Bill Allen, the new president and chief executive of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., spends much of his time trying to keep businesses in L.A.

So when he received a package in the mail last week with a return address from the Nevada Development Authority he thought it was strange a feeling confirmed when the opened mail contained a plea to move his business to Las Vegas.

“It was addressed to me personally as a business owner, not as head of an economic development body,” Allen said. “I thought it must be some mistake.”

But it was not. In fact, the missive was part of a multimillion dollar campaign launched by the Nevada Development Authority to recruit California businesses to Las Vegas that included mailers to economic development officials.

The campaign also featured a “bus tour” that hit four California cities last week. At each stop, Nevada officials handed out packets that included a package of peanuts dubbed “California Tax Nuts.”

“The letter to the LAEDC was no mistake. We want to let our competition know what we’re doing,” said Somer Hollingsworth, president and chief executive of the Nevada Development Authority.

Of course, Nevada recruiters have long been trolling California for businesses. And two years ago, there was a highly publicized spat between the the two states when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger brought a moving van to Las Vegas to move a company back to California and Nevada retaliated with billboards up and down the Golden State.

What’s different this time is that the Nevada Development Authority now has $5.5 million in its coffers specifically to market in California, thanks to legislation passed last year by the Nevada legislature

“On our kickoff, we’re hitting just about everybody,” Hollingsworth said. “Once we let people know we’re here, then we’re going to start targeting technology and life science companies and other companies.”