Politics is a Dirty Business (Las Vegas Edition)

Tony Dane is a long time political consultant, who, according to Open Secrets, did work for the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign.

He is now at the center of a an extortion inquiry by Las Vegas police.

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports:

Las Vegas police turned their attention to a longtime Republican activist Thursday in their investigation into allegations of an attempted extortion plot against Nevada Republican Assemblyman Chris Edwards.

Detectives with the Criminal Intelligence Section were in Northern Virginia executing a search warrant at Tony Dane’s home with the help of Virginia state police.

In a news release, Las Vegas police said investigators searched a residence at 1151 Happy Ridge Drive in the small town of Front Royal, Va., about 70 miles west of Washington.

Nevada secretary of state records show that address in Front Royal belongs to a company owned by Dan

According to WaPo, Dane has run for office in Nevada and fought behind-the-scenes political battles for years and has an automated telephone calling operation that asks voters to support or oppose candidates and issues in Nevada and other states.

LVRJ continues:

Intelligence detectives launched the investigation in December after Edwards was approached about changing his vote for Assembly speaker.

At the time, several candidates were vying for the leadership post, including Assemblyman Paul Anderson, R-Las Vegas, and Assemblyman John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas. Hambrick was unanimously supported as speaker in a vote in the Assembly on Monday.

Edwards, who was elected to Assembly District 19 in Las Vegas in the Nov. 4 election, confirmed Saturday that police were investigating the extortion allegations.

He said he reported the attempt to police but could not discuss details of the case because of the ongoing investigation.

“I’m the victim here,” Edwards told the Review-Journal. “I’m the guy who kind of blew the whistle.”

Dane appears to be the focus of the investigation at the moment, but multiple individuals have been targeted by police.

A complaint was filed on Jan. 28 by the Clark County Republican Party alleging illegal contributions by Dane to a PAC, which aims to target GOP lawmakers who haven’t taken a firm stance against Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed $1.1 billion tax package.

Bottom line, it appears that Dane is on the right side of most issues and what may be going on is simply Las Vegas politics, where Dane because of his libertarian-leaning views has become a target.

-RW