Tarkanian turns in petition to appear on recall ballot

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005 | 11:15 a.m.

Former Clark County School Board member Lois Tarkanian this morning handed the Las Vegas city clerk a petition that apparently has more than enough signatures needed to put her on the ballot for Las Vegas Councilwoman Janet Moncrief's recall election.

Tarkanian said she had 3,582 signatures on the petition to nominate her as candidate for the Jan. 25 recall election. To qualify for the ballot, the Clark County Election Department must determine that at least 2,106 of those signatures came from registered voters in Las Vegas' Ward 1.

It was unclear this morning exactly when the Election Department will begin checking the validity of the signatures, which begins with a random check of 500 signatures.

If successful, Tarkanian would join Vicki Quinn, an advocate for the disabled, and Moncrief on the Jan. 25 ballot. Tarkanian and Quinn would have to formally accept their candidacies Wednesday, which is also the deadline for any other candidates to turn in their candidate nominating petitions.

Tarkanian said she's confident her petition will be successful because she said all of the signatures have been checked by her supporters at least once.

"Phase one is done," Tarkanian said after delivering her petition to the clerk's office.

She said she waited until today to turn in her petition because she wanted to "take some time to get more of a buffer" between the signatures needed and what she had.

Tarkanian, whose husband is former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, was on the School Board from 1989 to 2000. She also ran unsuccessfully for the Clark County Commission as a Democrat in 2000, when she lost to Chip Maxfield.

Peter "Chris" Christoff, a longtime government critic, had hoped to appear on the ballot too. But on Monday, Christoff said he won't have enough signatures by the Wednesday deadline. Christoff said he has 1,400 to 1,500 signatures on his petition to run in the recall election.

Quinn and Tarkanian have been the two most high-profile potential challengers to Moncrief in recent weeks.

Moncrief's political opponents have criticized the first-term councilwoman for failing to block unwanted development in their neighborhood, and cited pending charges for allegedly filing false campaign finance reports, as reasons for their desire to remove her from office.

Moncrief maintains that she is not guilty and also says that she has done all she could to protect her constituents from development they oppose.