Tuesday, March 27, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.
It's tough to say whose job is more difficult in the Las Vegas City Council Ward 5 race - the candidates struggling to distinguish themselves in a field of 10, or voters trying to sift through the crowded slate to make their choice.
Lured by the politically tantalizing prospect of an open council seat, the Ward 5 race in the April 3 primary has drawn almost as many candidates as those running in three other City Hall elections - two council campaigns and the mayoral contest - combined.
That's quite a change from only two months ago, when it appeared that Ward 5 Councilman Lawrence Weekly would face little, if any, opposition in what was shaping up as an easy reelection run.
But after Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates resigned and Weekly was chosen to replace her, it seemed as if everyone in the ward with the $100 filing fee was ready to jump into the race.
Marcia Washington, vice president of the state Board of Education, was the only candidate, besides Weekly, to file before his county appointment, and she had indicated that she would drop out if Weekly planned to stay at City Hall.
Within days of Weekly's appointment, however, a host of challengers, including Ricki Barlow, Weekly's council liaison; lawyer Stacie Truesdell; Shondra Summers-Armstrong, an employee with the Regional Transportation Commission; and Marion Bennett, a former state legislator and Las Vegas NAACP branch president, entered the race.
Former state Assemblyman Gene Collins, also a past president of the local NAACP chapter; 30-year Las Vegas city employee Richard Blue; retired school secretary Earnestine Howell; businesswoman Katie Duncan; and Jeffrey Loveall, director of technology for a property management company, also are seeking the seat.
The diverse ward includes economically disadvantaged West Las Vegas and part of downtown experiencing a renaissance thanks to the city's aggressive redevelopment efforts. The racial makeup of the ward includes significant black, white and Hispanic populations.
The candidates in the race are as diverse as the ward. Bennett, for example, is a 72-year-old black Methodist minister who has lived in the ward for 46 years, while Truesdell, who is 26 and white, bought a home in the ward about 18 months ago.
Campaign strategies also have varied. For example, while Barlow and Truesdell have peppered the ward with signs and are politicking door to door, Duncan is focusing on an aggressive phone campaign. And Loveall has not actively campaigned at all.
"I'm probably the longest of long shots," Loveall said. "But because I'm not spending any money, I won't be beholden to anybody if I get elected."
In contrast to the personal attacks that have dominated some other races, the Ward 5 candidates have largely focused on issues. The reluctance to criticize one another stems partly from the fact that many of the candidates know one another well from having worked together on community projects.
"I know a lot of the people in this race, and I certainly am not going to say anything bad about them," Summers-Armstrong said.
The candidates generally agree that crime and economic development are the ward's main challenges. They see improved communication with Metro and increased participation by residents in community programs as the best ways to attack the crime problem. And although they are eager to see new business in the ward, they want to ensure that economic development does not alienate or displace longtime residents.
All the candidates interviewed also vowed to continue and possibly expand the youth and community-oriented programs that were a hallmark of Weekly's tenure.
Barlow, who served as Weekly's liaison for seven years, says his inside knowledge of City Hall and history of interaction with neighborhood groups make him better prepared for the job than any other candidate.
"If I sit down in that council chair I can push buttons with no learning curve," Barlow said. "I'm already neck and neck with the issues."
Barlow's experience and his tenure with Weekly, however, were not enough to earn an endorsement from his former boss.
Weekly's initial appointment as the councilman in the newly formed Ward 5 in 1999 came after a strong endorsement from Ward 3 Councilman Gary Reese, for whom Weekly worked as a liaison. By not giving the same boost to his former liaison and choosing not to endorse anyone, Weekly left the door open a bit wider for the other candidates.
Truesdell's well-financed campaign, run by political veteran Gary Gray, has thrust her into contention. Collins, who ran against Weekly in 2003, and former state legislator Bennett are banking on their past political experience producing some carryover benefits in this contest, while Washington hopes that being the wife of Fire Chief David Washington brings with it some name recognition advantages in the ward - even though that name is hardly a household one.
With little resources, the other candidates acknowledge they are fighting an uphill battle.
With so many candidates in the field, probably no one will get the 50 percent needed to win the race outright in the primary. In that case, the top two vote-getters would square off in a general election in June.
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