McDonald must face Moncrief in June

Judy Odierna

Wednesday, April 9, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

Councilman Michael McDonald was handed the surprise of the night, being pushed into the general election by a political novice who outpolled him.

Janet Moncrief, a registered nurse and surgery center director, nearly won the election outright, collecting 48 percent of the vote. McDonald came in second with 44 percent of the vote. The two will now face off in the June 3 general election.

"She has appealed to some voters," McDonald said. "It'll be up to them to decide."

While McDonald attended a party at the Fremont Street Experience, Moncrief had no official event set up for election night and didn't answer her phone.

Moncrief received 3,078 votes, while McDonald collected 2,828. Also running were Peter "Chris" Christoff, who had 5.5 percent or 350 votes, and Paul Chomintra, who received 2.4 percent or 152 votes.

McDonald was hit hard by negative campaign mailers in the final weeks of the campaign. One stated that McDonald doesn't support unions and attempted to use his party affiliation against him in a nonpartisan race. That mailer was not attributed to any of McDonald's opponents.

Several other postcards sent out by Christoff cited previous ethics complaints against McDonald and recycled old comments that Mayor Oscar Goodman made during a political feud with McDonald. Goodman endorsed McDonald in this race.

Christoff also used Goodman's signature from a recall petition against McDonald in 2000. Christoff did not put his name on one of the postcards but later told the Sun he was responsible for it. Moncrief, who moved into Ward 1 to run for the seat, sent out a mailer to people who signed the petition saying she applauded them and Goodman for signing the petition.

The recall petition in 2000 came up 348 signatures short of the required 2,995.

Several Ward 1 residents also have claimed they received phone calls from a group called Citizens for Better Government that linked itself to Moncrief and made negative comments about McDonald. Moncrief has denied any involvement with the calls or mailers.

Political consultant Mark Benoit said the mailers certainly didn't help McDonald's campaign.

"It really is a terrible campaign tactic to play," Benoit said. "People say they don't like it, but it is effective."

Michael Bowers, political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said four ethics complaints against McDonald since 1995 may have come back to haunt him.

"Clearly that ethics cloud continues to hang over his head," Bowers said. "He's in serious trouble."

But Benoit thinks otherwise and said McDonald can win in June.

"The task is to remind voters how good he is at constituent services," Benoit said. "He has done so much for constituents that they will not turn away from him."

McDonald, who said throughout the primary that he was trying to run a positive campaign, said that could change with the bigger stakes of the general election.

"We have a whole different strategy now," McDonald said. "You can count on that."

Christoff said he also has a new strategy for trying to oust McDonald: He'll continue sending out fliers critical of McDonald to try to help Moncrief win the general election.

Christoff credited Moncrief's door-to-door campaigning throughout the primary as a key to her success Tuesday. He said he has offered his support to her and will urge people who voted for him to cast ballots for her.

"The battle is not over," Christoff said Wednesday morning.

"It was a very successful campaign," the longtime Meadows Village community activist and City Hall gadfly said. "McDonald's attitude has been to thumb his nose at people and because of it he has lost his votes. People are wising up and want some credibility in Ward 1."