List of candidates grows for Las Vegas mayor race

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said late Tuesday that she plans to run for mayor of Las Vegas, adding her name to a list that's growing longer and includes some strong candidates.

"I'm excited about it. I've got a lot of neighborhood support," said Giunchigliani, who is fresh off a successful 2010 re-election campaign for her County Commission seat.

She initially said she was not going to run but decided to test the waters to see whether the race would be competitive. There will be a formal announcement soon, but she said she wasn't sure yet when she officially will file for the race.

Giunchigliani will be joining two other elected officials in the hunt. Fellow Commissioner Larry Brown, a former Las Vegas councilman, and Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross have declared an intent to run.

Three other candidates filed for mayor Tuesday, including one who thinks she can take on Oscar Goodman's flashy persona as well as his mayoral duties.

Marlene Rogoff, a real estate agent, paraded into the city clerk's office followed by two Chippendales dancers and two well-feathered showgirls, one-upping Goodman's usual pair of showgirls.

"I said I was for equal opportunity," Rogoff said, playing to a hired videographer who roved around the room as though filming a reality show. "People are worried about who's going to come after Oscar. ... If they vote for me, their worries are over."

Rogoff sought local office once before. In 2005, she finished about in the middle of the pack in a Ward 6 City Council race.

She said she was fulfilling a campaign promise to promote Las Vegas and then introduced her entourage, all of whom work on the Strip and outside the Las Vegas city limits.

Goodman is not running again because of term limits.

The list of candidates to fill the open seat should be a long and diverse one.

Several people, including Goodman, have said the city's next mayor shouldn't try to clone his martini-and-showgirls Vegas wiseguy persona.

"The new mayor shouldn't try to imitate me. They'll fall flat on their face," Goodman said recently. "I'm a great believer that the constituents are very much like a jury. They're able to tell whether the mayor's a phony or not.

"If they try to imitate or be something that they're not, I think that the public will see that very quickly and make life miserable."

Two other candidates for the mayor's race filed much more quietly.

Katherine Duncan, founder of the Ward 5 Chamber of Commerce and an active member of the community in both development and historic preservation, put her name in the ring. So did Abdul Shabazz, a self-described former "professional dice hustler" who runs a business called Mobile Denture Lab.

Former state Sen. Bob Coffin filed for the Ward 3 City Council race Tuesday, making him the first candidate in the contest to replace Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese, who is also term limited.

Steve Evans, a Las Vegas planning commissioner, also has been campaigning and is expected to file.

Coffin was elected to the Assembly in 1982 and to the state Senate in 1987. Term limits kept him from running again in 2010.

"Right now, Ward 3 is way behind the other wards," Coffin said. "It's really been neglected."

That includes parks, pedestrian safety, roads, noncompliant signs -- "the things that we live with," Coffin said.

"The city's working on these problems, but I think we can do more, faster."

Ward 5 Councilman Ricki Barlow filed for re-election Tuesday after addressing a crowd of about 60 supporters on the steps of City Hall.

"The landscape of Ward 5, I am proud to say, does not look like the landscape of 2007," Barlow said, referring to development and public improvements that have taken place over the four years he has been in office. "We have more work to be done."

Ward 1 Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian filed for re-election, as did Cedric Kerns for Municipal Judge Department 5 and George Assad in Department 3. Assad already has a challenger, Heidi Almase.

The Municipal Judge Department 2 race is an open seat and is already crowded. Five candidates have signed up: Marco Angioni, Sonny Bonaventure, Robert Kurth, Susan Roger and George Trachtman.

NORTH LAS VEGAS

In North Las Vegas, Councilman Richard Cherchio -- who was appointed to the city's Ward 4 seat in 2009 after his predecessor, Shari Buck, was elected mayor -- made his candidacy official Tuesday.

Police and fire unions essentially have been campaigning against the 64-year-old retired letter carrier. Cherchio butted heads with labor leaders during contract concession talks and voted in favor of laying off corrections officers.

Three candidates filed for the city's Ward 2 council seat, which is being vacated by term-limited Councilman William Robinson. Robinson's son, William Robinson II, a 31-year-old bank customer service and sales specialist, was among the candidates. Also filing for the seat Tuesday were John Stephens III, a 45-year-old library reference assistant who ran an unsuccessful campaign against the elder Robinson in 2007; and Anthony D. Snowden. Snowden could not be reached for comment.

The city's open Municipal Court Department 1 judgeship drew two candidates: Marsha Kimble-Simms, 49, an attorney with her own law firm who ran unsuccessfully for the Department 2 judgeship in 2009; and Catherine Ramsey, 46, a North Las Vegas deputy city attorney in the criminal division.

Judge Warren VanLandschoot is retiring from the Department 1 seat in June.

HENDERSON

Incumbent Henderson City Councilwoman Gerri Schroder was the first candidate to file in Nevada's second-largest city. She was joined later in the day by four other candidates.

Former Henderson Police Chief Mike Mayberry filed to run for the Ward 4 seat Steve Kirk must vacate because of term limits.

John Simmons, a former construction manager for the city, filed to run for the Ward 2 seat held by Debra March.

And perennial congressional candidate Edward Hamilton filed under the nickname "The Frugal" to run against Schroder in Ward 1.

The only other Henderson incumbent to make her candidacy official Tuesday was Diana Hampton, who is seeking her second six-year term as Henderson's municipal judge for Department 3.

BOULDER CITY

Boulder City received two entries, both from challengers, on the first day of filing.

Former city spokeswoman Rose Ann Rabiola Miele, whose job was recently eliminated by budget cuts, filed to run for City Council, as did Linda Graham.

Mayor Roger Tobler and council members Travis Chandler and Linda Strickland face re-election this year.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435. Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.