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Group claiming to be nonpartisan to run ad designed to help Republican mayoral hopeful

Daniel Rothberg
Daniel Rothberg
Election 2018IndyBlog
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RenoElections.org, a website that casts itself as a nonpartisan voter information operation, said it is slated to take out a full-page ad in the Reno-Gazette Journal on Sunday entitled “Corruption Charges & the Reno Mayor Candidates.” The comparative ad lists several “corruption charges” for Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve but none for her opponent Reno businessman Eddie Lorton.

Courtney Meredith, a spokesperson for Schieve, called the website “pure trash.”

It’s the latest provocative ad from the website, which operates within a nonprofit known as Scientific Being Research Foundation. Nonprofits, such as the League of Women Voters, are allowed to participate in voter education without filing with the state and disclosing its donors, but many have questioned whether RenoElections.org is indeed engaged in electioneering.

Bradley Schrager, a Las Vegas attorney, said the ad is a clear example of express advocacy. If that were the case, then the group could be running afoul of Nevada election law.

“Nevada is not a magic-words state, you don’t have to say “elect” or “vote for” in your ads in order to commit a violation,” he wrote in an email. “The Secretary of State, as well as the courts, would look at the entire circumstances. No court would see this campaign by these people as anything but advocacy, and they would be regulated — and fined — for their conduct.”

But Paul White, the website’s founder who sent the ad to The Nevada Independent, said that his lawyers disagreed.

“It’s about 90 percent just quoting,” he said. “We’re not putting any opinion in there at all.”

Lorton, Schieve’s opponent, has received a $5,000 campaign contribution from David Griswold, a businessman who White said earlier this year was one of the funders of RenoElections.org.

An ad RenoElections.org plans to run in the Reno Gazette-Journal Sunday. (Courtesy of Paul White/RenoElections.org)
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