This June, for the first time in 25 years, Las Vegas voters will face a mayoral ballot without a single Goodman on it. But given our valley’s odd jurisdictional boundaries, less than half of Southern Nevadans actually live within the city and can vote for the Las Vegas mayor. So why does this election matter to the whole Vegas Valley? How did the Mayors Goodman transform the role for a global stage — and what’s next for our city? Co-host Sarah Lohman sits down with Channel 13 senior political reporter Steve Sebelius to find out.
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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: Hey! City Cast Las Vegas is kicking off a new series we're calling Mayoral Mondays. We're going deep into election intel and interviewing candidates for the position of Las Vegas Mayor. Because this is the first time a Goodman won't be in office for 25 years. But, the mayor of the city of Las Vegas does not actually represent the majority of the Las Vegas Valley.
Only about a third of the total population lives within city boundaries. So for the other 1. 7 million of us, why should this election even matter? Today on CityCast Las Vegas, I'm here with Channel 13 Senior Political Reporter Steve Sebelius to find out. It's Monday, April 22nd. I'm Sarah Lohman, and here's what Las Vegas is talking about.
Okay, I'm a Henderson resident, Steve. Why? neighbors. That's so nice.
So the mayor of the city of Las Vegas doesn't represent us here in Henderson. And why is that? Why does the mayor of Las Vegas only represent a third of the people who live in the whole Vegas Valley?
Steve: Yeah, that, uh, that goes back to sort of the way the, the valley was formed, uh, uh, when the city, uh, was founded in, in 1905 and then it was officially incorporated in 1911. The boundaries have, sort of, uh, stayed in place. Clark County is the majority of the Las Vegas Valley. But of course it's super confusing, right?
Because we call everything here Las Vegas. So if you live in Las Vegas Unincorporated Clark County. Your address on your mail says Las Vegas. If you live, now if you live in Henderson, of course it says Henderson, and so we in Henderson, it really doesn't affect us at all. We have our own mayor, Michelle Romero, and we have our own council, and our own police force, and so it really doesn't matter to us.
But it does matter in this sense. Nobody outside of us, anybody who listens to this conversation will soon learn this, but nobody outside of Las Vegas really understands that Las Vegas isn't just the incorporated city of Las Vegas, starting at Sahara and moving north. Uh, they think the Strip is Las Vegas.
They think the entire valley is Las Vegas from, from, from prim. all the way through Indian Springs. So, uh, so when when people say, oh, you know, I want the mayor of Las Vegas to cut the ribbon on my business and it's on the strip. Well, Clark County gets a little upset about that. They have an inferiority complex and and that has bubbled up over the years and uh, and the Goodmans, Oscar especially, but also Carolyn have taken great joy, I think, in exacerbating that inferiority complex because, again, Everyone knows the mayor of Las Vegas, everyone knows Las Vegas as the entire valley, and they don't distinguish between Clark County and the Incorporated City of Las Vegas.
Sarah: it actually sounds like it was the Goodmans, in a sense, that took on the role of their city of Las Vegas to represent nationally all of us in the Valley.
Steve: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, before, Oscar Goodman, there was Jan Jones. And she was no slouch in terms of celebrity. She had actually appeared in car commercials for her ex husband's car dealership, and they were kind of kitschy commercials, but she was a showwoman. She understood the, the value of presentation.
She was the first female mayor of Las Vegas, so she was a trendsetter in her time. But Oscar Goodman took it to incredibly, incredible heights. New Heights. I mean, beyond what anybody had ever imagined, his celebrity was unmatched, and I think still is unmatched. uh, he was a big talker, and through, almost through his sheer force of will, he changed the entire skyline of Las Vegas.
He got new business, he reinvigorated downtown, which was the one campaign promise he really made when he ran in 1999. And he just set the ball rolling on the current sports enterprise that we see in Las Vegas. I don't think some of those things would have come, or at least not as come, as soon had Oscar Goodman not pushed for it.
We're talking about a situation where that Las Vegas could not even be mentioned in an ad. for the Super Bowl just, just a few years ago to now Las Vegas hosting the Super Bowl and everybody apparently loving the job we did on that. So a lot of that can be traced to, to the Goodmans, especially Oscar Goodman.
Sarah: you know, and I've definitely had my own experience with the rest of the world thinking that the mayor of Las Vegas is the mayor of all of us. I lived in New York for a long time before I came here. When I'm back visiting my friends, they ask me about, do you still have that mayor that did those things during COVID?
Or of course, like, they're always shocked when I say, say that the strip is actually in paradise. Like there's very little understanding outside of it. but is the role of the Mayor of Las Vegas, is it important to everyone in the Valley?
Everyone here?
