As the election heats up, our special series on the Las Vegas mayoral race draws to a close — and decision time is on the horizon. Co-hosts Sarah Lohman and Dayvid Figler sit down with executive producer Sonja Cho Swanson to talk about all 12 mayoral candidate questionnaires we received, our nine candidate interviews, and who had the best — and the worst — takes of them all. Plus, we share some insider tea from behind the scenes.
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Want to follow along while you listen? Here's the episode transcript.
Disclaimer: This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or confusion.
Sarah: We've reached the end of our special series on the Las Vegas mayoral race. Yay. Oh, and if you're not caught up, we've got questionnaire responses from 12 candidates on our website and interviews with nine of them on this podcast. It's a lot of info. So today on CityCastLasVegas, we're going to round up and analyze those interviews for your voting pleasure.
I'm here with Executive Producers Sonja Cho Swanson and my co host Dayvid Figler, and we're rehashing all the best and worst of Mayoral Mondays, including a little behind the scenes tea. It's Monday, May 20th. I'm Sarah Lohman, and here's what Las Vegas is talking about.
So, disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer time. I just want to say that, like, okay, coming into this, we're not just, gonna slag people off. Like, what we're gonna analyze is literally the interviews that we did with them, which all of us, Sonja, Dayvid, and I, all did a couple interviews too. this is just based on our personal experiences, and it is our personal opinion.
Yeah?
Dayvid: Yeah, and I want to just add in, uh, of the three of us, I am the only one who specifically lives in the city of Las Vegas, so I obviously will be voting for who I want for mayor, but none of what I'm saying should be interpreted in any way as an endorsement of any candidate. In fact, nothing that any of us are saying should is an endorsement of candidates.
We're just talking about how our process worked, uh, the people who showed up, what we thought about it,
Sarah: And some crazy moments.
Dayvid: yeah, and just trying to
Sonja: Little behind the scenes.
Dayvid: Like you said, yeah, just summarize. Summarize what, what happened or
Sarah: of some of the wackiest things that happen, I want to hear what you thought were some of the worst takes from these interviews by these candidates. Like things that really made you go, huh, Sonja, would you want to start us off?
Sonja: I gotta say, the interview that just makes me scratch my head even now was, uh, the interview with Kola Akingbade, that I did, the first interview I did with the candidate.
Sarah: ride.
Sonja: I mean, reactions, did any jaws drop?
Dayvid: I, I, what you're talking about is what a lot of people who listen to that, Podcasts are talking about and I guess if you have to come up with a banner headline, it's Cola wants to legalize prostitution to help solve our homeless problem. That's the headline I think it's more nuanced than that to give him more credit.
Sarah: like, pushback. it took you just, just a moment to, put that in your brain and be like, Wait a second, so how will legalizing sex work solve homelessness? And I think what he said was that we can tax sex work, which, sure, great, I'm all about legalizing sex work in Clark County.
I still don't know how that will solve homelessness.
Sonja: yeah, you know, I think, again, to his credit, there are many legitimate reasons and many legitimate arguments for legalizing sex work and legalizing prostitution, you know, but I think also kind of comes down to the hows and the whats about it because, that is really like a county issue.
Am I wrong, Dayvid, about that? There should be a county by county,
Dayvid: Technically, yes, you're correct It's a county by county, but I want to also say that he's not the first person to suggest that Las Vegas would be a homeless Good experiment for, legalizing or at least decriminalizing,
So, uh, I will say another interesting person has proposed this in the past and that person's name is Oscar Goodman. So as much as we like to think that, our candidate Cola was way off of, the charts on that particular position. It's not unprecedented from. People like our former mayor.
Sarah: Yeah.
Sonja: that I took away was that it was just not clearly well thought through. And this is, I think, the argument that can be said for most of the time. Bad takes in all of these interviews is that they, they're not thought through like, first of all, like, is this within the purview of the city or your role as mayor?
