Las Vegas mayor’s race: It’s Goodman vs. Giunchigliani

Las Vegas mayoral candidate Chris Giunchigliani achieved the second-place finish she wanted Tuesday, barely eking out a 15-vote win over fellow Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown.

It keeps her mayoral hopes alive, but it also puts her head-to-head in a runoff race with Carolyn Goodman, the front-runner whose husband, Mayor Oscar Goodman, just happens to be one of the most popular politicians in the state.

Giunchigliani got the news Tuesday night from a volunteer who was watching results on a computer.

"Chris!" the volunteer said. "You won by 15 votes."

Giunchigliani put her hands over her mouth as friends and volunteers gathered at a supporter's house erupted in cheers.

"Wow," the candidate said. "Don't tell me this is not a history lesson to everyone in the room -- that every vote counts."

She said she hopes her experience counts against Goodman, who has a high profile of her own through her role as founder of the Meadows School.

"I'm running against a name and a personality," she said. "We will win in June."

In unofficial results released Tuesday night, Goodman had 18,040 votes, 37 percent of the votes. Giunchigliani had 8,395 votes compared with Brown's 8,380.

Because no candidate won a majority, the top two will compete in the June 7 general election.

There also will be a runoff in the open City Council Ward 3 race, where former state lawmaker Bob Coffin will face Adriana Martinez, a City Council liaison and former state Democratic Party chairwoman. Ward 1 Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian and Ward 5 Councilman Rick Barlow cruised to re-election, each with more than 70 percent of the vote.

City election turnout, which is usually low, fell within expectations: 48,537 voters participated in the city, which is 22 percent of registered voters.

Municipal elections also were held in Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder City and Mesquite.

Carolyn Goodman said she was pleased with the result.

"With 18 candidates, I think it's a miracle how well we've done," she said.

She said the most important part of the campaign and the reason she decided to run was her husband. She said she wants Las Vegas residents to feel like they have a stake in their government: "It's our community, our town."

Oscar Goodman said the general election campaign would be free of negativity from their side.

"I never mentioned an opponent's name, and neither will she," he said, referring to the approach he used during his three mayoral campaigns. "It's gonna be clean."

It's also likely to be a hard-fought race, and Giunchigliani is no stranger to hard campaigning and close races.

She won her 1992 Assembly race by 192 votes, and her 1994 tally was closer -- 123 votes. Both of those were 2 percentage point margins.

In this race, she might get some help from Brown, who stopped short of endorsing her Tuesday but indicated she might have his backing.

"She is as qualified a person as anyone in this race," he said.

He also said he probably wouldn't request a recount, but he wanted to "sleep on it."

There were 18 candidates who signed up for the race. Oscar Goodman, the self-proclaimed "Happiest Mayor in the Universe" who was first elected in 1999, could not run again because of term limits.

Initially, the main candidates in the race were Brown, who served on the City Council before being elected to the County Commission, and Councilman Steve Ross.

Giunchigliani, fresh off of a commission re-election race in 2010, at first said she would not run for mayor but changed her mind after being encouraged to do so and researching her chances.

Carolyn Goodman's name had long been bandied about as a possible successor to her husband. Like Giunchigliani, she decided to enter the race almost at the last minute, causing a stir in political circles and immediately becoming a favorite in the race.

An early Review-Journal/8NewsNow poll had her comfortably in front with 37 percent support. Brown, at the time, was her nearest competitor with 17.5 percent support in the poll, followed by Giunchigliani at 11 percent.

The person who covered the most electoral ground during the election cycle was businessman Victor Chaltiel, who went from almost zero name recognition to 4.8 percent in the early March poll to nearly 14 percent on Tuesday.

He did so with a $1.3 million infusion from his personal fortune, most of which went to television advertising.

Issues in the race primarily revolved around jobs and the economy. Candidates pitched their job-creation ideas and credentials, promising to use the visibility of the mayor's office to recruit new industries to Southern Nevada and continue downtown redevelopment.

Several also promised to improve schools, though public education is not in the mayor's job description.

Because of changes adopted in 2007, Las Vegas' next mayor must do the job full time and cannot accept outside employment. Oscar Goodman treated the position as a full-time one but did not have to.

The mayor's salary will increase to $130,000 a year.

Reporters Mike Blasky and Lawrence Mower contributed to this report. Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.