Steve: Yeah, I think it is. And you alluded to that disastrous interview on Anderson Cooper during the COVID 19 crisis, and you saw the impact that that had.
Sarah: Yes. Years later, they're asking about it now. This was, you know, 2020. It's funny.
Steve: It may have been the very worst interview ever conducted from Las Vegas, Nevada in its history. but, uh, but that shows the importance of, of the, this bully pulpit role of the mayor.
Um, and I think the candidates recognize that too. Cedric Crear in his first television ad. Uh, recognizes the fact that, uh, that he wants to be an ambassador for the entire, uh, city. What he really means is an ambassador for the entire valley. Because I will tell you right now, nobody says, I want the chairman of the Clark County Commission to cut the ribbon on my business.
Or I want The key to the city from the, from the Clark County Commission. They don't even have a key to the city. They have a key to the strip. and it's a, a sort of a pale imitation. When Oscar Goodman gave out so many keys to the city, I don't think there's a door left that, uh, that, uh, key will not open.
so it's just, it's just really The focus on the Mayor of Las Vegas, even though that person has limited power, even as a member of the City Council has limited power, people outside don't understand that. Just like they probably don't understand, the, uh, borough presidents and, and the way things work in New York City.
Sarah: know, maybe, uh, the Clark County Commissioner just needs a more flamboyant president. What do you think? Or a mascot?
Steve: there was a, uh, a county commissioner who's long gone now, but who, who, uh, floated the idea of being called the mayor of Clark County, wanted to change the title of the chair, chair of the commission to mayor. Uh, that didn't really go anywhere. but the, the, uh, the county is often at pains to, to make this distinction, they regularly send out, I think about once or twice a year they send out a.
So that all the new people in the media, because we have a lot of turnover in the local media, all the new people in the media will understand the map, where the strip is, where the city is, where Henderson is. And, and, and that springs from this very thing, this, this fact that they have, just, uh, not understood, you know, that Las Vegas is just the city of Las Vegas, not the entire valley.
And quite frankly, That confusion has been, has been capitalized on. Oscar Goodman and Carolyn Goodman would constantly go to places on the Strip to do events and it just rubbed the County Commission the wrong way. Former Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak used to hate it when they do that. They, he developed a, a sort of friction with, with Carolyn Goodman that you saw again, kind of, uh, bubble up to the surface during the, the time that Governor Sisolak was governor and, and Carolyn Goodman was mayor of the city of Las Vegas.
uh, they once went down to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign to take pictures on a random day with random tourists. And the tourists were there and, and, uh, they were asked, Hey, do you want to take a picture with the mayor of the city of Las Vegas? And of course they loved it. They thought they were in the city of Las Vegas and now they have a picture to take home to show their friends and says, look, I went to Las Vegas and I got a picture with the mayor.
Sarah: What? I had no idea there was such a spicy rivalry. It really opened
Steve: Oh, oh yes, it is, it is below the surface, but it is like, much like the surface of the Earth, it is hot liquid magma.
MUSIC
Sarah: So, um, You've mentioned that the powers of the Mayor of Las Vegas are somewhat limited. So what powers does the Mayor have?
Steve: the mayr has very, very few, uh, separate and distinct. powers other than a member of the council. The mayor runs the meetings, the mayor signs, official documents and proclamations, the mayor, can, uh, declare emergencies Uh, I think those are the, the, the limitations on, uh, on those powers.
They're, uh, essentially a member of the city council. The only difference being that the mayor is elected at large throughout the entire city where council members are elected by ward. Um, and so, uh, so that's really the only difference. Uh, and that became a key component in a famous case from Reno that basically said, if you serve as mayor, or if you serve on the city council, it counts the same.
with respect to term limits. So if you serve two terms as a member of the council, you can only serve one as mayor, even though the job does have some separate and distinct responsibilities. It's all the same thing. So in the eyes of the courts, the mayor is no different than a council member, even though there are some additional duties that they have.
Sarah: Who can the Mayor appoint?
Steve: the mayor and the council can appoint municipal judges, and they do that, uh, by majority vote. The mayor and the council can hire and fire three people, the city manager, the city attorney, and the city auditor. but alone, the mayor, uh, really doesn't have, any special, uh, duties. Although you couldn't tell that to Oscar Goodman, because as far as Oscar Goodman was concerned, uh, He was a, uh, every bit a strong mayor as the, as the mayor of New York City, or the mayor of Chicago, or the mayor of L.
A. those government structures are very, very different than the city of Las Vegas. Uh, but you couldn't tell that to Oscar Goodman because he, regardless of the charter, regardless of the state constitution, he, he felt he was a strong mayor and he, he definitely, uh, used that to his advantage.
