Smith to run absentee council campaign until early voting starts

By Jean Reid Norman

Monday, April 27, 2009 | 3:03 p.m.

The race for Boulder City Council will be run with one of the candidates out of town until early voting begins.

Candidate Bill Smith, who served on the council from 1997 to 2001, left April 23 for a three-week-long vacation that includes a cruise to Europe.

Running his campaign in his absence will be the newly formed Friends of Bill Smith, led by Sara Weber.

Smith, a retired travel agent, and project development manager Cam Walker will face each other in a runoff for the remaining City Council seat during the June 2 general election. Duncan McCoy won one of the two open seats during the primary.

Smith, 83, said he planned his trip more than a year ago, long before he considered running for council. Because of his wife’s failing health, he said, this will probably be the last long trip she can take, so he decided not to cancel it.

“While winning the election is important to me, it’s not the most important thing in my life,” he said.

Weber said Friends of Bill Smith has drawn about 25 volunteers and another 250 supporters who will endorse Smith in ads. The committee plans to run a low-budget, grassroots campaign, she said. Weber also heads Citizens for Governmental Accountability, a political action committee that took out an ad during the primary questioning Walker’s service with the Las Vegas Monorail.

Walker said he has also been drawing grassroots support of volunteers and is focusing his campaign over the next few weeks on going to community events, such as the Spring Jamboree May 1-2, Boulder City Chamber of Commerce events and other civic functions.

He also plans to walk neighborhoods, introducing himself to residents and meeting people in front of the Boulder Dam Credit Union.

“I’m disappointed Mr. Smith will be gone,” Walker said. “I hope people will focus on issues and talk about the direction of the city in this campaign.”

The candidates appeared together before Smith’s departure to tape two televised forums that will be aired on BCTV in the coming weeks.

They agreed that their candidacies provide Boulder City voters a clear choice.

“I see now the community has a more defined choice than they’ve ever had before,” said Smith, who noted that Walker’s advertisements make it clear he supports the status quo in the city and Mayor Roger Tobler.

“I feel thing are not nearly as good as they would like to make people believe they are,” Smith said. “I believe we need to make some changes.”

He said when he returns May 18, two days after early voting has begun, he will hit the ground running.

Walker said he plans to put energy into increasing voter turnout, which was 40 percent during the primary. “We have to get people interested in city government and the challenges facing the city to make sure we have a larger percentage of voters going to the polls and making themselves heard,” he said.