Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Voter registration open for crowded Ward 2 Las Vegas City Council race

Nine candidates seeking to fill out remainder of Steve Wolfson’s term

Voters can register through March 3 to cast a ballot in next month’s nine-way race to fill the Ward 2 seat on the Las Vegas City Council.

The March 20 special election will fill the seat formerly held by Steve Wolfson, who was sworn in Tuesday as Clark County’s new district attorney.

Voters who want to cast a ballot must live in Ward 2 (Download map). They can register in the City Clerk's office from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through Feb. 29 at the new City Hall, 495 S. Main Street.

The clerk's office will be open for registration from 7 a.m. through 9 p.m. on March 1 and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on March 2 and 3.

Parking at the new City Hall is free for two hours with validation. The parking garage is at 500 S. Main St., just west of City Hall.

The nine Ward 2 candidates are Bob Beers, a former Nevada legislator; Roberta Boyers, a registered nurse and former member of the city's now-defunct Board of Zoning Adjustments; Bob Chinn, a retired Metro Police captain; Bruce L. Gale, a local attorney; Kristine Kuzemka, a local deputy public defender; Fayyaz Raja, a longtime businessman and real estate investor; Sherese Holmes, an English Language Learner facilitator for the Clark County School District; Anthony Ruggiero, a constituent liaison for Mayor Pro Tem Stavros Anthony, and Ric Truesdell, a city planning commissioner and small businessman.

Early voting for the special election will take place March 15 and 16.

The winner will serve out the remainder of Wolfson’s term, which ends in June 2013. The nonpartisan position pays $72,742 annually.

The following is more about each of the candidates:

    • Bob Beers

      Bob Beers

      Age: 52

      Background: According to his website, Beers, at age 11, moved with his parents to Nevada, where his father worked at the Nevada Test Site. He attended Cashman Jr. High and graduated from Clark High School in 1977. He is married to Sarah Beers, who coordinates the Parenting Project for Clark County. They have two children.

      Political experience: Beers is a former Republican state senator who served in the Nevada Legislature from 1998 to 2008, when he was unseated in a highly contentious race against Democrat Allison Copening that wrested control of the Senate from Republicans. In the Legislature, Beers, an anti-tax conservative, was vice chairman of the Finance Committee and also served on the committees that oversee local governments. Beers was appointed by former Gov. Jim Gibbons in 2009 to be on the Las Vegas Monorail’s five-member board of directors. He was campaign manager last spring for George Harris’ unsuccessful bid for mayor.

      Professional experience: Beers, a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner, is managing partner of Seale & Beers, CPAs.

    • Roberta Boyers

      Boyers is a registered nurse. She could not be reached at the phone number she provided the City Clerk's office.

      Political experience: City records show that she served on the city's old Board of Zoning Adjustment. That board was disbanded in 2000 and its work was consolidated into the city's Planning Commission.

    • Bob Chinn - Ward 2 candidate

      Bob Chinn

      Age: 53

      Background: Chinn retired as a captain in 2010 after more than 30 years on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He and his wife, Teri, have been married for almost 32 years. He has two children, both teenagers. His mother, Josephine Gallina, has lived with their family for about 16 years.

      Political experience: This is Chinn's first bid for political office. "We've always had an interest in political office. I feel like being retired, we have time to dedicate to this position, which is a full-time position," he said. A Republican, Chinn is endorsed by former Clark County Sheriff Bill Young, the Police Managers and Supervisors Association, the Police Protective Association and the Southern Nevada Cops, which includes Henderson police officers, North Las Vegas officers and Las Vegas city marshals and detention officers. In terms of community service, he has been the president of the Police Athletic League, vice president of the Silver State Girls Soccer League and past commissioner for the Nevada Girls Lacrosse League. He has also been involved with the Boy Scouts and Big Brothers and Big Sisters organizations. He was also a VFW Police Officer of the Year and was a Channel 8 Volunteer of the Week.

      Professional experience: Chinn oversaw Metro's Homeland Security division, the Vice and Narcotics Bureau, the Southeast Area Command, the Human Resources Bureau, the Professional Standards Bureau and the McCarran International Airport Area Command.

    • Bruce L. Gale

      Age: 57

      Background: Gale, a longtime Las Vegas attorney, earned his law degree in 1987 from the University of San Diego. He is divorced and has an adult daughter. (His brother, Jeff, is married to Janie Greenspun Gale, the sister of Sun publisher Brian Greenspun.)

      Political experience: A Democrat, he has run several times for Clark County judicial positions. This is his first bid for a city council seat. "I live in Ward 2 and the position became available. I thought maybe I could be of some benefit on the Las Vegas City Council and to the citizens of Ward 2," Gale said. Last summer, Gale was among 16 attorneys who applied to fill the seat formerly held by Clark County Judge Jackie Glass, who resigned to host the CBS television program "Swift Justice." He ran in 2011 for the Department 5 judge's seat on the Las Vegas Municipal Court. He also applied for an appointment to the District Court's Department 20 seat in 2010. He has also run for district judge seats in 2010, 2008 and 2006.

      Professional experience: Gale has had a private law practice in Las Vegas for more than 23 years and, before that, was a certified public accountant for seven years. Gale currently serves as a district court judge pro tempore, an arbitrator of the Nevada Court Annexed Arbitration Program, a mediator for the Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program and is a former Small Claims Court referee.

