By George Harris

Liberty Watch is an insider's look at Nevada politics. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to e-mail us at gopgeorge@aol.com.

For Liberty Watch Readers the Erwin story (at right) is old news. (If you haven't read it yet, you may want to catch up on it now). We first reported this story back on April 24, 2001. I'm surprised it took the "Main Stream Media" so long to cover the story, but that just shows if you want real inside scoop on what's happening in Nevada politics, then Liberty Watch is your source.

There are, however, a few discrepancies within Ryan Erwin's comments to the Review-Journal. In Ryan's comments, he stated that "the state party was close to $400,000 in debt, we couldn't get anybody to give us any money and the party had very little credibility." Ryan went on to say that things were so bad that he recalled walking into the office and picking up invoices off the floor. In conversions I've had with Dan Burdish, it has become apparent that none of what Ryan Erwin said was true. In fact, it was a blatant lie, apparently concocted in a scheme to discredit and destroy Dan Burdish's reputation along with Chuck Muth and former State Chairman John Mason.

Burdish, was the executive director prior to Ryan's arrival and it was Governor Guinn and his cronies Pete Ernaut and Sig Rogich who purged the party of the Mason management team because Rogich and Guinn hated Mason and believed that Chuck and Dan "weren't Guinn Guys." Ernaut and Rogich knew the party was in debt because their campaign was greatly responsible for most of it.

But Ernaut, who saw Burdish as a threat to his relationship with the Governor, saw the debt as an opportunity to blame him for the party's financial crisis. Ernaut used the "crisis" as justification to fire Burdish from his Executive Director position. This despite a call during the election where Ernaut and Slanker "demanded" Chairman Mason up the State party's commitment to their campaigns, Mason only yielded to these demands, after they promised to help with fundraising "after the election." Mason upheld his part of the bargain but Ernaut and Slanker used the Party's financial distress as a reason to gut the paid staff of the Party. They even tried to force Mason out of the Chairmanship. An agreement was made with Mason, but when Ernaut bragged about this in a public meeting Mason decided not to step down. It was only when Mason was told he would not get any help in retiring the debt that he let Burdish and Muth go.

A year after Burdish's departure, the Guinn Team started an all out assault to blame Burdish and Muth for the party's woes. Guinn insiders headed by Pete Ernaut, started a whisper campaign against both former state party employees calling them incompetent, and accusing Burdish of mishandling funds. When word got back to Burdish, he immediately called for an audit of the State Party's books, but no audit was ever performed.

Burdish also went to the Clark County Central Committee with his request for an audit of the State Party books on three separate occasions and although the CCCC voted each time to request the State do an audit, no audit was performed.

Then at the State Central Committee Meeting in Elko, the audit was brought up again. During a recess, Chairman Seale assured Dan he would do a audit but didn't want the Central Committee voting on it. Seale agreed to Dan's request and guess what? To this date the Party's books haven't been audited! Maybe there's something to hide?

Even at this year's State Central Committee meeting in February, the Governor himself got up and told the members that when they took over the Party, it was hundreds of thousands in debt and implied it was the previous administration's fault.

Well it seems that Mr. Erwin's latest comments in the Review-Journal were the last straw for Mr. Burdish and it looks like Pete Ernaut's and the Governor's worst nightmare will be coming true. It seems that in the days prior to his departure, Mr. Burdish anticipated Mr Ernaut's slimy little plan to ruin his reputation and in a moment of self-preservation, Mr. Burdish made copies of the computer financial records and Party memos discussing the finances. He recently provided Liberty Watch with copies of that information and based on what this editor has seen so far, one thing becomes crystal clear:

Dan Burdish was never a signatory on any Party checking accounts and he never had the authority to authorize spending any Party money. In fact, it was Guinn's Campaign Manager Pete Ernaut and Ensign's Campaign Manager Mike Slanker who requested all the money that busted the State Party's budget!

According to the records Burdish provided, the Party's debt at the time of his departure was $265,732.49 and $50,000.00 of that was a FEC fine that dated from irregularities in 1992, 1993 and 1994, prior to Burdish's arrival. And according to a memo dated February 26, 1999 and titled Emergency E-Board Meeting "Finances," the board was to discuss all budgeted programs and how they affected the Party's cash position. The information is as follows:

Victory '98 Budget (Generic Party Activities) was $1,037,435 and the Party disbursed $976,152.14. So, Victory '98 came in $61,282.86 under budget.

Majority '98 (Ensign Campaign) Budget was $305,156.18 and the Party disbursed $339,464.89, so Majority '98 was $34,358.71 over budget.

Guinn's Campaign Budget was $124,000 and the Party disbursed $165,810.04 leaving deficit of $41,810.04

Ensign Recount was budgeted $49,000 and the Party disbursed $99,297.30

So if my math is correct the program budget was $1,515,591.18 and the Party disbursed $1,580,724.37 leaving a deficit of $65,135.19. When you add in the $50,000 FEC fine and the $150,597.30 operating budget deficit you end up with the $265,732.49 deficit. I think everyone can agree that's a long way from $400,000. Slanker and Ernaut were incensed that Burdish had the gall to fax this E-Board memo to the members of the Executive Board. They considered this a direct threat to their jobs, Ernaut called screaming, claiming the Press would get hold of the information and have a field day. Well, the E-Board never met and Burdish and Muth were dismissed 11 days later.

My take on all of this? I didn't care if the Party was $1 million in debt after the election. The Party's job is to elect Republicans and during a campaign you throw everything you've got at your opponents. Listen, when John Ensign lost to Harry Reid it was tough on all of us, but it would have been worse if we found out the Party had a couple of hundred of thousand dollars laying around after the election that would have been a reason to fire the staff, But this game that has been played is unforgivable and the Governor should be ashamed for allowing it to happen.

It's become abundantly clear that the smear campaign perpetrated against Dan Burdish and Chuck Muth was calculated by Guinn insider Pete Ernaut. The only other question is: How long is the State Party Central Committee going to continue to let Bob Seale be controlled by Ernaut who isn't an elected Party official or a Central Committee member?

Also Ryan's comments about the headquarters being unmanned for several months are untrue. According to Party financial records, a Mr. Fritz Schlottman was paid $3,000 per month from April 15, 1999 until June 1999 to run the Party offices. One other thing ... Ryan made a comment that the Party had very little credibility. I find this comment the most disturbing because during the Mason administration the Nevada Republican Party, for the first time since reconstruction changed the registration in the state of Nevada from a Democrat to a Republican majority, the party raised more than $5.5 million, not to mention the major assistance in electing John Ensign to Congress twice in a Democrat district and first-time candidates Lance Malone and Michael McDonald to County and City Commission Seats.

But if we want to talk about credibility, let's talk about how after Ryan's arrival the State Party abandoned all its registration programs which lead to the Democrats taking over Republicans in voter registration. And let's not forget that great job the State Party did on Reapportionment. Moreover, our sources tell us that Erwin is NOT leaving the Party with $300,000 in the bank. We're told it's less than $200,000.

Yep. Ryan deserves the credit for sure -- just not for a job well done.

--George E. Harris

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Published by: Nevada Republican Liberty Caucus George E. Harris, Editor P.O. Box 33802 Las Vegas, Nevada 89133 Phone: (702) 385-3320 FAX: (702) 385-5488 E-mail: gopgeorge@aol.com