(KTNV-Action News 13) – A local candidate for U.S. Senate could soon also be a candidate for jail. The Clark County District Attorney’s office has submitted paperwork for the arrest of Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian.
Ashjian lost his contractor’s license last Wednesday when he didn’t show for a disciplinary hearing.
Two days later, the district attorney’s office filed charges on him for felony theft.
They say he wrote a bogus check for $5,000 to a businessman in December.
Thousands of people trekked to Searchlight over the weekend for a Tea Party rally dubbed the “Conservative Woodstock.”
Among those people, you’d expect to find Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Scott Ashjian from Las Vegas.
“We’re trying to be uniters, not dividers,” he told Action News in a recent interview.
But it seems the Tea Party is trying to divide itself from Ashjian, amid allegations.
“We at the Tea Party Express have a message for Scott Ashjian, who has been trying to pretend he’s involved in the Tea Party movement: get lost,” says a political advertisement that’s airing on TV.
Right now, at the Regional Justice Center, an arrest warrant for Ashjian is waiting to be signed by a judge.
He’s accused of writing bad checks for his asphalt business.
“It’s probably time for him to start considering that his short lived political career may well be over,” says Action News political analyst, Elizabeth Crum.
Crum also says Ashjian wouldn’t have to withdraw his candidacy if arrested, although his bid was a longshot to begin with.
Granted, if Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid’s, poll numbers tighten:
“To 10%, 8%, even less than that, it is possible a third party candidate who syphons off a small percentage of votes could throw the election to Harry Reid. That’s the reason this is such a big story,” says Crum.
The next big chapter of that story could be Wednesday, when the judge is expected to sign the warrant.
If convicted, Ashjian could spend up to 14 years in state prison.
He agreed to an interview with Action News Monday, but did not answer either of his phones when we showed up.
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