Ward 2 seat may go to special election

Thursday, May 6, 2004 | 11:36 a.m.

Hopefuls for the vacant Ward 2 Las Vegas City Council seat are resigned to the likelihood that they will have to quickly raise a campaign war chest and somehow get their names out to the voters in six weeks for a special election that would cost city taxpayers an estimated $70,000 to $80,000.

The Las Vegas City Council will meet 4 p.m. Tuesday at Las Vegas City Hall Council Chambers to consider whether to hold what would be the first special municipal election in the state since Nevada enacted a 1997 law to permit such contests.

If the council chooses not to hold a special election, the six members would pick a Ward 2 representative from about a dozen people who have made it known they want the job.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday the City Council struck a similar agenda item because voting on it would have violated the state's open meeting law.

The special-election item was posted last week, prior to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman asking City Clerk Roni Ronemus to research the costs and other pitfalls of a special election. She gave the report to the council Wednesday.

"It (a special election) is going to be a crunch," said former state Board of Education member Terry Garcia-Cahlan, one of the contenders for the post vacated by Lynette Boggs McDonald, who left April 20 to become an appointed County Commissioner. "We're going to have to talk to a lot of voters quickly and then do it again about six months later."

Garcia-Cahlan was referring to next spring's elections, when the winner of a proposed June 22 special election would have to run again to remain in office.

Former Las Vegas Planning Commission member Craig Galati said "we will have to do a number of mailers and go door-to-door to get our names out to the voters. I think only about four or five of us are going to decide to run" in the special election.

Las Vegas Planning Commission member Richard Truesdell says the shortness of time to prepare for a special election is "an unusual burden" but one that can be met. As a commission member he is always talking with the residents of Ward 2 and the other wards, he said. He believes he can get his message and name out to voters in time for a special election.

"It will be like a foot race," said Las Vegas attorney Steven Wolfson, another Ward 2 hopeful. "I'll be banging on doors starting at 9 a.m. everyday and I have my two daughters to help me."

Candidate filing for the Ward 2 seat would be May 17-19 under Ronemus' plan.

Ronemus told the council the cost of putting on a special election would include paying the power bill for one day at polling sites at schools that ordinarily would be closed for summer vacation. Thirteen of the 23 regular Ward 2 polling sites are in schools, she said.

Ronemus said costs could be cut by reducing the number of polling locations to centralized sites at community centers, a move that would upset some voters who prefer voting at schools in their familiar neighborhood precincts.

She said a special election would allow for mail-in ballots and early voting on June 18 and 19.

The Clark County Election Department projects the cost of the special election would be $73,400. Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax attended Wednesday's council meeting. After the meeting he said the amount the city would spend "is a lot of money for very little time" in office for the winner.