Is this a policy that would actually have the impact that you're hoping it would have? And to your point, Dayvid, like, decrim does not actually result in tax revenue. And then it just came so out of left field that it was like, what? Yes, yes,
Sarah: Figgler, do you have a bad take for us?
Dayvid: Yeah, and much more general is that, when especially our sitting council people were on, we had two of those. We had Cedric Crear and Victoria Seaman. We asked them both about homelessness and the city's approach to homelessness, and they both essentially touted, the great success of, either the Corridor of Hope or the Homeless Courtyard itself, and just really wouldn't accept Any criticism of it and are seemingly double downing on it.
And I think that's a weird take. I mean, we had Councilman Brian Knutson on this podcast and we asked him directly, and he gave us a much more forthright answer. He gave it a letter grade of a C plus, and that was only about a year ago. And so while, they may be encouraged by some of the progress that this particular stance has taken from the city as a status quo, to not acknowledge The criticisms and we named some very specifically and they just kind of blew them off and I felt that wasn't a good take.
That was a bad take to not talk about like the criticisms and why they exist and how if they were mayor, they would adjust those things, even if they already all in on on that concept for
Sarah: The courtyard seems like a fascinating solution. Like I know Cedric Kerr mentioned that it's modeled off of another city and there's definitely services there, San Antonio, that the unhoused in the city access, but like who wants to sleep on the ground in an open courtyard? I mean, yes, 800 people a night, but like that's your option.
Yes, it's a safe space, but is that a comfortable space and is that a humane way
Sonja: safe for everyone.
Sarah: Yeah. Yeah.
Dayvid: And, and The San Antonio model that they both like really touted, like we're doing what they're doing, is privately funded from oil money in
Sonja: Oh, interesting.
Dayvid: in Las Vegas, is all public funds. And that's a very different model.
Sarah: okay, so here's my take that made me go, huh. Uh, that was with my interview with Donna Miller, who overall, I would say, I mean, she's a longtime nurse. She's worked with EMTs, like very smart and very well versed in terms of what the medical community and specifically the EMT community needs.
However, she's running on a platform of public safety and she proposed using drones and I quote, RoboCops.
Sonja: Oh,
Dayvid: that was on my list, Sarah.
Sarah: In the city. And she said that Robocops are being effectively used in other countries. And to be fair, I have not gone ahead and googled this. Because no matter what it is, and if it's real, I, I don't want that.
One of the pushbacks that my lovely producers gave to me is that the FBI have released a report that says that crime is down on all fronts. And her reaction was, well, like, it doesn't feel that way.
And so that's like anecdotal evidence. That's personal experience. That's not statistics and studies. So I'm anti robocop for the record.
Dayvid: All I could picture was the movie, and just, like, the streets of Las Vegas where it's like, Your move, creep! Come quietly or there will be trouble! You know? It's like, there will be trouble, Robocops.
Sonja: have robots, we have robots in casinos. You know, I want to jump in on that, Sarah, too, because it was interesting to me to see how often public safety came up. Uh, so I think in the questionnaires, well, it's interesting because Shelley Berkeley, Cedric Queer, Victoria Seaman, Doc Walls, and Donna Miller in the questionnaire all said that public safety was at the top of their list of priorities.
And to back up what you just said, Sarah, about the violent crime being down nationwide, it's also down 10 percent in the Vegas Valley. LVMPD released their stats for 2023 a few months ago. And so, it's interesting to me that this has become such a salient campaign issue. And I think it actually, speaks to a sentiment that seems to be running throughout the Valley.
And I hear this from a lot of older folks, a lot of like,
Sarah: course.
Sonja: you know, like, This sense of like, Oh, I'm not safe. And I think that it's a lot of what they're hearing on like local news, local TV news. What are they seeing about, you know, break ins and crime and so forth. But if we look at the numbers, that's not reality.
So I feel like in a way public safety as a top priority as a mayoral candidate feels like pandering to me.
