Ethics complaints roil early stages of Nevada governor’s race

The gubernatorial campaigns of Gov. Joe Lombardo and Attorney General Aaron Ford are facing ethics complaints for allegedly violating state campaign law by soliciting donations during the Nevada Legislature’s special session.

Two websites hosted by WinRed, a fundraising platform for conservatives, promoting donations for the governor were active as of Tuesday morning, according to the complaint filed by the Nevada State Democratic Party that day. Lombardo called the special session on Nov. 12.

The governor’s campaign team did not respond to a request for comment on the complaint.

“Unfortunately, Joe Lombardo has continued to solicit donations to his P.O. Box in the middle of a black out period in order to willfully advance his political ambitions,” Hilary Barrett, executive director of the state Democratic party, wrote in a statement. “As Nevada’s chief executive, Lombardo must be held accountable for refusing to adhere to basic election law.”

Shortly before that complaint was filed, Clark County Republican Party Chair Jill Douglass filed a similar complaint against Ford’s campaign. Ford is the leading Democrat in the race.

Douglass wrote in her complaint that Ford’s fundraising portal was still open the morning after Lombardo called the special session, saying he was “in clear violation” of state law on campaign practices. 

Douglass also cited an email from “Ford HQ” soon after the special session was called. The email asked potential donors to make a contribution by midnight in an effort to “fight back against GOP attacks” and flip the governor’s seat.

Ford’s campaign pointed to a statement from ActBlue, the Democratic counterpart to WinRed. The service claimed that “human error on ActBlue’s part” made it so the blackout rules during the special session were not followed. 

Emails reviewed by the Sun show a representative of Ford’s campaign emailing ActBlue about the upcoming blackout a few hours before the special session was called. The campaign representative asked to turn off all their pages starting at midnight in anticipation of the session.

The campaign representative sent another email the next morning, saying that they believed only an older version of the campaign’s ActBlue page was deactivated. The website that was still up needed to be taken down immediately, while refunding any donation made since midnight, they demanded.

“We take full responsibility for this mistake and, upon discovery, immediately corrected the error within hours and disabled the account,” ActBlue wrote in a statement shared with the Sun.

This isn’t the first time in the young race where both campaigns faced similar ethics questions.

Ford largely dismissed a separate complaint about his office repeatedly tagging Ford’s campaign account on social media, saying the complaint was filed by a “Republican operative.”

While his communications team has already stopped the practice, Ford highlighted that Bernie Zadrowski, who made the complaint, was previously the chair of the Clark County Republican Party.

Zadrowski is also supported by Lombardo and was previously “vying” for U.S. Attorney under President Donald Trump, Ford said.

“It’s interesting because he highlights what he considers and what he contends are ethics violations, but at the same time, Gov. Lombardo’s official side has done some of the exact similar things,” Ford said.

On X, “Lombardo Outreach” tagged the governor’s campaign account twice in September.

Zadrowski rejected the “operative” label, saying he’s had little involvement with politics since leaving his chair position behind in 2010. Republicans did ask him about his interest in becoming U.S. Attorney, he said, but “at no point was I ever vying” for the position.

“He should be ashamed of the fact that he engages in this willful violation of ethical laws,” Zadrowski said. “And then his response is, ‘I’ll shift the blame to the accuser.’ I mean, that’s just silly.”

Better Nevada PAC, a political action committee supporting Lombardo, has pounced on the story, promoting it on social media. It’s taken a similar approach to a report into Ford’s travel outside of the state.

“Part-time attorney general Aaron Ford continues to show how unfit he is to lead our state,” John Burke, the PAC’s spokesperson, wrote in a statement. “As attorney general, it’s his obligation to uphold the laws, but Ford appears unable to even abide by them.”