While the candidates have pretty much been focused on their own accomplishments in the race for Lieutenant Governor in Nevada, an advertisement launched by Mark Hutchison brings some of Lucy Flores' actions into question.
"Meet Lucy Flores," that ad says. "She was caught hiding $8,000 of campaign funding for herself. She traveled, she shopped, she ate out and she even stocked up her own refrigerator."
That's true. Flores was among three Assembly members fined in 2012 for failing to report all of their expenses. Lucy Flores, David Bobzien and Debbie Smith all said they got legal advice telling them they didn't need to. The money in question was spent on food, traveling, cleaning supplies, rent in Carson City and eating out. And while Secretary of State Ross Miller ruled that the expenses were valid, he fined them each $150 for failing to report it all.
"Her excuse - She said it's just not fair to have to report every penny."
And that's true. In fact, she went on to say that she could do better with her bookkeeping with help.
"Maybe if I had a staffer that the state paid for to record every single one of my receipts and ensure they were being kept up full time and I didn't have to take time off of my day job to spend a couple of hours working on that," she said.
"The Center for Public Ethics said Flores defied ethical explanation."
That's misleading. That line is from an editorial that Martin Dupalo wrote for the Las Vegas Sun. Dupalo works for the non-profit but says he wrote an editorial about political spending in question in general, and never said nor wrote that specifically about Lucy Flores.
