Heller: Berkley never disclosed her conflict to me when she asked for help

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 | 3:35 p.m.

Sen. Dean Heller today said (through a spokesman) that when Rep. Shelley Berkley asked him to help save UMC’s transplant program four years ago, she did not tell him her husband oversaw the program.

“The Senator was not aware of Dr. Lehrner’s involvement,” spokesman Stewart Bybee told me. “In addition, Dean did not know he was associated with the hospital or the issue, nor was it brought to staff’s attention.”

Bybee said Heller learned of Dr, Larry Lehrner’s contract “after reading the New York Times article. He was just as surprised as everyone else who read it.”

So is that true? Did Berkley not disclose to Heller or Rep. Jon Porter, who also helped at the time?

I asked Team Berkley for a comment on what Heller said and got this from campaign manager Jessica Mackler:

“We were just as surprised to learn of Dean Heller's ethically questionable correlation between his votes to protect taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil and his campaign contributions.”

OK. I get it. The non-denial denial.

Should she have disclosed to Heller and Porter? Of course.

But this issue of the transplant program and her involvement has been distorted, and it is convenient now for Heller to portray himself as an unwitting accomplice. My guess is he and Porter would have been just as willing to help if they had known of the family ties.

But the program should have been saved, and this is almost – almost – a non-issue, especially when compared to other actions raised in that New York Time story earlier this month.

I’ll have more in my Friday column.