Sarah: So speaking of Oscar Goodman, this is going to be the first mayor in 25 years that's not a Goodman. You touched on this a little bit, but what do you feel is the legacy that the 25 years of Goodmans have left in the Las Vegas mayoral office?
Steve: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. Uh, I, I think I alluded earlier to the fact that, you know, Oscar Goodman ran for office promising to revive a moribund downtown. He worked downtown. He saw it had become just this rundown area. He called it the core of the apple. And if the core is rotten, then the rest of the apple is going to be rotten.
He wanted to bring, uh, Uh, bars and nightlife. He wanted to bring high rises and residence and, a whole renewed sense of vigor to Las Vegas. I don't think anybody would argue he didn't do that. He did that in, in so many ways, the world market center, the furniture, uh, show that we have that goes on, uh, I think two or three times a year.
The Downtown Outlet Mall, one of the busiest outlet malls. If you were there during Christmas, I mean, you had to line up just to get in the parking lot, much less get into some of the stores. the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the Lou Ruvo Center. All of the downtown high rise residential buildings that are there now were not there.
When Oscar Goodman took over and, the previous administration did the Fremont Street experience and Oscar Goodman built upon that and, he had an idea of where the bar district should go. It actually, developed organically in another location. so that I think was a real, it was a really huge, change in the city, that, uh, that's definitely going to be Oscar Goodman's legacy.
And then of course, Carolyn Goodman succeeding him, uh, and continuing on. You're seeing now she is overseeing the creation of that new Civic Plaza. It's adjacent to City Hall. that's, uh, that's going to consolidate a lot of the city offices in one place.
There's a new municipal court building, uh, that they have, uh, really adjacent there to City Hall. So there is a civic center that, that, uh, was created that is Carolyn Goodman's doing. And she basically built on a lot of the things that her husband did, and got to see, The fruit of those labors.
The one frustration I think that they have, both Carolyn and Oscar Goodman, is that when they talked about having pro sports in, in the Valley, they meant the city of Las Vegas, the incorporated city. And as you have seen, Allegiant Stadium is in Clark County. the, uh, T Mobile Arena, Clark County.
The proposed A's Stadium, assuming that is built, Clark County. The, uh, Oak View Project, the potential NBA stadium, Clark County. None of this was built in the city of Las Vegas. The closest they came was a proposal to put a major league soccer stadium down on the 61 acres, where you're seeing a lot of those apartments built now adjacent to the Smith Center.
That never really came to fruition. So I think the one frustration and then Cashman Center, could have been revamped for a sports team and that doesn't look like that is going to
Sarah: So it sounds like some of the comments that Carolyn Goodman has made about the A's Stadium are really sour grapes because she wanted that within Las Vegas. Ha
Steve: think, I'm convinced almost beyond a reasonable doubt to a moral certainty that if if the A stadium had been located at, say, Cashman Field, uh, Carolyn Goodman would, would have said, uh, not a negative word about it. Um,
because that's the one thing they really wanted in the city. Everything else that Oscar Goodman talked about.
world class, um, uh, medicine. They have the University of Nevada School of Medicine in the city of Las Vegas, the Lou Ruvo Center in the city of Las Vegas. He talked about arts, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, the Arts District in Las Vegas. So the one thing of the three things that he really wanted, arts, medical, and sports, sports is the one thing that they didn't, uh, weren't able to bring to downtown Las Vegas.
Sarah: Do you think that the Goodmans have changed the role of Las Vegas Mayor?
Steve: I do. I think, uh, Oscar Goodman especially made it into a huge thing. far beyond, what any previous mayor had ever even dreamed of. Oscar took it to a whole new level just because of his natural showmanship. his, healthy ego, uh, and, and just this, this ability that he had as a, as a courtroom lawyer, uh, to make the case, uh, Las Vegas was essentially his client and the world was his jury.
And, and he sold that jury on the fact that Las Vegas is a great place to come, uh, to, to hold business, to build business, to live, to raise your family. a lot of people never saw it that way until Oscar Goodman, uh, did it. He himself said, you know, just my big mouth, I opened my big mouth. We got this, uh, Parcel of land here in the, in the center of downtown.
He called it the jewel of the desert. And, and this jewel,really the key to Las Vegas is revitalization, at least the revitalization of the area downtown, which as I've said before, was just completely moribund before Oscar Goodman took over.
Sarah: So For those who might not know, we have a new election coming up. There are now 14 candidates who are running to replace Carolyn Goodman as mayor. can you take us through the nuts and bolts a little bit? I know the first step is there is a primary in June.
