Former GOP Chair: Bad Check Charge Against NV Tea Party Candidate ‘Isn’t Political In Nature’

Nevada senate candidate Scott Ashjian (Tea Party) and Clark County Deputy District Attorney Bernie Zadrowski (R-NV)
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I just spent about half an hour on the phone with Bernie Zadrowski, a district attorney who heads the Bad Check Unit in Clark County, Nevada that is likely to file an arrest warrant today against Jon Scott Ashjian, the official Tea Party of Nevada candidate on this fall’s Senate ballot.

Ashjian has been charged with writing a $5,000 bad check to a consultant who did work for his asphalt business — his second offense and another legal problem he’s facing as conservatives affiliated with the state’s tea party movement target him as a fraud. Eyebrows were raised when the felony bad check charge surfaced because Zadrowski is the former chairman of the Clark County Republican Party and also is on the ballot in a judicial race this fall.

But Zadrowski told me that the victim of Ashjian’s bounced check (written in December) came forward last month before Ashjian filed to run for Senate in early March. He also said his own political affiliations have nothing to do with it, especially since he is running to be a justice. That race is nonpartisan and candidates are barred from making endorsements or getting involved in political races. “This isn’t political in nature at all, this is simply my job,” Zadrowski told me.

Zadrowski said it appears to be a fairly standard case, on par with the between 100 and 300 that come through the Clark County office each week. But in a statement provided to the Associated Press last week, Ashjian said it was political. “Clearly these people are afraid that I will siphon votes from their political party and from the Republican Party,” he said in the statement.

We’ve tried to reach Ashjian today through his campaign site and business email but have not yet been successful. The phone number listed on the A&A Asphalt and Paving Co. Web site is not in service. According to Zadrowski’s account, the charge is that Ashjian’s business A&A Asphalt wrote a $5,000 check on Dec. 7 to business consultant Alex Hernandez. It bounced immediately and Hernandez sent a 10-day demand letter which went unanswered. Zadrowski said Hernandez reported the bad check in February and the district attorney’s office sent A&A Asphalt a letter, which also went unanswered.

Clark County has a program for people to make good on a bad check, which Ashjian participated in following a bounced $1,200 check in 1995. “There is nothing really wacky or wild or out of the ordinary about this particular check,” Zadrowski said. “I’m not suggesting he’s a deadbeat degenerate … but it’s a pattern here.”

We talked at length about Zadrowski’s involvement in politics. He said that while he was chairman of the county GOP in 2008 and 2009 he hasn’t treated this case any differently than any other. “I don’t even look at people’s names,” he said. The way his process usually works is he screens the hundreds of cases that come in to Clark County – the busiest bad check division in the country, he said – for factual and legal significance. A case “this small,” he said, is kicked down to deputy district attorneys to handle.

Ashjian is “subject to arrest at any time,” Zandrowski told me, and according to the Associated Press, Ashjian could face up to 14 years in state prison if convicted.

The AP also reports that a Carson City District Court judge on Friday set an April 14 hearing on a lawsuit that challenges Ashjian’s membership in the Tea Party of Nevada and his place on the ballot.

More from the AP on Ashjian’s troubles:

Records show Ashjian lost his state contractor’s license Wednesday after failing to appear for a disciplinary proceeding stemming from a complaint that he bounced a $981.82 check to a materials supplier last year. Ashjian also does business as Jon Scott Ashjian.

The Nevada State Contractors Board fined Ashjian $1,500 and ordered him to pay almost $1,150 in investigative costs, board spokesman Art Nadler said.

Public documents on file with the Clark County Recorder show Ashjian also faced foreclosure on home loans totaling almost $1 million, owed a $200,000 Internal Revenue Service tax debt and faced city nuisance actions and liens alleging he failed to pay homeowners’ dues, a roofer, and his trash collector.

A felony conviction would prevent Ashjian from running, news that would certainly be hailed by 20 tea party groups charging he’s not a real member of the tea party movement. One group even produced a Web ad accusing him of being a fake. When Ashjian first came on the political scene, tea party groups said they had never heard of him and suggested he was a plant installed to siphon votes away from the eventual Republican nominee. There are several candidates challenging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and our TPM Polltracker shows each holds a strong lead over Reid.

Some who question the legitimacy of the group point to the political leanings of its secretary, Las Vegas attorney Barry Levinson. He is reportedly a registered Democrat and has criticized former President George W. Bush.

Late Update: Here’s a copy of the filing against Ashjian.

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