Tuesday, April 21, 1998 | 9:50 a.m.
West Las Vegas chiropractor Terry Akers plans to challenge Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates for her District D commission seat if a special election is called to oust her.
That depends on how successful Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government is in its ongoing recall petition drive. The group began the drive following a state Ethics Commission ruling that Gates violated ethics codes in seeking a lease for a daiquiri shop from several casinos that as a board member she helps regulate.
Gates and three other commissioners also face an ethics hearing in May to determine whether they used their positions to help friends get airport concessions reserved for minorities and women.
Akers was expected to announce his candidacy at noon today at a news conference in the conference room of the West Las Vegas Library at 915 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Whether there will be a special election is yet to be determined.
"If he wasn't confident that wasn't going to happen he wouldn't be announcing his candidacy," Sheryl Worcester, a spokeswoman for Akers, said Monday.
She also said Akers would not talk to the media until the press conference.
Gates, who was born and raised in West Las Vegas, said she did not know much about Akers, a recent resident to the community.
She was amused that someone was announcing his candidacy for an election that may or may not occur.
"It's a bit premature for Mr. Akers to announce his candidacy," Gates said. "First, you have to get a recall petition on."
Charles Bennion, who's leading the recall drive, said the polling consultant has already collected about half of the 4,380 signatures needed -- 25 percent of the number of people of that district who voted in the last election.
Once those signatures are certified by the Secretary of State and a special election is called, then candidates must also gather the same number of signatures to even get on the ballot.
"Over the last several weeks things have been picking up," Bennion said, estimating that the group is gathering about 400 signatures a night.
"That should get us there without any problem before the deadline," he said.
The group has until May 10 to collect and file all the signatures with the county elections department.
"We'll have more than that obviously to cover any signatures that are thrown out by the secretary of state," Bennion said.
Once those are verified, the secretary must call for an election within 30 days.
If there are not enough signatures to nominate any opponents, a no-confidence vote would be conducted to decide whether to recall Gates. If the majority vote to recall her, she would be removed from office and the governor would appoint a replacement.
Bennion said his committee met last week with Akers for an hour.
"We were very impressed with him," Bennion said. "We voted and said we would support him. If other candidates came out as well we would look at them and see if they would merit our support as well."
Gates said she was fine with Akers deciding to run against her.
"I'm confident if there is a recall election I will withstand it and return to the County Commission," Gates said. "I promised the people of my district that I was going to help to improve the community and I feel as though I've accomplished many of those things."
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