Sarah: Well, to wrap this up, A personal take that some people are not going to like, this is why I'm saying it's a personal take, is that I feel like some of the worst incidents in Las Vegas recently, including October 1 and on Fremont Street, have involved shootings.
So rather than RoboCop's gun control would be a great thing that I would love to see more of a local politician supporting. That being said, the movie RoboCop, give it a rewatch because it was not a positive take on the future of, policing. It was actually.
Dayvid: Let's be real.
Sarah: was a
Sonja: haven't seen RoboCop. I need to watch this clearly. That
Dayvid: buy that for a dollar, Sonja.
Sarah: yeah, yeah, yeah.
We'll have a group watch. It's about a man whose body is stolen and turned into a policing device. So
Sonja: Oh God.
Sarah: Okay, let's have some, like, good takes. Like, also something that, like, Maybe surprised you a little bit. Made you be like, Oh, what do you think,
Sonja: So, uh, I hope I'm not stealing your thunder here, Sarah, because I know we've talked about this before, but Eric Medlin and Kara Jenkins, and their take on the camping ban, was really refreshing because they both unequivocally came out against it. and I, I understand that there's nuance here.
I understand that, you know, we need to look to the needs of small business owners and so forth, but,
right now this camping ban in, in cities like ours and, and many others are across the U. S. is actually being debated right now in the, in the Supreme Court. So, it's possible that we could actually, you know, lose the camping ban.
And I think there are some very valid reasons for why this camping ban is under question. people say that basically you have a right to be able to sleep. Sleep is a human right. And, that if you don't have somewhere else to go, then where, what are you going to do besides camp? Right?
Sarah: You know, I do want to jump off of that before we go over to you, Dayvid, because Eric Medlin is also my, oh, take, I feel like he also said this was his first podcast ever. Eric is a total sweetie pie. That is my endorsement for the sweetie pie vote. Um, but like just such a fascinating story. Like he's a vet himself.
He owns a small business here in, in Las Vegas and his small business rents mailboxes and he's in a neighborhood with a lot of unhoused women. People and through having this direct connection to his community of unhoused people, he realized what a lifeline having a mailbox is. So he decided to run for mayor because he had this proposal of subsidizing these mailboxes to make sure that the unhoused have this lifelink.
and his frustration with that, not getting any traction kind of led him to this campaign.
and especially as a former veteran, he has particular empathy for veterans who are also on the streets. So Eric, like get out there, do some activism. You've got great ideas and a wonderful perspective. I loved
Dayvid: You know, I want to bounce off of that, and I also want to bring back public safety for a second, because in a lot of ways it is a kind of coded message, because who in the public doesn't want to be safe? So it is, like you said, Sonya, very much a pandering, but also a fear mongering. And, a lot of imagery, especially in the candidates that we talked to, their promotional materials for themselves, are bringing in cities like San Francisco saying, you don't want that here in Las Vegas.
You don't want these crime ridden streets. You don't want this danger at every turn. And while I don't think that that is most people's experience in Las Vegas, public safety
Sarah: San Francisco, honestly.
Dayvid: you know, it's a broad term, and if it's coded to say we need more cops, more laws, more enforcement, it seems like the three candidates that we talked to, who are, the presumptive frontrunners,
Are saying this is their high priority. It seems like that's what they want. They just want more policing, etc. I thought Donna Miller had a good hot take on public safety because she goes public safety is also about health. And while she was very hyper focused from her experiences in the medical profession it is about health and mental health and and care and stuff like that.
That is also part of public safety But it's such an ambiguous term. I feel like People need to focus on it more. as far as good takes, I, I want to point out, I thought that Tara Anderson did a really nice job, uh, from her background
Sarah: Star of our Reddit not our Reddit thread, someone else started a Reddit thread and she's the fave of Reddit.
Dayvid: well, I mean, she has a lot of experience in economic development and she has a lot of know how in how city government works. And I think that was maybe lacking from a lot of people's, presentations to us, both in the pod and in the written was not really knowing how the city government functions.
