Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 11:29 a.m.
David Goldwater
Democrat.
Age: 34.
Occupation: Financial consultant.
Web site: davidgoldwater.com.
Lynette Boggs McDonald
Republican
Age: 41
Occupation:Count Commissioner
The booming west side of Clark County's urban sprawl is home to thousands of new residents, new homes, new jobs and new voters.
It is also home to one of the hottest races among several competitive contests for the Clark County Commission. Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, a Republican and former Las Vegas city councilwoman appointed to her county position in March by Gov. Kenny Guinn, is facing Democratic primary winner and Assemblyman David Goldwater.
Goldwater has staked out what may be the most emphatic slow-growth position of any major candidate for the county commission, arguing that the region's infrastructure cannot handle the rapid pace of growth allowed by the commission and associated government boards.
Traffic, air quality, water availability and the region's quality of life are threatened by the rapid pace of growth, he says.
Boggs McDonald says the problem is not growth but poor planning, and the solution is greater adherence to the county's master land use plans. She notes that the majority of the present Clark County Commission have leveled similar criticisms -- and have instituted changes to the way the commission handles master-plan and zoning changes.
Policy issues aside, the candidates have come out swinging at each other.
Goldwater, 34, charges that Boggs McDonald is the candidate of special interests, particularly developers and Station Casinos.
"She's raised money like no one I've ever seen from developers. Clearly something doesn't smell right," Goldwater said.
"They don't like what I've had to say about growth," he said, referring to developers.
Boggs McDonald served on the board of the gaming company when the hotly debated issues of the Red Rock Station height came before the county commission last year.
He notes that she changed her party affiliation in the late '90s to become a Republican, a move Goldwater suggests was one of political convenience.
Boggs McDonald, 41, took the gloves off in a recent campaign flier, which said, "David Goldwater -- acting like an idiot. Wrong for Clark County."
She makes no apologies for her present party affiliation, although she does have regrets that she was once a Democrat.
"From my perspective, there is one last plantation in America and it's called the Democratic Party," she says.
Locally and nationally, Boggs McDonald says, the Republican Party is the party of "progress, prosperity and development."
Goldwater's slow-growth agenda, she charges, threatens the jobs of thousands.
"In our county, we have 170,000 people who directly and indirectly get their livelihood from the construction industry," Boggs McDonald says. "It's easy to turn the spigot off, but it's hard to turn it back on.
"I want Las Vegas to be a place where people can find jobs and start businesses," Boggs McDonald says.
Boggs McDonald stepped up the mudslinging in the race during the Sept. 19 debates at Congregation Ner Tamid sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, a synagogue attended by Goldwater's family. She distributed new campaign literature that included references to Goldwater's 2002 drunken-driving arrest, charges from Republican legislators of sexual harassment and a reference to a decade-old brawl.
Gary Gray, Goldwater's campaign manager, says the charges, in order, stem from a mistake, unfounded charges and an effort a decade ago to protect his then teenage girlfriend from the unwanted advances of a much older man.
"He made a misjudgment," Gray says of the drunken-driving charge. "David was seriously embarrassed not only for himself, but to his friends and family. He did not reach for the phone and try to get himself out of it. He admitted to what he had done, took courses and fessed up to it.
"He is very careful now to catch a ride with someone else or he takes a cab home."
Gray says Boggs McDonald's efforts "reach back into history," but Goldwater's job as "an investment counselor to large, multimillion-dollar retirement funds" suggests that he is a person who can handle important responsibilities.
Gray says he thinks he knows why Boggs McDonald is using the tactics she is: Goldwater, on paper at least, has some significant advantages in the district. According to the Clark County Elections Department, the Democrats have more than an 8,500 advantage among active voters over the Republicans in the district, 41,597 to 33,056 as of Sept. 19.
Thomas Lamatsch, a UNLV political science assistant professor, says that Democratic edge may not be definitive, however.
"If you look at party labels, Boggs McDonald will have a hard time," says Lamatsch, who is a German national who doesn't vote in Nevada. "In her district Democrats outnumber Republicans about three to two.
"But she can cross party lines better than other candidates because she is African American."
As a black woman, Boggs McDonald presumably has crossover appeal for two key Democratic voting blocs -- blacks and women.
Another advantage for Boggs McDonald is that she is a known player on the local political scene. Lamatsch says many people do not know who their Assembly members are.
Boggs McDonald says she has the advantage of incumbency and has the ability to win cross-over votes from Democrats. She adds that most voters do not care about party affiliations.
"I know they don't care what initial is behind my name as long as I get the job done," Boggs McDonald says. "The best indicator to tell what someone will do in the future is to look at what they have done in the past."
She notes that while she receives support from Las Vegas' developers, she is willing to take them on when it is important for her district. Earlier this year, Boggs McDonald threatened to stop new construction at Rhodes Ranch unless the developer moved to deliver on a promised school for the community.
The Clark County School District, Rhodes Ranch and other agencies agreed on a new location and plans to build the school after a series of meetings this summer.
The "best indicator" comment has become a slogan for her campaign. Boggs McDonald used it to pump up her supporters who gathered outside the Republican headquarters in the party stronghold of Summerlin earlier this year.
About two dozen supporters prepared to walk the precincts in the affluent community. About a third of the group were black.
One of them was Tony McCormick, the former director of the Nevada Equal Rights Commission.
"I have watched her career since she's been in government," McCormick says. "I've watched her aggressiveness and the way she approached and handled issues."
Boggs McDonald, on the verge of delivering her second child, told her supporters that after the birth, she would be joining them in their precinct walks. Since the small rally in Summerlin, Boggs McDonald has delivered a girl, and come out swinging.
Goldwater also has been out on the stump. In one neighborhood tour earlier this summer, he visited an older urban neighborhood near Alta and Decatur. It was one of more than two dozen meetings he has had with people in neighborhoods, including backers he has dubbed the Goldwater Neighborhood Brigades.
Goldwater recently met with some of those supporters in the Lion's Park neighborhood off of West Charleston. Lion's Park is an older, more classically urban neighborhood, a place where Goldwater hopes to make a strong showing.
Mike and Barbara Aupperle are the type of strong Democrats Goldwater needs to get to the polls. Their house was festooned with yard signs backing Democratic candidates.
Attending the gathering, which culminated in a tour of the neighborhood, was James Nunn, a registered Republican who said he supports Goldwater because the candidate seems to be more concerned with the fate of such neighborhoods.
Nunn says he remembers the days of "the 15-minute commute, clean air, clean water."'
Goldwater "grew up in this neighborhood," Nunn says. "We need a strong individual who's willing to stand up for neighborhoods like this."
Goldwater says the neighborhood meetings are an essential part of his strategy for both the campaign and, if he wins, for his term.
"It's important to meet the people where they live, to talk to them," he says.
Goldwater has won the endorsements of the labor unions, including the powerful Culinary Union and Service Employees International Union locals.
On the other side of the labor-management divide, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Boggs McDonald.
"We feel she is a wonderful, pro-business candidate for Southern Nevada," says Christina Dugan, government affairs director for the chamber.
One of the issues separating the two candidates is Goldwater's call for slow growth. Dugan says it is important to consider that artificially limiting growth could have "serious economic impacts on everybody in Southern Nevada, not just the business community."
She says Boggs McDonald is willing to work with developers to forge zoning rules that work for businesses and residents.
"One of our bigger concerns is that businesses would be suddenly surrounded by residential (zoning) and be asked to move," Dugan says. "It is crucial to ensure the integrity of the existing zoning."
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