Four Years Late

Obama campaign pays its bill to cash-strapped NV school district

What was it: in-kind contribution or unpaid campaign debt?

LAS VEGAS — While President Obama’s fundraising woes are making national headlines, is his Obama for America campaign looking to cut costs by shortchanging school districts and municipalities for the cost of his events?

As the President crisscrosses the country in his bid for re-election, holding campaign rallies and fundraisers in towns and cities across America, local governments keep attempting — and failing — to get his campaign to pay its event-related expenses.

In Las Vegas, however, taxpayers — who for nearly four years had been on the hook for about $25,000 — finally received some reimbursement late last month.

It was — coincidentally enough — on the very day that the Clark County School District finally released to Nevada Journal district invoices and other public records for the Obama campaign’s 2008 use of district facilities.

When now-President Obama was merely candidate Obama, Nevada was a swing-vote state and a political battleground. Candidate Obama flew in and out of Las Vegas often, holding political rallies at local high schools — and leaving unpaid expenses behind.

Now, all around the country, something quite similar is going on.

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