Questions raised over campaign contributions

Secretary of State Ross Miller said Friday his office is looking into Rory Reid's failed gubernatorial bid following reports that he formed numerous political action committees that pumped money into his campaign.

The Las Vegas Sun reported Friday that Reid's campaign formed 91 shell PACs that were used to funnel $750,000 into his campaign and seemingly avert contribution limits.

"I believe that this is a case of first impressions," Miller said in a statement. "I don't have all the facts and when I do have them I will look at them very carefully.

"I will consult with the Election Integrity Task Force and the attorney general if the facts rise to that level," he said.

State law limits contributions from PACs to $10,000 per election. According to the Sun report, those limits were skirted when large contributions to an umbrella group, the Economic Leadership PAC, then dispersed the money to a network of smaller PAC committees to make donations to Reid's campaign.

"What we did was fully disclosed and complied with the law," Reid told the newspaper. "We did it because it was legal. If it's a statement on anything, it's a statement on the failure of campaign laws.

"This was not done in the dark of night. We disclosed everything we did," he said.

The newspaper reported that all the PACs were registered using the same Las Vegas residential address, and they were dissolved after the election.

Reid, the son of U.S. Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, lost the November election to Republican Brian Sandoval.