Councilmembers Buck, Robinson re-elected

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, April 9, 2003 | 9:16 a.m.

Overcoming challengers who said North Las Vegas needs new leadership, incumbent City Council members Shari Buck and William Robinson were re-elected Tuesday to four-year terms.

Buck, who led the way with 57.5 percent of the vote, and Robinson said their victories ensure stability on the council.

Robinson, 62, was first elected to the council 20 years ago and won a sixth term in office with 52 percent of the vote. He received 3,262 votes.

Because Buck and Robinson drew more than 50 percent of the vote, they were declared the winners of the election and do not have to face a runoff in the June 3 general election.

Robinson's closest competition came from Nelson Stone, a 43-year-old engineer and a member of the city Planning Commission, who took 2,731 votes, which was 43.5 percent of the vote for the Ward 2 council seat. The third candidate, Howard Flebbe, received 4.5 percent.

While there was a great difference in campaign spending -- through March 27 Stone spent $43,518 to Robinson's $146,297 -- the two sent dueling campaign literature to voters in the final weeks of the contest. Stone's literature contrasted his "family values" as a married man with Robinson's "multiple marriages," while Robinson's literature blasted Stone for spreading "lies, innuendo and personal attacks."

Meanwhile, Buck, 42, prevailed against challengers who attacked her from the outset of the campaign.

Honey Easter and Bill Dolan said that as a councilwoman Buck has listened to developers at the expense of citizens. Easter, a 42-year-old volunteer, and Dolan, a 48-year-old nurse, also worked to remind voters that North Las Vegas has the highest property tax rate in the area.

Dolan said he and Easter had a similar campaign message, and political experts predicted the two might split whatever anti-incumbent votes were cast.

In the end, Easter took just under 20 percent of the vote, while Dolan received 19.3 percent of the vote.

Buck said she thinks the negative tactics of her opponents hurt their campaigns.

But Dolan and Easter said Buck's monetary advantage played a significant role in the outcome.

Like Robinson, Buck spent significantly more than her opponents in her bid for re-election to the city's Ward 4 council seat.

Through March 27, Buck had spent $107,736 compared with Dolan's $21,653 and Easter's $1,209.

Buck, who is ending her first term in office, was able to reach voters with at least four direct-mail pieces from her campaign. But it was Easter's heavy appeal to voters that may have drawn the most attention. Easter's campaign literature was attached to atlases donated by the James Seastrand Helping Hands of North Las Vegas, a nonprofit group she volunteers for.

Meanwhile, Lee Fuller, 33, an owner of an office furniture installation company, found out just how many people will vote for someone who didn't campaign at all.

Fuller said he entered the race because, "I'm just kind of curious to see if people would vote for someone they haven't heard much about."

He received 205 votes, or just under 3.3 percent.

In the North Las Vegas election, all city voters cast ballots for two candidates, one from each of the two wards at stake.