And she. She used to work in the city in the economic development. And, you know, just like Donna Miller had this sort of medical perspective, Tara Anderson, a really good economic development, perspective and how that really impacts things from, from where she stands and her experiences. And I thought that was really nice take of kind of incorporating it through that lens.
Sonja: You know, that actually is interesting, Dayvid, because to me that was the biggest dividing line in all these interviews is people who seem to actually thought through policies and how it would actually work. So, for example, Lynn Baird, a candidate who comes to us after a 30 plus year career at Dieter, Uh, basically the unemployment division of the Nevada State Government.
clearly like a seasoned public servant, but didn't, I think, have a clear understanding of how his policies as mayor would impact the city of Las Vegas. Another example of that, again, Eric Medlin, incredible advocate for, you know, the city Homelessness and the homeless populations in our cities, but went on a really long tangent about wanting to impact schools, and as mayor, that's not quite your purview.
I mean, that's really the Board of Trustees of CCSD.
MUSIC
Sarah: So, I've got a great example of someone who does know the mechanics behind the scenes, how the government works, and also hits on something else really important, being a good communicator and connecting with one's audience. So, for me, this was Kara Jenkins all over the place. Like, listening to the interview that you did with her, Sonja, was, like, so refreshing because she was so connected, she was so clear.
Clear. She was so personable. It was a lovely, lovely interview.
She's already in an appointed position. She's the administrator of the Nevada Equal Rights Commission. and so she really understands how to get things done, and also what needs to be changed, and also I just loved her whole presence too.
Dayvid: I just have a little pushback. You know, the Equal Rights Commission is a very limited, very narrow job. And that's the one that she has held as an appointed position.seemingly exclusively her time in, in Nevada. She doesn't have a knowledge of city workings, and she said that she has a strong belief in herself.
And I agree with you, her messaging was very populist, but very not specific. she
Sarah: Oh, I thought she gave some really good specific examples of like how to start new businesses, like how to access assistance.
Dayvid: And not really through the city. And, and that was my criticism of it was, it was like, look, I am of the people, I am for the people, I want to help the people. It's not right that we aren't all thriving in this wonderful community. And I will change that. Have faith in me. And when really pushed on it, she said, look, I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
That was kind of her quote. And I think What she was trying to infer was, look, I have enough faith in myself, I'm a very smart person, which I have no doubt that she is. Uh, I could learn all that stuff, and I could figure out how to make everyone's dreams come true. It was utterly, I listened to it twice, because the first time I listened to it, I was like you, I was like, Wow, this person is really great, and she cares, and I don't doubt that.
But, when I listened the second time, there were other people. Absolutely. She fooled me. There were no specifics.
Sonja: Well, let me say two things about Cara. One is that, I think what's interesting about this is that, as we've talked about before, the role of the Las Vegas mayor isn't just as like a member of the city council. It's also as an ambassador to the world. We have a mayor who kind of has to step up on the public stage and on the public forum and kind of advocate for our city, as we've seen our mayors do for, you The good and evil, I guess, in the past, right?
so that, that presence and that, the ability to communicate and sort of convey a vision is actually, I think, a crucial element of the job. That's actually, to me, like a, a, something that's, I would hope is really important, to the voters as well, but the specifics and understanding policy and understanding like how our city government works can also be really important.
So, I'll, I'll give an example of, during the Kerry Jenkins interview, We were talking about the camping ban. I think she had a strong stance on it. She was against the camping ban. I asked her what she thought about the courtyard as a solution. And two things stood out to me. One is that she said she's actually volunteered there.
She has actually volunteered at the courtyard. And that was impressive to me. The second thing she said is that she would want to talk to the courtyard employees. So
Sarah: Talk to the people that work there. That was
Sonja: Which was a great response, but also showed me she didn't actually have a policy or stance in place. She wasn't willing to give me a take on the courtyard and where she would go with it.
So, so take from that what you will, but that was interesting.
