Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Indictment overshadows county race

The shadow of corruption hangs over the race for the right to represent the north half of Clark County on the County Commission.

Incumbent Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, who four years ago easily won re-election with more than 63 percent of the vote, now is in the fight of her political life to keep her District B seat on the seven-member panel.

Last year she was indicted on federal charges of public corruption, the result of a long investigation into the County Commission's relationship with a strip-club chain owned by Michael Galardi.

The allegations that Kincaid-Chauncey and three former county commissioners traded votes for money and favors forced Kincaid-Chauncey to resign her central seat as the chairwoman of the seven-person board, but she vowed to remain on the commission and seek re-election as she argues her innocence.

With her political survival in doubt, seven other candidates registered for the election, including four Democrats, who will share space with Kincaid-Chauncey on the Sept. 8 primary ballot.

The front-running candidates, along with Kincaid-Chauncey, are Assembly members Vonne Chowning and Tom Collins, Democrats who have split the endorsements of various unions, and North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck, a Republican. All of the candidates have publicly pledged not to make an issue of Kincaid-Chauncey's indictment, yet the issue -- cloaked in traditional campaign verbiage -- still hangs.

"This election is going to be about integrity and ethics," Collins said. "It's going to be about the candidate who is straightforward and honest. It's about more parks, clean air, more cops and less sleaze."

Buck agreed on at least some of those points.

"I'm a conservative, very frugal with spending, honest and moral and hard-working," she said.

Chowning, more than the other candidates, discusses the impact of the indictment. She said the indictment is a problem that Kincaid-Chauncey cannot overcome -- even if she is eventually found innocent.

"I go, I talk, I meet with people, and everyone brings up her name," Chowning said. "The candidates were going to let the media talk about it (but) that puts a different focus on this race.

"I really firmly believe it when she (Kincaid-Chauncey) says she is going to trial, and she has that right to say, in her words, she is innocent until proven guilty," Chowning said. "The problem is, this indictment has put a cloud of distrust over the entire County Commission."

She argued that the indictment is taxing Kincaid-Chauncey's and the entire commission's time and energy.

"I don't feel she can do the service she needs to do for the constituents and it puts a cloud over the entire commission," Chowning said.

"People ... feel very disillusioned," she said. "They are so disappointed and they don't want her to continue in office."

Kincaid-Chauncey's response might be considered fatalistic except for her emphasis on a higher power she believes will determine the election's outcome.

"I believe very strongly in my faith," she said. "I go to church and get active and read the Bible every day.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's in God's hands. I've done everything I can do. If this is what he wants me to do, I'll win. No matter what anybody says or does, if he wants me to, I'll win.

"We'll find the answer when the election gets here," she said.

Kincaid-Chauncey owns a North Las Vegas flower shop. Collins is an electrical contractor. Chowning is a real estate agent. Buck works as a councilwoman.

Other candidates include John Stevens, an assistant reference librarian, and John Bonaventura, a one-term assemblyman from the early 1990s, both running as Democrats. Grant Claycomb, a construction inspector for Clark County government, and Glen Easter, a community activist perhaps best known for his recall effort against former North Las Vegas Councilwoman Paula Brown, are running on the Republican ticket.

Dan Hart, a campaign consultant advising Buck, said her campaign is going well. Contribution and expense reports do not come out for the candidates until the end of the month, but Hart said Buck should be able to hit the $1 million mark.

"History has shown us that around a million dollars is what successful candidates (for county commission) raise," Hart said. Still, it's a difficult fund-raising effort, in part because of the multiple candidates, in part because there are federal races siphoning off financial support and in part because some potential donors are waiting until after the primaries to make commitments.

"Whatever is out there, we feel we've got the infrastructure to get," he said.

Buck said she is already focused on the Nov. 2 general election. Her two primary opponents, she said, are barely visible.

"They don't have any signs up," she said early this month.

"They're not doing anything. ... I'm working on the general. I'm walking and talking to people so people get to know who I am. I'm not waiting until after the primary to introduce myself to Democrats."

The introduction will be important for Buck. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district 36,871 to 27,316, with more than 12,000 nonpartisan and smaller party active registered voters as of Aug. 20.

The district has always been a stronghold of the labor unions: the Teamsters and Laborers, Culinary and government employees. Union support could be critical this year, especially for the primary, where the big push is not necessarily to convince the voters of the benefits of the candidate but to get the voters to the polls, said Tom Morley, political director of Laborers Local 872.

Morley's union has endorsed Chowning because of her pro-labor record in the Assembly.

Collins, on the other hand, has the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union, the second biggest union in Las Vegas. Culinary, the biggest in town, is waiting until after the primaries to make an endorsement.

"Both candidates (Chowning and Collins) have split the house of labor," Morley said. But the Laborers, with the Bricklayers and Sheet Metal Workers, "will be doing some heavy campaigning for Vonne in the next few weeks," he said.

"I believe Vonne is going to take away a lot of the traditional, Democratic voters that would go to Kincaid."

The SEIU has mailed out a couple of pamphlets targeting Kincaid-Chauncey and the charges against her. One cites a newspaper editorial advocating her resignation from the commission while the other questions her honesty and argues she has broken bonds of trust with community residents.

Morley said if Kincaid-Chauncey pulls out a win, the union will endorse Buck, an unusual move for a local union to back a Republican.

"Shari has had an open-door policy over the years and has never done us wrong," he said. Kincaid-Chauncey, on the other hand, "has refused an open- door policy with us that she promised in the last election. We just don't feel that she can do the job for the benefit of my local and its membership."

If Collins wins the primary, the union will support him "120 percent," Morley said.

Gary Gray, Collins' campaign manager, said the Las Vegas City Employees Association and the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, which represents about 12,000 local government and health care workers, have endorsed his candidate.

"If they want unity, then Tom Collins is the guy to rally around," Gray said.

Kincaid-Chauncey, naturally, disagrees. She said her experience during the campaign has been almost completely positive, and her constituents are rallying around her effort despite the legal trouble.

"I'm very proud of the community because they really believe a person is innocent until proven guilty," Kincaid-Chauncey said. "People have been very supportive. It kind of renews my faith in the general public.

"Whether I win or lose, just running has been worth it to get that kind of response," she said.

Kincaid-Chauncey said she know's she innocent and hopes her constituents who supported her in prior elections believe her.

"I want to win. I'm trying to win. But, you know, I feel it's really kind of out of my hands. I just believe somehow in the long run God takes care of it the way he feels you should take care of it."

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