Henderson mayor Hafen wants to end contest in primary

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories previewing local municipal races for the April 2 primary election.

Henderson’s mayoral race has attracted a record number of candidates, but if incumbent Andy Hafen has his way, he will eliminate all six challengers April 2.

“I want to win in the primary,” Hafen declared during an interview last week at his City Hall office.

Hafen, who had amassed more than $130,000 in campaign contributions by early January, said he will take an aggressive approach to reaching his goal. He needs more than 50 percent of the vote to end the race before the June 4 general election.

The mayor is the only candidate who has held an elected position, and he is the only candidate with financial resources to devote to his campaign. He plans to lure primary voters with mailers and TV ads and by knocking on doors. Early voting starts Saturday .

Hafen, 58, said his challengers have done little campaigning, giving some residents the false impression he is running unopposed.

All seven candidates are men. The youngest, Kyler Robinson, is 28. The oldest, Jerry Sakura, is 73.

Other candidates are Eddie “In Liberty” Hamilton, 70; Joe Scala, 55; Clayton Simmons, 43; and Rick Workman, 56.

Robinson, Scala and Simmons are first-time candidates. Sakura, Hamilton and Workman have made unsuccessful bids for other elected positions.

The mayor and Sakura are registered Democrats. Hamilton, Scala and Workman are Republicans. And Simmons is a member of the Green Party. The office is nonpartisan.

The municipal election comes at a time when news about Henderson has been dominated by details of the city’s dispute with developer Chris Milam.

“I’m calling it ‘Hendersongate,’ instead of Watergate,” Hamilton said.

Henderson officials accused Milam of promising to build a professional arena-stadium complex as a ruse to buy 480 acres of federal land and flip it to residential developers. The city’s lawsuit was settled Tuesday.

Hamilton, a retired Chrysler Corp. executive, earlier said Hafen should drop out of the mayoral race “and focus on saving the taxpayers of Henderson from all the legal fees.”

Hafen doesn’t plan to do so.

Workman, the city’s accreditation coordinator, questioned Hafen’s acceptance of a $10,000 campaign contribution on Nov. 21 from Milam’s company, International Development Management LLC.

“It is unethical to accept money from a developer that you’re ... in negotiations with,” Workman said.

Records show Hafen returned the contribution on Dec. 5.

Workman, employed by the city for 13 years, was previously a crime scene analyst for the Metropolitan Police Department and spent 20 years in the Air Force.

He said his supporters know he represents their only chance “to put a manager in the position of mayor of Henderson.”

Hamilton retired in 2001. A full-time resident of Southern Nevada for about a decade, he moved to Henderson about four years ago.

He called himself a “compassionate, constitutional conservative,” pledged not to raise taxes and said he would work to bring more businesses to the city.

Hamilton lost a race for the Henderson City Council Ward 1 seat in 2011. He also has failed in three bids for U.S. Senate — twice as a Republican, once as a Democrat.

Sakura, a retired business executive and Vietnam veteran, ran for the 3rd Congressional District seat last year and lost in the Democratic primary.

During a recent interview at his home in Sun City Anthem, he announced plans to run against U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., as a Republican in 2014. She represents the 1st Congressional District.

Sakura said he favors legalizing marijuana for recreational use, and he displayed a container of “K2,” or synthetic marijuana, which he called “pure and predictable.”

Robinson, a lifelong resident of Henderson, is a full-time student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and hopes to graduate this year with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish.

He was in Argentina from 2004 to 2006 on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The candidate, who called Hafen a longtime family friend, doesn’t “care much for politics” but has come to disagree with Hafen.

“I thought that he was a little bit more conservative fiscally,” he said.

Robinson said he opposes any tax increases, but Hafen supported raising water and sewer rates. To Robinson, charging more for services equals a tax increase.

In the interview last week, Hafen did not rule out the possibility of a tax increase.

Robinson works part time for his parents’ Henderson business, Fire and Safety Technicians. He wants the city to make it easier and less costly for businesses.

Robinson said the city wasted resources in suing Milam and doesn’t see how the city has been damaged financially by dealings with him.

Simmons has worked for MGM Resorts International in the food and beverage department for 18 years. For about a decade, he has been a room service order taker. The candidate described himself as young and energetic and said he “wanted to do something new.”

“I’m going to have a lot of learning to do, but I’m willing to do that in order to become mayor of the city,” he said.

He has lived in Henderson for about three years.

Simmons filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Henderson in 2010. He represented himself and accused Henderson police of using excessive force against him in January 2007, though he was not arrested. A federal judge dismissed the case in August 2010.

Scala, a construction worker who enjoys restoring vintage cars, spent five years in the federal prison system after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

He has lived in Henderson for most of the years since his release in 1996. Scala, a Navy veteran, called his candidacy a “serious quest.”

“I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I become mayor, I’d probably be the best mayor this city’s ever seen,” Scala said.

Because of the troubled arena deal, Hafen is “really kind of looking poopy right now,” he said.

Hafen said he and his City Council colleagues have helped Henderson “get through the worst recession in the city’s history while still maintaining premier services.”

He noted that the city was facing a budget shortfall of about $90 million when he took office in 2009, but that deficit since has been reduced to between
$3 million and $5 million.

Hafen, a Henderson resident most of his life, was a 23-year employee of the Las Vegas police special investigations division until his retirement in 2002.

The mayor serves a four-year term and receives an annual salary of $54,632.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0264.