Race for Ward 2 seat heats up

Sito Negron

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 | 11 a.m.

It's down to the wire for Ward 2 candidates, who have stepped up the pace in an already frantic six-week campaign to serve on City Council.

Early voting begins Friday, and the election is a week from today. While candidates have been working to varying degrees since the Las Vegas City Council voted to have a special election -- at an estimated cost of about $80,000 -- instead of appointing a new member, door-to-door campaigning and direct-mail advertising has picked up.

"Saturday was a big day," said candidate Gabriel Lither, who said he bumped into groups representing other candidates while he was out walking.

Candidate John Hambrick said that he expects people to start receiving his mailers today. The pieces, like his campaign Web site, will tout his support from elected officials, Hambrick said Monday.

Ward 2 residents are getting plenty of election materials, including a barrage of mailers from candidate Steve Wolfson plus others sent by candidate Ric Truesdell and Joanne Levy.

But it's the door-to-door campaigning that is likely to pay the biggest dividends in an election where 12 candidates might total 3,000 to 5,000 votes, and the winner could garner less than 1,000 votes, election experts have said.

Wolfson said that he visited hundreds of homes, and while "one of three people say 'I don't have any issues,' the other two have something on their mind, from speed bumps to development."

The candidates said that voters ask most often about growth, traffic, crime and recreation, traditional staples of city politics that are exaggerated by Las Vegas' extreme population surge. The Valley makes up the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country.

That leads to major issues involving land use, water and road placements, which in turn leads to ward-specific issues. For example, both Lither and candidate Bob Genzer said that they heard a lot of complaints about the intersection of Charleston and Rampart/Fort Apache.

"The biggest issue I hear as I walk is how we grow, and everything else is related to how we grow, crime, traffic, parks" Lither said. "I've talked to hundreds of residents, and most of them want growth; they just want to make sure we maintain the quality of life as we grow."

Genzer said Ward 2 has specific traffic issues, but "beyond that, the ward for the majority is either built out or master-planned. I don't see the ward as having the same kinds of issues as maybe the other wards have."

He said the ward has plenty of parks and open space, pointing to the Buffalo-Washington park, where the city is developing 130 acres expected to cost $30 million, including a 20-plus court tennis complex. The park is to open some time next year.

Genzer said that "a number of people wanted to know whether I'm a Democrat or a Republican, even though this is a non-partisan race." He said most did not tell him which they prefer.

Hambrick said that although he is using statements of support from Republican elected officials, he is not running as a Republican in the non-partisan city race.

"The distinction I'm trying to draw is when I retired I got involved in community activities and part of that is I worked in Republican campaigns," Hambrick said. "They've seen me work, roll up my sleeves, and that's how I believe I've garnered their support."

Hambrick said that youth recreation -- he's a Little League baseball organizer -- is one of his key issues.

Hambrick said that he'd pay close attention to issues affecting parks like maintenance and water use. The city of Las Vegas is testing artificial turf for use as soccer fields, and Hambrick said he'd like to see the effort succeed.

One thing the candidates have not done much of is attack each other. Although there have been some references -- Wolfson's mailers, for example, show him in front of Red Rock, and proclaim his desire to protect it, while Lither notes that Wolfson was not involved in the fight against the Red Rock casino proposal -- the candidates say the campaign has been clean.

"There's no reason to do that (be negative)," Genzer said. "The residents deserve the best possible person and they deserve candidates who will talk about themselves. Let the residents decide based on our credentials."