If the 2022 election season is a marathon that rolls into November, think of the Clark County district attorney’s race as a sprint to the June Democratic primary. The track-and-field metaphor ends there, however, for in this race sharp elbows are already being thrown.

Speaking of a shot to the ribs, challenger Ozzie Fumo is attempting to land one this week against incumbent District Attorney Steve Wolfson after receiving a resounding endorsement from the progressive Real Justice PAC. With its stated goal of electing “civil rights-minded prosecutors who use the powers of their office to reduce mass incarceration, police violence, and injustice,” Real Justice PAC is pressing its reform agenda into a nationwide campaign to get likeminded prosecutors elected. It is co-founded by writer and civil rights activist Shaun King.

Fumo, a longtime trial attorney with a hard-charging reputation in legal practice with Tom Pitaro, believes the endorsement will reverberate with his fellow Democrats. He calls it a “game-changer for us in this race because it’s a nationwide organization and will put us on an even keel I think financially with the incumbent. … I was surprised Steve ran as a Democrat. Most of his financial resources have come in from the Republican Party and Republicans in general. This is a Democratic primary, so the Democrats will make the decision.”

Perhaps. But come the donations have — and by the wheelbarrow-full.

Wolfson’s campaign vacuumed up approximately $880,000 in 2021 for a total of $1.25 million banked, according to its latest contributions and expenses report on file with the secretary of state. That includes thousands from throughout the legal community, some of whom have managed to carve out favorable settlements with the DA’s office, and a number of contributors who traditionally write checks only for Republicans.

Fumo, a former state Assemblyman who lost a run for a seat on the Nevada Supreme Court in 2020, had collected just $33,350 in 2021, according to his latest filing. It’s a number he believes will improve considerably following the latest endorsement.

That’s the other side of the campaign-as-sprint metaphor: Although there’s not much time to spend money, there’s also less time to raise it.

One thing Fumo has little trouble raising is his own blood pressure. He’s not shy about calling out the incumbent for what he considers Wolfson’s failure to lead and to hold his friends and clients of his political benefactors to the same standard applied to ordinary citizens. He used two examples that have made headlines: the lack of charges filed against Wolfson’s community liaison and spokeswoman Audrie Locke after her five-figure theft of campaign funds, and the sickeningly sweet deal Orange County tech billionaire Henry Thompson Nicholas III managed to cut after being charged with multiple drug offenses.

“In the past decade, since Wolfson’s been there, not only has he failed to pick up a file and march himself into court, but he’s been giving his cronies benefits of the doubt,” Fumo says.

Locke admitted to a gambling problem after writing campaign checks totaling $42,000.

“He never had her charged,” Fumo fumes. “He never had her arrested.  And that, I think, lowered the entire morale and integrity of the office. And it really took away from the attorneys in the office because they expected something to happen as the chief law enforcement officer, they really wanted something to happen.”

Nicholas and a companion were arrested in August 2018 at a Las Vegas hotel in possession of enough heroin, cocaine, meth, and ecstasy to kill a Clydesdale. With major Wolfson donor David Chesnoff working the legal legerdemain, Nicholas was allowed to enter an Alford plea, acknowledging only that prosecutors could have presented evidence of guilt had the case proceeded to trial.

Nicholas avoided prison time and instead walked away after agreeing to seek treatment, complete 250 hours of community service, and donate a total of $1 million to three Las Vegas drug prevention programs and rehabilitation centers. The case prosecutor admitted to the court that the drugs appeared to have been packaged for personal use, not distribution, and that Nevada’s own laws reducing penalties for drug offenses factored into the decision.

At the time the settlement was announced, Wolfson called it a win for the community and “literally a game-changer for the programs receiving these funds, and the citizens they help every day.”

What Fumo calls it is a prime example of a double standard in a Clark County justice system that has traditionally sent to prison cases involving copious amounts of narcotics.

“If you or I had walked into a casino with that amount of drugs … the District Attorney would have been telling you or me, ‘Tell it to the jury,’” Fumo says. “He gets to pay a fine and the case gets dismissed. The citizens of Clark County, and Democrats in particular, are ready for a change because they want an even-handed form of justice. It’s we the people, not we the privileged. That’s something that we’re going to change June 14.”

The finish line is fast approaching, but if Fumo makes that message stick we might just have a race on our hands.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.