Monday, March 17, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

P0LITICAL NOTEBOOK: Reputed organized crime associate among Goodman guests

Mayor makes no apologies for inviting to daughter's engagement party man listed in Nevada Black Book

Reputed organized crime associate Joey Cusumano was one of about 100 guests invited to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's home last month to attend the engagement party for Goodman's daughter.

When asked about Cusumano's presence, Goodman said Friday, "What I do at my home is my business."

Cusumano since 1990 has been in Nevada's Black Book, the list of people banned from casinos. Four months after he was listed, he was wounded by a gunman who shot him three times as he was parking his car in his garage.

"Joey has been lovely to my daughter and treated her with a great deal of respect. I make no apologies," the mayor said.

Goodman said if the late Tony Spilotro had been alive, he too would have been welcome.

"I invited him (Spilotro) to my daughter's bat mitzvah," Goodman said.

"The only ones uncomfortable were the ones not invited," Goodman said of the attendees.

The party also included Nevada Supreme Court justices.

As a criminal defense attorney, Goodman represented Cusumano and Spilotro, who was beaten to death and buried in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.

The mayor denied any suggestion the invite to Cusumano sends a bad message.

"I have a lot of people to my home. Senators, presidents, doctors from Cleveland Clinics. I have all sorts of people," he said. "They made a mistake putting Cusumano in (the Black Book). In the frenzy of the Spilotro days, they tried to put everyone in."

Coffee events

After raising a cool million for his re-election bid, Goodman apparently has enough money to buy coffee and pastries for would-be voters.

Goodman is hosting "coffee with the mayor" events. The next one is from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Friday at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at 7291 W. Lake Mead Blvd.

On March 28, he'll be at the Starbucks at 300 S. Fourth St., also starting at 7:30 a.m.

Goodman campaign consultant Jim Ferrence said the coffees will be paid for from campaign funds, although previous coffees have been city events.

Goodman, who faces nominal opposition, has stopped holding fund-raisers. He has canceled four or five, Ferrence said.

Aside from buying voters coffee and pastries, Goodman's campaigning includes lots of signs, a small television ad buy and targeted mailers urging people to get out and vote.

Guinn defends NGA

The Wall Street Journal ripped the National Governors Association in a March 7 editorial and suggested that Republican governors should pull out from the organization and save tax dollars for their respective states, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently did.

The newspaper, citing sources, said six other GOP governors are unhappy with the organization, which according to the Journal "exists mainly to attack President Bush, beg for money and invite more federal meddling in state affairs."

Nevada's Gov. Kenny Guinn is one of the association's defenders and believes the $56,200 Nevada pays to belong is money well spent.

Despite tight economic times, Guinn never considered pulling out of the association, said his spokesman Greg Bortolin.

The benefits to Nevada include access to the organization's research staff and policy expertise, Bortolin said. The association tracks federal legislative issues that Guinn's staff doesn't have time to follow, such as Medicaid reform, welfare, Homeland Security funding, education funding for people with disabilities, and budget issues.

"For the amount of money we contribute to NGA we could probably hire two more people, but we would never be able to cover all the issues with the level of expertise that the NGA staff does," Bortolin said.

"Jerry Bussell, our Homeland Security director has attended a number of NGA workshops on homeland security," Bortolin said. "They arrange for presentations by administration officials and other state directors that help us design our program and avoid costly mistakes."

The state also spends $36,000 a year for dues to the Western Governors Association. It costs nothing for Guinn to belong to the Republican Governors Association as it is a political organization.