Columnist Jeff German: Las Vegas politics goes wild

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2000 | 2:38 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com

THIS MAY be the season to be jolly, but smiles are hard to find in local government these days.

And we're not even in Florida, where officials are having trouble counting.

Consider the bizarre happenings in Las Vegas politics.

At City Hall, Councilman Michael McDonald enhanced his bad-boy image when he secretly tape-recorded a private conversation with Mayor Oscar Goodman and publicly distributed the tape to the news media.

Goodman, a criminal defense attorney who has represented some of the most feared mobsters in the country, vowed to "get" McDonald for violating his privacy and he led the charge to strip the councilman of his mayor pro tem title.

Then Goodman also stirred up talk that McDonald, an ex-cop, and his top aide, Rick Henry, were seen carrying guns at City Hall, rattling more nerves and prompting a run on bulletproof vests on the 10th floor.

All the while, the whacky Steve Miller, who lost the confidence of the voters long ago, continued to manipulate the news media in his self-serving campaign to persuade the residents of Ward 1 to take away McDonald's council seat.

Not to be outdone by City Hall, the world of the bizarre also struck the Clark County Government Center, where commissioners began pushing County Manager Dale Askew, a loyal public servant, out the door like yesterday's garbage.

But even more unbelievable was word of an alleged plot by Commissioner Erin Kenny to break into the office of her political adversary, fellow Commissioner Mary Kincaid, to steal documents that could have hurt Kincaid's political career.

The Watergate-like story was denied by Kenny, but it prompted a rise in G. Gordon Liddy sightings in Las Vegas.

"Right now it's crazy out there," one veteran political strategist says. "If this doesn't settle down, we'll start seeing the incumbent turnover here of the early 1990s.

"People got so frustrated with their elected officials, they started voting them out."

Longtime County Commissioners Paul Christensen, Karen Hayes, Thalia Dondero and William Pearson were among those who lost their jobs as a result of that anti-incumbent wave.

Is history repeating itself?

"We have a bunch of pretty arrogant elected officials right now," another experienced politico says. "The office becomes all about them, and it's supposed to be about us."

McDonald, meanwhile, has found himself on the hot seat again over his lapses in ethical judgment.

There has been talk that his chairmanship of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority now could be in jeopardy.

If ever there's an agency that needs a squeaky clean image, it's the LVCVA, which seeks to promote Las Vegas in the best positive light.

By no small surprise, Goodman also sits on the 13-member LVCVA board.

McDonald's term expires at the end of the year, so it's likely board members won't take hasty action, but rather will look to elect someone else in his place in January.

Kincaid, the current vice chairman, has expressed an interest in the chairmanship.

And everyone expects Goodman, who loves the limelight and wants to be known as the city's ambassador to the world, will eye the prestigious position, as well.

The mayor, however, is being advised to stay out of the latest dump-McDonald campaign to avoid looking petty and vindictive.

As a result, the name of Bob Forbuss, the board's secretary-treasurer, also has been bandied about as a likely McDonald successor.

If the field gets too crowded, board members always could decide the new chairman with a couple of old-fashioned duels.

We've seen stranger things in local government these days.