by April Corbin Girnus
Labor unions last year warned there would be political consequences for state lawmakers who voted against what would have been the largest public subsidy in Nevada history. Now, the fallout from the failed film studio bill appears to be playing out in a state Senate race whose winner will be decided during the primary.
In the first three months of this year, a dozen political action committees affiliated with Laborer’s Local 872 have contributed a combined $20,000 to North Las Vegas City Councilman Isaac Barron’s campaign to unseat state Sen. Edgar Flores in the Democratic primary for Nevada State Senate District 2. The amount makes up a significant portion of Barron’s fundraising efforts this year.
The use of a dozen different PACs is drawing concerns about obscuring transparency in what could be the tightest state legislative race this year.
Flores in a special legislative session last year voted against a proposal to massively expand the state’s existing film tax credit program. The $1.8 billion subsidy would have been tied to a planned film and production studio in the Summerlin neighborhood of Las Vegas.
The proposal, which passed the state Assembly with the narrowest margin possible, failed by one vote in the state Senate.
After the special session, Laborers Local 872 announced they had rescinded their prior endorsement of Flores and several others who voted against the film tax credit bill.
Barron, who is unable to run for re-election to North Las Vegas City Council because of term limits, announced earlier this year that he would run for the SD2 seat, which covers parts of North Las Vegas and the eastside of the Vegas Valley. Flores, who previously represented the area in the Assembly, has represented the Senate district since 2022 and is now seeking a second term.
No Republicans, third-party or nonpartisan candidates filed for the seat, meaning whoever wins the June primary will automatically secure the seat this November.
Campaign contribution and expense reports filed earlier this month reveal that Laborers Local 872 gave $95,000 across a dozen PACs that the union appears to control. Then, on the same day, the dozen PACs contributed a combined $20,000 to Barron’s campaign. That represents about a third of his total fundraising dollar amount. Barron’s C&E report lists 22 donors that contributed more than $100; 12 of them are PACs affiliated with Local 872.
The PACs also contributed a combined $45,000 to 16 other political candidates, though none received anywhere near as much as Barron and none received money from more than one PAC. Recipients of those funds included sitting legislators who voted for the film tax credit bill (Democratic Assemblymembers Sandra Jauregui, Reuben D’Silva and Venise Karris; and Democratic state Sens. Fabian Doñate, Julie Pazina and James Ohrenschall), candidates who are primarying sitting legislators that voted against the film tax credit bill (Miguel Davila and Douglas Candido, who are challenging Democratic Assemblymembers Howard Watts and Jovan Jackson, respectively), and several would-be newcomers running in open seats (Democrat Ashley Delobel and Republicans Maria Thompson and Julie Butler).
Some of the Local 872-affiliated PACs have names that suggest an affiliation with the union itself — 872 PAC and Laborers for Solid State Leadership. Others suggest alignment with a political party — DNC PAC, GOP Government on Parade, and Nevada Progressives United PAC. The remainder are ambiguous or jokey in nature — 2 PAC, 6 PAC, 420 PAC, LV RAT PAC, RIP PAC, SIN CITY PAC, and Members Only PAC.
Tommy White, who heads Local 872, is listed as the contact and president of each of the PACs. Other Local 872 executive board officers are listed as additional officers of the PACs, and the official address listed on registration paperwork is Local 872’s main office.
On their registration paperwork, the PACs gave identical purposes for existing: “Promoting jobs in Nevada.”
Individually, each PAC is well below the state’s threshold for campaign contributions limits, which is $10,000 per cycle — $5,000 for the primary and $5,000 for the general. But combined, they are above the limit for Barron.
White did not respond to the Nevada Current’s request for comment on the shuffling of money across a dozen PACs, or on Local 872’s heavy interest in the race between Flores and Barron.
This is not the first time Local 872 has moved money through these various PACs to support a candidate. In 2024, a dozen Local 872-affiliated PACs contributed a total of $60,000 to Republican April Becker’s successful bid for Clark County Commission. (A year later, Becker would vote against the expansion of fuel revenue indexing, which funds construction projects, and the union would rescind their endorsement.)
Corporations often bypass campaign contributions limits by having numerous LLCs each donate the $10,000 max. It’s a practice known as “bundling.”
The movement of money between the affiliated PACs may fall under the same type of legal loophole, but the applicability depends on circumstances and is open to interpretation.
Strong Public Schools Nevada, a PAC affiliated with the Nevada State Education Association, this week filed an election integrity violation report with the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office over Local 872, White and the dozen affiliated PACs. In the complaint, they argue Local 872 is in violation of state law.
Chris Daly, of Strong Public Schools Nevada and NSEA, in an interview with the Current said Local 872 could have given $20,000 to a PAC to spend in support of Barron.
“That’s the legal way of moving money larger than $10,000 in an election cycle,” he said. “That’s legal. Now, if we were to make contributions in excess of $10,000 directly to the campaign committee. That’s illegal.”
PACs are supposed to be walled off from candidates and cannot coordinate with them.
Strong Public Schools also names Barron in the complaint, writing in the complaint that, “while it may be possible the Barron campaign accepted these contributions unwittingly,” the contributions make up a significant portion of his total contributions and “one should expect a campaign to exercise due diligence with respect to adherence to basic campaign finance laws.”
When reached by the Current Thursday, Barron said he was unaware of the complaint being filed related to his campaign.
He said he was aware that a dozen PACs who donated to his campaign appear to be affiliated with Local 872, but he said he has no direct connection to the PACs and doesn’t know anything about their structure or funding.
“I’m not aware of any finance violations,” Barron said of his C&E report and fundraising efforts. “I’m pretty sure there are other entities that have multiple PACs.”
Flores reported raising $36,700 in the first quarter of the year. When combined with money raised in 2025, the incumbent entered the second quarter of the year with $202,000 on hand.
Barron reported having $8,933 on hand. But he is also getting a boost from at least one independent PAC. Strategic Horizons, a PAC affiliated with the Clark County Education Association, has sent voters flyers attacking Flores and supporting Barron. Barron is a retired 30-year public school teacher.
CCEA supported the film studio bill during the special session. The attack flyers do not mention the film studio project by name but say Flores “voted against Nevada’s largest jobs bill” and “voted with Republicans to kill jobs.”
Flores was one of five Democrats in the Senate to vote against the film bill. Eleven Democrats in the Assembly also voted against it.
[Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Republican Assemblymember Danielle Gallant voted for AB5, the film tax credit bill. She voted against the bill. Gallant, however, did vote to allow two Assemblymembers to vote remotely, a key procedural vote that led its passage.]
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com.
