Mayoral campaign ads turn negative

Erin Neff

Tuesday, April 27, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

With T-minus seven days and counting before the mayoral primary, the campaigning has lifted off for an explosive and negative stretch run.

City Councilman Arnie Adamsen hit the launch pad Friday when he began airing negative ads against both criminal defense attorney Oscar Goodman and developer Mark Fine.

Fine, who had been airing a negative television spot highlighting Adamsen's foreign travel in connection with the Sister Cities program, took his attack one step further Monday by calling for an audit of the city's International Affairs division.

"It looks to me that the amount we're spending is too high," Fine said about the division's $350,000 annual budget. "It appears that the department's main purpose is to support the Sister Cities program, which has not proven to be a success."

Adamsen fired back: "He's a desperate developer obviously out of this race who is trying anything."

Adamsen downplayed any speculation that his campaign has taken a similar turn by airing snippets from Goodman's appearances on KVBC Channel 3's "Closing Arguments" program, in which Goodman described himself as the "worst mayor" Las Vegas could have.

"I'm taking his words and educating the public," Adamsen said. "Those are his words and he's going to have to eat them. If his words are perceived as negative, that's one thing. But I'm not being negative like Mark Fine and showing things through cartoons," Adamsen said.

In Fine's spot calling the Sister Cities program Adamsen's "dirty little secret," a cartoon airplane with Adamsen's face inside jets between Las Vegas and Asia.

Adamsen is running two spots against Goodman and one against Fine.

Lindsay Lewis, Adamsen's campaign manager, said more ads are planned this week -- including one featuring a clip of Goodman stumping for making certain drugs legal.

For his part, Goodman vows to maintain the voluntary "Pledge of Fair Campaign Tactics" to keep the campaign focused on issues and not to attack or smear opponents. He signed the pledge when he filed for mayor. "I'm going to take the high road," Goodman said. "It's a shame that (Adamsen) has to try that."

Recent polls by the Adamsen and Fine campaigns show Goodman in the lead. Adamsen trails by as many as eight points while Fine trails by as many as 20.

There are nine candidates on the May 4 primary ballot for mayor. If no candidate gets 50 percent plus one vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in the June 8 general election.

Fine contends his call for the audit is not a political attack. He has not, however, asked for an audit of any other city department.

Pete Cummings, head of the Office of Business Development that supervises the International Affairs division, on Monday welcomed an examination of the books. He discounted Fine's contention that its sole role is to support Sister Cities, a private organization subsidized with city funding and services.

The division spends 65 percent of its time on issues not related to Sister Cities -- about 35 percent on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage issue and 30 percent on marketing to international businesses, Cummings said.

"I think the budget is very much above board," Cummings said. "I have no problem with an audit."

Las Vegas' sister cities include An San, South Korea; Angeles City in The Philippines; Huladao, China; and Phuket, Thailand.

Although the 1998-99 fiscal year budget shows $456,000 in funding for International Affairs, $106,000 is split between Yucca Mountain and the salary of an employee who works in another department, Cummings said.

Fine was given a copy of the budget and a four-year history of the division's spending, but he is not satisfied.

"The only way I'm going to get a real answer is with an audit," Fine said.

Adamsen, who has long been a proponent of the Sister Cities program, wonders why Fine never questioned the program or its expense before. "Why is he running out calling for an audit seven days before the election?"