Mob attorney tries to put past behind in bid for Vegas mayor

Tim Dahlberg

Monday, May 3, 1999 | 2:42 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - All Oscar Goodman had to do to run for mayor of Las Vegas was overcome his association with the mobsters he once represented and tell the voters he really didn't mean everything he used to say.

His main opponents in Tuesday's primary election had a tougher task - convincing voters that they're not responsible for the traffic jams and dirty air fouling the quality of life in this booming desert city.

Goodman's transformation from flamboyant criminal defense attorney to populist candidate gets its first real test as he heads a crowded field of nine contenders for the city's next mayor.

The polls show Goodman leading, thanks to a campaign that portrays him as the people's champion, one who will make developers pay their way. His two main opponents, city councilman Arnie Adamsen and developer Mark Fine, haven't helped themselves by spending much of the campaign trading blame for the city's mounting woes.

Even Goodman's outlandish statements from the past - such as calling for legalization of drugs and prostitution and claiming there is no Mafia - seem to have been overlooked by voters eager for a fresh face to replace Jan Jones, who did not seek re-election.

"I've always represented the underdog," said Goodman, whose years of legal maneuvering on behalf of the late mobster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro made him famous. "I always believed I was going to win."

Not too many of the city's power brokers did, though, until Goodman threw $140,000 of his own money into early television advertising and then embarked on a relentless campaign schedule of pressing the flesh.

Now they're hedging their bets and keeping a wary eye on the 59-year-old, who has had the audacity in a city of unchecked growth to call for the builders and developers to pay to solve the infrastructure problems that plague the Las Vegas Valley.

"I don't need this job. I want this job. There's a big difference," Goodman said in an interview. "When you have someone benevolent with a bully pulpit, you can do a lot of good."

If the polls are accurate, Goodman figures to easily make the June 8 runoff between the top two vote-getters in Tuesday's primary. He might even come close to the simple majority that would win him the mayor's seat outright in the primary.

That worries both Adamsen and the Chamber of Commerce types, who have lined up solidly behind the councilman.

"If he is elected, it would set our reputation back 50 years," said Adamsen, who was considered the leader in the race early on.

Adamsen was forced to go on the attack against Goodman late in the race after polls showed he and Fine locked in a fight for second place, well behind the criminal defense attorney.

But Adamsen has had to answer voters who question what he's done to solve traffic and other growth problems in his 12 years on the council. Fine, meanwhile, has been dogged by his occupation as a developer who has helped create the very problems Goodman rails about.

"I've been ready for this job from Day One," Adamsen said. "There will be another 100,000 residents in this town before either of my opponents learn how to conduct a meeting."

Though the race to succeed Jones is the hottest in years, the job itself isn't the plum it appears to be at first glance.

Less than half of the estimated 1.2 million residents in the Las Vegas Valley actually live within the city limits, and the huge megaresorts on the Las Vegas Strip are not actually part of the city either. The mayor's job, which pays $48,500, is a part-time position, and carries little more clout than that of a city council member.

Still, a strong-willed mayor can wield influence, and even Goodman's former adversaries concede he will do just that if elected.

"This town has been run by the good old boys and real estate developers for a long time," said former U.S. Attorney Lamond Mills, who prosecuted Spilotro and is now supporting Goodman. "If Oscar is elected he'll take this system and stand it on its head."