Less than two weeks until the midterm election, Joe Lombardo’s corruption is still front and center after he was caught violating state law for using his government email to coordinate political strategy – even directing Metro employees to gather research that would eventually become his campaign platform.
Even worse – taxpayers are now left with an $86,000 bill after Lombardo fought relentlessly to keep his emails from the public.
Despite centering his campaign around his public safety record, Lombardo has flouted the law and used government resources to benefit his political career. He’s already under investigation for flooding campaign materials with his badge and uniform, and he’s at the center of another ethics complaint for using taxpayer dollars to support anti-abortion groups.
Read more about his corruption below.
American Independent: Nevada GOP governor nominee Joe Lombardo violated ethics rules, emails show
Emily Singer
October 25, 2022
Key Points:
- The Republican nominee for governor of Nevada, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, used his government email account for political activity in violation of a Nevada statute on ethics, a legal expert has told the American Independent Foundation.
- In August, a Nevada judge ruled in a public records lawsuit that Lombardo, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak in the November election, had “engaged in political activity using his government email account” but ordered that only four of the 40 emails Lombardo sent to his political consultants be released.
- In those four emails, which were made public in October, Lombardo directed staff at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to conduct research that his campaign ended up using against Sisolak in the gubernatorial campaign.
- What’s more, the Nevada statute on ethics says that “a public officer or employee shall not use governmental time, property, equipment or other facility to benefit a significant personal or pecuniary interest of the public officer.”
- The emails made public show that Lombardo directed two employees — police department lobbyist Chuck Callaway and the chief of the department’s Homeland Security Division, Sasha Larkin — to conduct research about how certain legislation signed by Sisolak had impacted crime. Lombardo then forwarded an email on when that research would be complete to a campaign consultant, Ryan Erwin.
- Lombardo and his campaign aides have since pointed to some of the legislation mentioned in the email to make the argument that Sisolak is “soft on crime.”
Read the full story here.
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