You know who else is like such a charmer? Uh, Cedric Creer. Wonderful presence. Oh my gosh, I was like, I could sit down and have lunch with you for like three hours. You
Sarah: I didn't come out
Sonja: a great
Sarah: him as a candidate, but I loved his interview with you, Dayvid, or your interview with him, I guess you could say.
Dayvid: Yeah. No, I mean, Cedric's a very personable guy, and he has done a lot of different things in the community. he has his detractors from his own ward. we talked about some hard issues, actually with all of the candidates. We tried to give everyone a little bit of pushback. on what we tried to deem as maybe their most vulnerable area.
some fared better than others. I don't know that Cedric actually did well on the pushback question. But he is a, he is a presence. He is a communicator. I would say that of all the communicators, I, I thought Cedric Crear was good. I, I think Kara Jenkins is a good communicator. I thought Tara Anderson held her own and did pretty well.
Sarah: you know who made me laugh? Who is our Church of Latter day Saints candidate?
Sonja: Oh, Lynn Baird.
Sarah: Baird. Love a, love a gentleman, Lynn. Uh, he's a sweet old guy, and I love that he turned the tables on you and started interviewing you. Don't love the coded term family values. Let me just say that too, because that says, I should be married with kids, whether you think it is or not.
Don't love that it kind of dodged the question on supporting people and lifestyles that he didn't agree with. But,
Sonja: jump in and say, I, I do feel like with Lynn Baird, it sounds like he's got some internal family, you know, kind of personal issues, kind of an internal struggle going on there. So, whatever's going on, I hope that, you know, all is well.
Dayvid: but he handled it very earnestly, and he became, to me, like, well, you're right, Sarah, there was some coded language, like, in his campaign materials, and his questionnaire, etc. he came off very personable, and,
Sarah: surprised in the interview. He kind of, he won me over to like, I could have a conversation with this man, even though I disagree. So, okay. So we're going to talk about the written questionnaires, which you can read all of the answers on our website.
did you guys have any reactions to any of the written responses in the questionnaire? Sonja, you got a mischievous grin.
Sonja: I do, because I just have one thing to say. Our final question was your best meal in Las Vegas. A surprising number of candidates gave us, answers like sushi, Irina Hansen. My own cooking, a steak, yeah. my own cooking, Deb Peck. I think Cedric Keir said his wife's, seafood gumbo was his answer.
So they were
Dayvid: mean, not everyone eats out. Not everyone can afford to eat out all the time, so it's okay.
Sonja: But I do actually want to say that there were only four candidates who actually listed restaurants inside the city limits. Eric Medlin, Victoria Seaman, Kerry Jenkins, and Shelley Berkley. The rest either named just like random dishes or restaurants that aren't even in the city.
So just, just putting it out there. Just wanted to say that.
Sarah: Figler, any reactions on your end?
Dayvid: well, first off, I don't know that we're talking enough about Shelly Berkeley, Cedric Rear, and Victoria Seaman. We're trying to spread it out, and
Sarah: Yeah, they get all of the talk though. One of the pleasures about this was, I think for everybody, was getting to know all of these other
Dayvid: Yeah, that was definitely fun. And I was actually taken in the questionnaires by how similar those three candidates I just mentioned are. They, as, as Sonya said, they all mentioned public safety as their biggest, issue.
They all had the same, you know, no on rent control, yes on the boring tunnels, uh, they all were all uniformly. The Goodmans were great and they did everything fantastic. Yeah, you know, um,
Sarah: and Oscar have had so many reasons to be criticized. They were far from perfect people, right?
Sonja: to be fair, the question itself was, what was Carolyn Goodman's greatest accomplishment as mayor? So
Dayvid: And but they were all kind of like everything. They are the best. And you know, they all did a forum for the Nevada Independent and it was a Goodman love fest. I mean, they really.
Sarah: What has Carolyn Goodman done that you
Dayvid: Disagree with and they're like nothing, you know, they were great except, Shelly Berkley at that one did say well I think the Anderson Cooper interview was a mistake and then we're like, oh like here this could get a little spicy But then she like defended Carolyn Goodman. She goes the only mistake was that she shouldn't have done that interview I felt that she was ambushed.
