Big money still rears its head in NLV election

By Mike Trask (contact)

Thursday, April 5, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

Shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday, Richard Cherchio knew it was over. Done. In the words of the New Yorker, "Fuhgetaboutit."

In the 60-year-old retired postal worker's eyes, the big money and incumbency had won again in North Las Vegas. The casinos bet the right candidate and the developers knew where their bread gets buttered.

Cherchio had positioned himself as the opposite, a Ward 4 Everyman.

But he lost. By a lot.

The incumbent, Councilwoman Shari Buck, received 57 percent of the vote, winning the election outright. She had raised more than $183,000 since Jan. 1 - about $133 for each of the 1,375 votes she received.

By comparison, Cherchio, who drew 24 percent of the vote, raised $44,064, with $40,000 coming out of his pocket.

This was supposed to be the election where money mattered less. Last November, voters decisively chose to change council elections to ward-only contests. Previously, elections were citywide, with candidates required only to live in the wards they represent.

Supporters believed that the change, by eliminating the expense and logistical challenges of a citywide campaign, would make it easier for people like Cherchio to be viable candidates.

The first time at the polls, though, it didn't work out that way.

Buck's two other opponents - homemaker and activist Deborah Lewis and Jo Cato, a city planning commissioner - each raised less than $20,000 and received less than 12 percent of the vote.

Lewis said Buck's enormous war chest was too much to overcome for someone relying on word of mouth and door-to-door campaigning, even in a campaign covering a smaller area.

"There is a lot of big business," she said. "When you have big business behind you, they contribute a lot of money and the incumbent was able to get her name out there."

Cato agreed that money was a factor, but said voter apathy sunk the challengers' ships. Less than 15 percent of Ward 4 voters cast a ballot.

"We walked and we got encouragement," Cato said. "But folks just don't show up to vote."

She plans on running again in four years, after Buck has been term-limited. The others aren't so sure.

Cherchio had been the most active of the challengers. He was hoping for a celebration Tuesday, the start of a run toward the June general election.

Instead, he took a few moments to catch his breath outside a North Las Vegas bar. It had ended quickly.

"I don't know if it's the money factor. I could blame that," he said. "I think she (Buck) just has that core of people. They go. They vote. I feel somehow I failed the community by not getting the people out to vote. That's what bothers me more than anything."