid for ads under a new name, urging viewers to call a handful of lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature to advance his school choice bills. The Nevada Independent first reported the existence of the nonprofit and its transition into an independent attack arm against Lombardo’s adversaries.
“Increasing fairness and transparency in government and elections is an important goal,” Lombardo wrote in his veto message. “That said, if transparency is truly a priority for the Legislature, it should pass legislation requiring disclosure of activities beyond a single office.”
Lombardo’s office declined to elaborate on his stance beyond the veto message. The bill would have applied to all six statewide elected offices including three Democrats and three Republicans and would have applied retroactively for committees connected to 2022 midterm campaigns.
Service First Fund spokesperson John Burke called the bill “blatantly unconstitutional” for it applying to Lombardo’s past election cycle and a “nakedly partisan attempt to single out Service First Fund” by Democrats in control of both legislative chambers. He added in his statement that the bill not applying to state legislators is “another example of Democrat legislators pushing rules for thee and not for me,” and that lawmakers across the political spectrum have used nonprofits for inaugural committees.
The bill quietly took shape in the final days of the legislative session after advancing through both legislative chambers as an unrelated measure aimed at streamlining mail ballot processes and general election administrative procedures.
It was heavily amended in a conference committee two days before the end of legislative session, where lawmakers from the state Senate and Assembly make final amendments to remove discrepancies in bills passed by each chamber. By that time, many legislative rules had been suspended, and the amendment passed without public comment and questioning that normally occurs.
“You start to see a lot of partisan politics happen right towards the end,” said Sondra Cosgrove, a professor of history at Southern Nevada College and executive director of Vote Nevada, a civics education nonprofit.
Democratic Senator Skip Daly, who helped amend the bill, said it was not his intent to avoid public comment, but word of the nonprofit committee arose so late in the session that there was no other choice but to “gut and replace” the mail ballot bill with measures targeting the nonprofit and others like it.
“I don’t think there was any intent not to have public comment and various things,” he said. “But in a conference committee like that … you’ve got to do what you can under the time restraints that we have.”
While Lombardo was noticeably outraised by Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak during the 2022 midterms, Las Vegas-based real estate mogul Robert Bigelow helped bankroll his campaign and close that gap. Bigelow donated over $50 million to PACs supporting Lombardo and other Nevada Republicans.
Burke, the Service First Fund spokesperson, declined to disclose any of the nonprofits’ donors.
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