Former Las Vegas mayor backs Clinton
Las Vegas' first female mayor, gaming executive Jan Jones, is signing on to Hillary Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign.
"I think that Senator Clinton has the vision, the resolve, the experience and quite frankly the guts to make the hard decisions we're going to have to make in this nation," Jones said Friday.
Jones, the mayor of Las Vegas from 1991 to 1999, said she remains active in political circles but also, as Harrah's Entertainment senior vice president for communications and government relations, travels extensively and has a deep Rolodex of business contacts.
Jones also serves on the executive committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Women's Leadership Board of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the board of the national Women's Campaign Fund.
"I think I can bring that (Clinton's) message to a number of different forums and do so with zeal," Jones said.
The Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 1998, Jones lost to Republican Kenny Guinn. Jones said she doesn't think she lost because of her gender, but she does think Nevada, and the nation, have progressed in the acceptance of women in politics since that time.
"I think America's ready for a woman president, but I think more important than that, America is ready for this woman to be president," Jones said of the New York senator and former first lady.
Although Clinton has piled up so many endorsements in Nevada that another one is hardly surprising, especially from someone with such a natural affinity for the candidate, Jones' backing could be significant, said College of Southern Nevada historian Michael Green.
"There's Jan Jones, former mayor and longtime Las Vegan, and then there's Jan Jones, major gaming executive," Green said. "She probably has far more influence in her industry than in the general community. She's been out of the mayor's office for eight years, which in Las Vegas is somewhere between forever and eternity. In the world of Las Vegas business, there are more influential people," but Jones is still someone with ample clout, he said.
Jones has more in common with Clinton than just her bid for the "first woman" label, Green said. The two share a brassy image that challenges old feminine stereotypes. The word "ambitious" has been used as a slur against both.
"She (Jones) was controversial partly because she was a woman and clearly wanted higher office, and in male chauvinist piggery that is not acceptable," Green said.
The Clinton campaign said Jones would join a national team of groundbreaking women, the "Council of Champions," that includes former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and tennis great Billie Jean King.
"As a pioneering civic leader and an international businesswoman, Jan Jones has spent her entire career breaking down barriers," Clinton said in a prepared statement. "I am honored to have her support."
