Councilwoman Fiore reports more loans, this time to campaign fund

Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore disclosed this week that she loaned her council campaign nearly $18,000 late last year, according to an amended state filing.

But the loans and the disclosure that they were seemingly repaid by a campaign credit card reflect a change from the original 2020 annual campaign finance report filed in January.

Fiore documented several previously unreported loans Thursday totaling $17,700 to her campaign between August and November. And several credit card payments now shown as repaying or forgiving loans equaling the same amount had been initially reported as advertising expenses, according to the new filing.

The revised disclosure comes a month after Fiore also reported previously undisclosed loans exceeding $41,000 to her political action committee Future for Nevadans, meaning that the councilwoman is saying she has lent nearly $60,000 to her PAC and campaign since 2017.

Experts have said that lending money to a PAC appeared unusual but that amending disclosures, even in flurries or after a lengthy period of time, could simply mean that an error was only recently discovered.

It is also common for candidates to lend money to their campaigns. Fiore last did so in April 2017 when she lent her campaign $1,000 two months before she was elected to the council. It was her only loan to the campaign that election cycle and she reported it without delay, records show.

But it is not immediately clear why Fiore did not report until recently the more extensive loans to her campaign or to her PAC, or why she had not originally disclosed the credit card payments used to repay or forgive them.

Fiore could not be immediately reached for comment Friday and she also did not return multiple messages last month seeking comment on her PAC disclosures.

The dates and individual amounts of eight credit card expenses by Fiore’s campaign match the dates and amounts of eight individual loans that the councilwoman said she made to her campaign, according to Thursday’s filing. But seven of the payments were previously reported as advertising expenses. One is new.

In March, Fiore reported a $1,700 loan to her PAC for the first time. A credit card payment of the same amount — previously described as for advertising expenses — had also been revised last month to show it repaid or forgave a loan.

The councilwoman, whose term expires in November 2022, has hinted at running for mayor in 2024 but not made any formal announcements.

Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.