Indicted for extortion in Nevada before being sentenced to more than a decade behind bars in Virginia for involuntary manslaughter, longtime GOP operative Tony Dane is back in Nevada politics.

He is working for Jim Blockey, a Republican retired teacher and pastor running in Congressional District 1. Two weeks after Blockey’s campaign committee filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission in November, the campaign submitted an amended listing Dane as its designated agent. 

Dane declined an on-the-record interview for this story, citing a negative opinion piece The Nevada Independent ran about him last year.

“I’m not out to get the record straight,” he wrote in an email. “I’m not trying to tell my end of the story. That would be impossible with a media that prints half truths and has become the attack mechanism that I’m accused of being. Therefore, I cannot grant an interview if I’m not comfortable with the accuracy and honesty of the paper that is looking for an interview.” 

Dane emceed Blockey’s February campaign launch at Paradise Church in Las Vegas, which featured several pastors and conservative influencers. Dane started the event by reading from a “translator dictionary” that defined liberal patriotism as “worshipping Obama as God.”

Dane is an archconservative and early practitioner of now-common hardball political tactics. But he has been out of Nevada politics for more than a decade.

“He's been in prison so many years, I don't think most people think of him,” said Michael Green, an associate professor of history at UNLV. “If you are interested in politics here, and have been here a while, you will remember the name.”

In the early 2010s, Dane was primarily known for the extreme techniques he used against political opponents. 

In the late ‘90s, he ran against Assm. David Parks (D-Las Vegas), the first openly gay member of the state Legislature. People with ties to him reportedly sent out homophobic messages about Parks. In 2002, he recruited another man named David Parks to run against the incumbent; the other Parks was removed from the ballot by a judge. He was known for his robocalls, including one that distorted Parks’ record. He worked to recall Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) after a hefty tax increase. 

“Tony Dane was one of many in a long line of people who were very good at political dirty tricks,” Green said.

In 2016, Dane was indicted on 11 counts of extortion, unlawful wiretapping, perjury and other crimes. He was accused of attempting to pressure former Assm. Chris Edwards (R-Mesquite) and others into supporting his preferred pick for Assembly speaker, current state Sen. John Ellison (R-Elko). In a Thursday call with The Nevada Independent, Edwards said he had thought Dane was still in prison and declined to speak about him. 

“I don't want to minimize that when I say there’s been a lot of extortion in politics over the years,” Green said. “But Dane seems to have taken this to a lower or higher plane, depending on how you want to define it.”

Dane would soon face more legal trouble.

In September 2017, he was driving a converted red school bus, a food truck for his business, Dane’s Great American Hamburger, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., when the vehicle hurtled past a school bus, ran a stop sign and T-boned a station wagon. The crash killed the car’s driver and wounded her children. 

He told police that he had repaired the brakes a few days before and that they had “felt spongy,” preventing him from slowing down before the accident. The Commonwealth of Virginia introduced evidence Dane could have pulled over to investigate the problem before the accident. Law enforcement officers testified about various other ways the vehicle was potentially hazardous, with one stating it would have likely failed a safety inspection. 

Dane was arrested and incarcerated two months after the crash. In 2018, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving, driving without a license for the second time, driving without insurance, and failure to get the vehicle inspected. He was sentenced to more than a decade in prison. He unsuccessfully appealed his Virginia convictions several times.

Meanwhile, his extortion and wiretapping case in Nevada remained active. Then, last January, Dane pleaded guilty to one count of perjury in what’s known as an Alford plea, which allowed him to maintain his innocence while admitting prosecutors likely had enough evidence to convict him. 

“We’re pleased,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said at the time. “We got a solid felony conviction. Based upon priority of cases, to get a solid felony on this guy — and he went back to Virginia to finish his prison sentence — we thought that was appropriate.”

In Virginia, a notification of release provided to The Nevada Independent by the office of the commonwealth’s attorney indicates that Dane was released on July 8, 2025. His was classified as a “good time release,” a reduced sentence based on good behavior. 

“If Donald Trump could come back from everything he has done or been credibly accused of doing, what F. Scott Fitzgerald said about there being no second acts in American life may be wrong ... although maybe we're seeing third and fourth acts,” Green said.

Now, Dane is back in the Silver State. Blockey — who is running for Congress a fourth time after losing bids in 1998, 2000 and 2024 — at his campaign launch event last month mentioned he had bumped into Dane at an event after not seeing him for 15 years, right as he was making the decision to run: “That’s God. That’s not me, that was divine intervention.” 

Dane spoke at length about his pro-life stance, especially about fighting back against policies such as the right to abortion constitutional amendment voters approved in 2024, which will be on the ballot again in November. 

No one mentioned his time in prison or his return to Nevada. 

Chemene Blockey, the candidate’s wife, also gave a glowing review. 

“Our campaign consultant, who you just met, is great, right?” she said during the event. “Tony Dane is an absolutely amazing man.”