Anthony seeks to unseat Las Vegas mayor over stadium deal

By Conor Shine

Published Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 | 10:30 a.m.

Updated Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 | 6:10 p.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony launched his bid today to unseat Mayor Carolyn Goodman over her support for a publicly funded downtown soccer stadium.

Anthony, a two-term councilman who represents Ward 4 in western Las Vegas, filed to run at City Hall this morning, the first day registration was open.

Anthony plans to target Goodman over her support for using $56.5 million in public funds and a city-owned piece of land valued at $38 million to $48 million to help build a soccer stadium at Symphony Park.

"Taxpayers don't want to pay for a stadium and I'm running to stop it," Anthony said.

Anthony voted against the stadium subsidy last month but was on the losing side of a 4-3 vote. He’s since joined a petition drive by fellow council members and stadium critics Bob Beers and Lois Tarkanian to get the issue on the June ballot.

The group turned in more than the required number of signatures on Friday and is waiting for the results to be verified to see if the ballot initiative qualified.

Goodman is expected to file for re-election later this week.

Joining Anthony in filing for office today was fellow councilman Ricki Barlow, who's seeking a third term representing downtown's Ward 5. Joined by more than 50 community members on the City Hall steps, Barlow gave an impassioned speech about finishing the job he was sent to do on the council.

"Las Vegas has done a lot, but there's more we can do," he said.

Barlow voted in favor of the soccer stadium and is expected to draw a challenger in his race.

He said he's "not ashamed of the votes I've made" and that economic development from the stadium would spill over into the historic West Las Vegas community he represents.

Las Vegas City Council members Bob Coffin and Tarkanian are both up for re-election this June and are expected to file to run later this week.

Candidates filing for office in other parts of the valley today include Pamela Goynes-Brown, who's seeking a second term on the North Las Vegas City Council. Former North Las Vegas City Councilman Richard Cherchio, who lost to incumbent Wade Wagner by a single vote in 2011, is also running to regain his seat. Wagner is not running for re-election, but Cherchio is expected to have a challenger in the race.

Also filing in North Las Vegas was Sean Hoeffgen, who's running for a municipal court judge seat.

In Henderson, three city council incumbents — Sam Bateman, Gerri Schroder and Debra March — all filed for re-election.

Douglas Hedger also filed to run for a Henderson municipal court judge seat.

Las Vegas had four candidates file to run for three municipal court judge spots — Yvette Chevalier, Cynthia Leung, Bert Brown and Martin Hastings.

Candidate filing for municipal elections runs through Feb. 6. The primary will be held April 7 and, if needed, the general election will be June 2.