      Sherese Holmes

      Age: 47

      Background: Holmes is a second-grade teacher at R. Guild Gray Elementary School. She also has a microbusiness, baking out of her home. She also helps her parents run the family's maintenance business. She is not married.

      Political experience: Holmes is making her first bid for office. She said she entered the race to help bring a better economic climate to the city. "I have seen the rise and fall of successful businesses and I've seen neighbors lose their homes to foreclosure," Holmes said. "It's time we take a stand and take back our neighborhoods and our community. Our businesses — we need them back. Ward 2 is a great community and we don't need to see it falter." She is building a campaign webpage at ShereseHolmes.com. Holmes, a Democrat, said she was endorsed by Nevada Assemblyman Harvey Munford.

      Professional experience: Holmes has worked for the Clark County School District for 15 years, mostly as an elementary schoolteacher. For the past five years, she served as the facilitator for the English Language Learners program, which taught English to immigrant children. She returned to the classroom after her ELL program was recently eliminated. Holmes said that before moving here, she lived in California, where she was an "on-air personality" on the radio.

      Kristine Kuzemka

      Age: 49

      Background: A local public defender, Kuzemka grew up in Las Vegas and attended El Dorado High School. After getting a GED, she went to the University of Washington, where she got a bachelor's degree in sociology. She then went to Seattle University, where she received her law degree in 2002. She returned to Las Vegas in 2002 after law school and has worked in the district attorney's office, for a district judge then as a public defender. She is not married, but has a domestic partner who she has been with for 15 years.

      Political experience: A registered Democrat, she ran for Justice of the Peace in 2010 in Department 6 of Las Vegas Justice Court. She said she decided to run for the Ward 2 position when Wolfson was appointed to be the county's new district attorney. "I want to continue to help our city come out of the economic morass that we've been in," she said. She said she would work to draw more businesses into the community that she loves. "I'm a proponent of open government and fiscal responsibility," she said.

      Professional experience She is currently a Deputy Public Defender in the Clark County Public Defender's office, where she has been since 2004. Prior to that, she was a law clerk for former District Judge David Wall. She also clerked in the district attorney's office when Stewart Bell was district attorney.

      F. Raja

      Age: 60

      Background: Fayyaz Raja and his wife, Kathy, have lived in Las Vegas for more than 30 years, making a home for themselves near Buffalo and Alta drives. Raja is a graduate of UNLV.

      Political experience: This is his first bid for political office. "I am running for the Ward 2 open seat because I am sure we can find solutions for the economic downturn through cost containment, fiscal responsibility and positive business ideas in our city and state. We need to have someone who has been out in the community, as I have, and knows the hardships that our neighbors are facing." Raja said that because most people don't know him by his first name, he will be listed on the ballot as "F. Raja."

      Professional experience: Raja is a longtime businessman and real estate investor in Las Vegas.

    • Anthony Ruggiero - Ward 2 candidate

      Anthony Ruggiero

      Age: 47

      Background: Ruggiero took an unpaid leave of absence from his city council liaison services job to run for the position. He has a master's degree in public administration from UNLV. He also has a background in law enforcement and is a reserve UNLV police officer. He and his wife, Barbara, have two children, Mia, 6, and Anthony Jr., 2 months. His website is at vote4ruggiero.com.

      Political experience: Ruggiero, a Republican, said he got into the race because in his job as special assistant to the mayor pro tem, "I know what the job entails." He said he would be responsive to the problems and needs of the residents because "at the end of the day, it's about customer service." He said of all the candidates, he is the only one who has been dealing directly with city constituent concerns for the past three years. Ruggiero was elected to the State of Nevada Board of Education and, during his term from 2007 through 2010, he served as board president and vice president. He has also served on the Governor's Charter School Leadership Team. In Las Vegas, he has served in the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program, the Neighborhood Partners Fund Program and the YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program.

      Professional experience: Since 2009, he has worked in his Council Liaison II post for Las Vegas Mayor Pro Tem Stavros Anthony. In that position he handles constituent matters for Anthony, receiving and responding to questions and complaints from constituents and getting them help. Before that, he was chief investigator for the state's Consumer Affairs Division and a criminal investigator for the state attorney general's office. He has worked part time as a UNLV police officer and as a special deputy U.S. Marshal as a member of the Nevada Fugitive Investigative Strike Team.

    • Ric Truesdell - Ward 2 candidate

      Ric Truesdell

      Age: 57

      Background: Truesdell is a small-business owner, and his, wife, Trish, moved to the Las Vegas Valley when they were children. They have married for 37 years. They have two daughters, one an attorney and one a teacher, who both live in Las Vegas, and two granddaughters.

      Political experience: Truesdell, a Republican, is making his second bid for the city council. He ran in the Ward 2 special election in 2004, when Steve Wolfson was elected. He was appointed by then-Mayor Oscar Goodman, and then reappointed by current Mayor Carolyn Goodman to the Las Vegas Planning Commission. Truesdell, who has the Goodmans' endorsement for the position, is also one of the founders and members of the board of trustees at the Meadows School. Truesdell also served on the board of trustees for the Lied Discovery Children's Museum. He helped develop the museum's facilities in downtown Las Vegas. He was appointed to the Downtown Las Vegas Partnership by former Mayor Jan Jones, and served as its president. His election webpage is at rictruesdell.com. He also has a new Facebook page and a Twitter feed.

      Professional experience: He opened his business, Cornerstone Co., in 1985. The property management and commercial real estate company has 11 employees.

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