LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The head of the union representing Las Vegas police officers said Thursday that Attorney General Aaron Ford should apologize for a campaign ad that used eight-year-old footage to imply an endorsement in his current race for governor.
Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, said his organization — along with all of the other law-enforcement groups in the state — have endorsed Gov. Joe Lombardo, a former police officer and two-term sheriff, for re-election.
WATCH | Steve Sebelius shares the latest on the situation
"But I'll tell you, in all of my time here at the PPA, never have I seen any candidate come in, use our badge, our police union logo, as well as several others, to try to perpetuate that they have some form of major law enforcement support," Grammas said.
The controversy started when the Ford campaign ran the ad, featuring a host of police officers, including Dave Kallas, former president of the PPA, appearing to speak on behalf of Ford's gubernatorial campaign.
But the footage was actually from 2018, when Ford was running for attorney general against Republican Wes Duncan. Ford narrowly won that race.
After the Lombardo-supporting Better Nevada PAC called out the tactic on social media, the Ford campaign took the ad down. Kallas followed up with an online video denouncing the use of his 2018 endorsement, and the police union wrote a letter demanding the ad end.
"Again, I just can't express how saddened I am, especially this week, that Aaron Ford would go out and tell people he has the support of major law-enforcement organizations by using a platform of an ad that showed our badge and other badges," Grammas said.
Grammas said police unions support Lombardo because of his record in office, including having an open-door policy to hear law enforcement concerns, and advocating for policies that Grammas said have led to a lower crime rate.
But he said Lombardo has earned law enforcement's respect, too, including a time where he asked the then-sheriff for something and Lombardo said no, although it would have been politically expedient to say yes.
"That's character to me," Grammas said. "That, to me, shows I'm doing more about what I've got to do, what's right by my work, that it is about placating the people, and that's where I really remember the most about Joe."
Grammas acknowledged that the union did not do interviews with the candidates, but rather decided by consensus to endorse Lombardo. He said he hasn't heard from Ford, but feels like the attorney general should apologize for the ad.
"I think the right thing would be — especially using our badge — just to call and say, 'Steve, I apologize. It shouldn't have happened. It did. We're going to correct it. We're going to put out a statement, a big statement, and we're going to do the right thing by you,'" Grammas said.
Ford's campaign did not return a text asking if it would offer Grammas or the police union an apology.
This isn't the first time a political ad has gone awry in the governor's race.
An ad put out by the Better Nevada PAC featuring workers condemning Ford for spending time out of state attending various functions later fell apart, after one of the workers told an interviewer that he didn't know Ford, didn't know about the issue, appeared in the ad because he was paid and, in fact, had voted for Ford.
In another case, a man who had signed on to the group Democrats for Lombardo later said he supported Ford, did not intend to publicly back the governor and signed up as a favor to a friend.
But Grammas reiterated that using old endorsement video footage shot for another race, in another year, against another opponent, in an entirely different race, is unprecedented.
"We've never had a candidate go out and perpetuate that they have the endorsement of real law enforcement when they didn't," Grammas said.
On Thursday, the Ford campaign announced it had added the backing of former Metro Deputy Chief Carlos Hank, who served under then-Sheriff Lombardo, to its list of endorsements. Shortly thereafter, Lombardo's campaign announced it had received the backing of the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers.
Do you have a question about Nevada politics? Ask Steve at Steve.Sebelius@ktnv.com, or by clicking on the banner below.
