Carolyn Goodman is using Oscar’s playbook in race for Las Vegas mayor

By Delen Goldberg

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and his wife, Carolyn, had for at least a year told friends and political allies that the city’s first lady had dismissed the idea of succeeding her husband.

Then last week, two days before candidate filing ended, Carolyn Goodman, who stepped down last year as head of the prestigious Meadows School, announced she would run for mayor, telling a packed news conference that she had been considering a bid for six to eight months. Her husband tried to persuade her not to run, she said, but after agonizing over it, she decided it was something she wanted to do.

For political observers with long memories, there was something familiar in her political sneak attack.

Before running for mayor 12 years ago, Oscar Goodman had long flirted with the idea of leaving behind his high-profile legal career and entering the world of politics. Then, in March 1999, hours before the filing deadline, he announced he would run.

He held a news conference where, clutching a yellowed copy of the Constitution, he vowed to bring a new perspective to City Hall. He led a parade of supporters to file his paperwork.

Carolyn Goodman didn’t need props or an entourage. She just brought her husband.

Both announcements elicited the desired response: scores of media and the feeling that the race had a front-runner.

Critics have accused Oscar Goodman of pushing his wife into the race as a way to skirt term limits, a charge they both deny.

But she appears to be patterning her campaign after her husband’s winning approach: the will she-won’t she suspense, the last-minute announcement, the chutzpah and love of the spotlight.

As Las Vegans know, Oscar Goodman has yet to find a camera he doesn’t love. He has invited the attention with showgirls and a giant martini glass. Although seemingly more subdued at first glance, sources close to the couple say Carolyn Goodman is as big a ham and seeks the limelight perhaps even more than her husband.

Given his success and their similar personalities, it makes sense that Carolyn Goodman’s most influential adviser would be the man she has lived with for 48 years, even as she pays a team of political consultants. Oscar Goodman is Southern Nevada’s most popular politician, having won three times with overwhelming support and historic margins of victory. Carolyn Goodman hopes to parlay his campaign savvy into a victory for herself.

“It’s not surprising she has the same style as her husband — that’s why they get along so well,” said Bradley Mayer, her campaign manager. “The things that have made them work great together for nearly 50 years are the things that make them approach the process of campaigning similarly.”

Political insiders expect the remainder of her campaign — and, should she win, her administration — to follow Oscar Goodman’s playbook. (Early voting begins March 19 and the primary is April 5.)

Even when she was being coy about her interest in the job, Carolyn Goodman said her motive would be to continue her husband’s policies.

“Every person on the City Council and every well-meaning person that wants to be mayor might be better equipped and more knowledgeable than I am. But I believe all leaders want to make their own mark, and not necessarily follow my husband’s past agenda,” she told the Sun in January 2010. “The only reason I would even consider running for mayor is if we don’t find someone who is truly going to carry that torch.”

Carolyn Goodman isn’t the only candidate in the mayor’s race who is drawing on working models. Other top contenders are relying on tactics that earned them past victories.

Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, a former Las Vegas City Council member, is focusing on gaining support from community bigwigs and government heavy-hitters, a tactic that won him four previous elections.

City Councilman Steve Ross, executive director of District Council 15 Labor Management Cooperative Committee, is lobbying for union support.

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, long known for her neighborhood campaigning, is knocking on doors with the assistance of aides who helped secure victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Neither Goodman had political experience before launching his or her campaigns for mayor. But both had strong name recognition — Oscar as the mob lawyer, Carolyn as a leader in the education community.

Oscar Goodman played up his political inexperience by marketing himself as someone to shake up City Hall rather than kowtow to the establishment.

Carolyn promotes herself as continuing that vision. “I am about following through with everything that’s been created by the visionary that’s my husband,” she said last week.

But promoting herself as an extension of her husband could hurt her chances, according to some experts. It weakens her populist appeal if her election is viewed as a coronation, and she’ll have a hard time portraying herself as anti-establishment like Oscar did. He has, after all, occupied the mayor’s office for 12 years and is leaving only because of term limits.

Another challenge could be maintaining the cheery Goodman persona. During his first campaign in 1999, Goodman signed a pledge to run a fair campaign and stuck to it. He was the only candidate who avoided negative political ads.

Carolyn Goodman wants to run an equally friendly campaign. She describes her opponents as “friends” and denied reports that she entered the race to prevent Giunchigliani from winning.

She jokes and dodges questions that might cause her to criticize her competition. That works for now because she has a lead — the same luxury that allowed her husband to stay positive during his campaigns. A recent poll showed her beating her closest competitors, Brown and Giunchigliani, by more than 20 percentage points.

But with three strong contenders, none of whom has lost an election, nipping at her heels, Carolyn Goodman may have to hit back, as her opponents likely will.

“She’s going to be a formidable opponent but she has got a long way to go in a short amount of time,” Brown’s political consultant Jim Ferrence said.