Steve: Yes. Yeah. There is a primary in June. There's 14 candidates on the ballot. That's a lot, uh, but it's not, uh, not unusual. There were a lot of candidates, uh, when, when Oscar first ran and when Carolyn first ran, uh, who, who took shots at, uh, at, at becoming mayor. as you mentioned, this is the first time.
There's a Goodman not on the ballot in 25 years. by the way, Carolyn Goodman likes to rib her husband that she got an extra year. So she will actually have, instead of 12 years, 13 years. because the state, moved the ballot. General elections. Council elections. What is it? Oh, It, It's a, election. So, So here's a kitchen.
So here's the, So here's the, So here's the, Office. So we know that some candidates are Democrats and some are Republicans. It doesn't matter in this, in this sense, because they will all run for office at once. If one of those candidates gets more than 50 percent of the vote, so 50 percent plus one, that candidate is elected outright and will take office the following month in July.
Um,
Sarah: to happen?
Steve: I don't think so. The more likely position is going to be that two, uh, candidates will emerge from the pack and those two will move on to the November runoff and, fight it out in November as to which one will win.
Sarah: And that happens congruent to our presidential election. Same
Steve: Yes. Yeah. The state primary will feature not only the Las Vegas race, it'll feature, uh, Las Vegas council races for those who live in the city.
Only city residents, by the way, may vote for the mayor of Las Vegas. and all the other races, you know, uh, from US Senate to Congress to legislature all the way on down.
Sarah: Oh, so we really gotta strap in for the political ads.
Steve: It's going to be a long ballot. Yeah.
Sarah: Alright, so I don't know if you're a betting man, but out of these 14 candidates, who is your money on and why?
Steve: Well, I'd have to split my bets, I guess, on this. Uh,
Sarah: play
Steve: I were to, to, yeah, to bet. you have really three names that I think have, have emerged. And, uh, it's not just me saying this. There was an Emerson College poll that, Channel 8 did, that found, uh, in, in this order.
Shelley Berkley, former Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, uh, who represented the city of Las Vegas in Congress. And, uh, honestly, her office in Washington, D. C. was like a mini Las Vegas museum. She had everything. A slot machine, the city of Las Vegas sign, pictures. It was the kitschiest office, I think, on Capitol Hill.
and she was absolutely, the perfect quintessential representative of Las Vegas. very hardworking. Congresswoman too. I don't think I could keep up with her schedule for a single week. She came home every weekend. She was at every event back on a plane to DC, carry out her duties on Monday.
so, uh, then you have two, members of the city council were incumbents. that is Victoria Seaman. Uh, she is a former assembly, uh, member and, uh, an incumbent council woman. And then you have Cedric Creer. He's a former university region and an incumbent councilman. So, uh, so, so both have experience not only in the city, but also in other, uh, branches of government in the state of Nevada.
So, uh, so those are the three, I would say those are the three front runners, and I would imagine that,one or, or, or two of those are going to probably make it into the primary.
Sarah: I know you've been covering politics in Las Vegas for a decade. You certainly have given us a long perspective on the mayoral role here. What are you noticing about this election that's different from other mayoral races in the past?
Steve: I, I think there's awhole notion of, you know, fresh blood, fresh, uh, perspective. this is something that is not driven by a goodman anymore, and it's going to have to expand. And the new person, whoever it is who becomes mayor, is going to have to adapt their own style.
Now, I don't think that they can retreat from the role.
Sarah: hmm.
Steve: know that they will fully inhabit it the way he did. I don't know that anybody could fully inhabit it the way he did. Um, but, but they will have that, uh, uh, light shining on them, uh, that he invited and that has never gone away. And so I think their role is not just presiding over the council meeting, is not just signing the agreement.
That the ordinances and, and, uh, you know, doing the ceremonial duties of office, but, uh, but actually representing the city and having an active role in developing the city, you know, before Oscar Goodman, there was a department of economic development that was in charge of, you know, trying to lure businesses to turbocharged that process.
And I think any future mayor is going to have to do that as well.
Sarah: Mm. Sounds like maybe not just filling the Goodman shoes, but having to bring their own equally flamboyant or stylish shoes.
Steve: Yes, and this is not an endorsement, but I will say that Shelly Berkeley has the most extensive collection of flamboyant shoes of any of the candidates, on the, uh, on the roster.
Sarah: Now we're talking! Steve, thank you so much for this explainer. It was very much appreciated.
Steve: Absolutely.
Sarah: That's all for today here on CityCast Las Vegas. And if you enjoyed this, you're going to need to tune in for our Mayoral Mondays series.
It'll be running on Mondays from now until a little before the primary, and we're going to be featuring interviews with those three front runner candidates, as well as some of the others from the candidate pool both here on the podcast and in our newsletter. So you should subscribe to our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas. We'll be back tomorrow with more news from around the city. Take care.
