Judicial candidate resigns from Nevada ethics commission

The executive director of the Nevada Commission on Ethics has resigned amid allegations less than a month before her judicial election Nov. 4.

Caren Cafferata-Jenkins, who has served as the commission's executive director for five years, made the announcement Monday, saying she plans to resign Thursday.

Cafferata-Jenkins is running against Judge Chuck Weller in Department 11 in Washoe County Family Court.

Her resignation comes after Michael Lawrence, a former senior investigator for the ethics commission, filed a complaint against her in June that alleged she used her office at the ethics commission to further her campaign.

Lawrence alleged Cafferata-Jenkins turned the commission office "into her own personal 'Kinko's,'" according to the complaint he filed June 16, six days after Cafferata-Jenkins advanced in the primary.

Cafferata-Jenkins denied those allegations and said Lawrence has a "vendetta" against her after losing his job in April, noting he filed the complaint after she advanced after the June 10 primary election.

Cafferata-Jenkins said Monday she decided to resign because media attention of Lawrence's complaint inaccurately attracted attention to the questions on whether she is legally allowed to run for an elected office while simultaneously holding a position as the executive director of the Nevada Commission on Ethics.

"I want to take attention away from the commission and to let people have an idea who I am," she said in a phone interview. "My perspective: it is about me, not about the commission. If there is attention to be given, let it be given to me. And if Mike Lawrence wants to demean me, let him. But he cannot take down the commission."

Lawrence said he never intended to make this about the commission.

"It was always about her," he said Monday. "Never about the commission. Nobody ever implied I was going to take down the commission."

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Judicial candidate resigns from Nevada ethics commission