She didn't like actually criticize the commentary
Sarah: interview is a bananas.
Dayvid: is a legendary interview where she said that the city of Las Vegas should be used as a test group to not have COVID regulations.
Sarah: still have to hear about it from my East Coast friends, right? And I just want to say too, one of the things that I realized at the end of this process that really bothered me is that everyone refers to the Boring Tunnels as public transportation when it is not. It is private transportation, so it's not going to
Dayvid: And not good
Sarah: way of light rail.
No, terrible,
Dayvid: And potentially, potentially, we don't know, we're investigating, right? they have had serious safety concerns that have been reported upon in national
Sarah: on the Dirty Dozen for OSHA.
Let's talk about Deb Peck because this is the part, I think an interesting part of the process for the four of us on the podcast team here is dealing with these candidates behind the scenes and seeing what their bedside manner is when dealing with media. And Deb gets a, I would say one out of 10, 10 being the best and one being the worst.
We didn't do, not do an interview with Deb because we didn't want to. She stood us up twice. She, we were sitting in the studio waiting for her and she just didn't show. And then when one of the producers texted to see if she was coming, she was extremely short with us. So it was, oh, you called too? Oh,
Sonja: so let me get some background. And I also want to say just a caveat here, which is to say that it's possible there was something going on and she just didn't explain, but there was zero apology.
And so I don't know if she had something else that she, you know, had going on, but when I called her, she said she was in a meeting.
No apology. We rescheduled for later in the day. Uh, again, didn't show. I texted her. she said, can we do another time? Again, no apology.
Sarah: verbose than that. It was a very frustrating response. And it just never feels good to have your time wasted because it just, I think makes, you know, it makes you feel like you're not important. Right? She's making me known, making us known that we're not important to her. So that was really tough.
And she ended up not having an interview.
Sonja: Right, right, right. So that, that was pretty disappointing. Um, and based on her questionnaire responses I really would have actually liked to talk to her. You know, I think she could have had some interest, we could have had an interesting conversation. So, I don't know what went on there, but, whatever happened, I hope she's okay.
Um, let's see, who else? Cedric Crear was surprisingly hard to book, but it sounds like his campaign manager was, like, really busy. I think she was, like, taking the L side or something, so, you know. Yeah, so I don't know if that's
Dayvid: but it all worked out.
The other thing though with Victoria Seaman is like we were kind of doing the interview and she just hung up.
Sonja: yeah, at the very end. Well, to be, also, to be fair to Victoria, we were, we went on pretty long, longer than we said that we would.
Dayvid: that's true
Sonja: very, there was no goodbye, no thank you, it was just like, bye!
Dayvid: but she was the only one who did that, but you know, whatever. She probably had other things to do. I mean, she's running for mayor, but that's a little behind the scene tea.
Sarah: All right. Well, it was definitely a fascinating month in our lives, and we hope that, you know, this was informative to all of you as well. Like I said, the links to all of the interviews are on our website. You know what? We'll put that link in the show notes, and of course, you can go back through our podcast feed and listen to all nine podcast interviews as well.
But we hope this roundup has helped you out as well. Thank you so much, Sonja and Dayvid, for, yeah, having this little chat with me today.
Sonja: Yeah,
Dayvid: And if you're eligible to vote in the city, please do that. It's really important.
Sonja: Mm hmm.
Sarah: So that's all for today here on CityCastLasVegas. If you enjoyed the show, tell a friend. If you live in the city of Las Vegas, discuss who you're gonna vote for. But also, take some time to rate our show and leave us a review. And subscribe to our morning newsletter.
Early voting starts on May 25th.
This is for the primary, so you're going to see all 14 of these candidates on there on that ballot, and this will determine either the mayor or who goes on to the final mayoral election in the fall. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news from around the city. Take care, everyone.
