Mudslinging in full swing for Ward 4

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a series of stories previewing local municipal races for the April 2 primary election.

It’s not the highest-profile political race in Southern Nevada, but the campaign for the Las Vegas City Council’s suburban Ward 4 seat is among the feistiest.

Political long shot Frank Geary, 49, is throwing everything he can at incumbent Councilman Stavros Anthony, 56, a retired Metropolitan Police Department captain considered a potential candidate for mayor in Nevada’s biggest city.

Geary, a journalist who formerly worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal before running for office, has stocked his website with allegations calling into question the incumbent’s U.S. citizenship, honesty and even his manners.

“Some of them are absolute lies,” Anthony said in response to Geary’s website. “He has decided the campaign is going to be lying about me and not discussing what he is going to do about the city of Las Vegas.”

That’s not how Geary sees it. He said he has highlighted elements of Anthony’s record that paint a picture of a politician who is more interested in feather-bedding than public service.

“He’s a hypocrite,” Geary, who has never held elected office, said. “He says he is a fiscal conservative, yet he is a poster boy for everything conservatives can’t stand.”

Anthony said falsehoods on Geary’s website include the insinuation Anthony might not be a U.S. Citizen, an unflattering photo apparently from a high school yearbook — under the heading “my opponent” — of someone who isn’t Anthony and the allegation there is something untoward about Anthony’s collecting a police pension in addition to a City Council salary.

“I retired under the rules, and then I collect my pension,” Anthony said.

The citizenship question Geary raised on his website is based on what appears to be a tongue-in-cheek question posed to Anthony during an endorsement interview with the group Veterans in Politics. And the photo, Geary said, was the result of a Google image search for Anthony.

Other issues Geary raised include etiquette — one news story link criticizes Anthony for checking his cellphone during public meetings — and ethics, with another article highlighting an admission by Anthony that he used his badge to obtain seat upgrades on commercial airline flights.

In addition to the campaign mudslinging, the candidates are staking out positions on issues facing the city.

On the issue of funding for Las Vegas police, Anthony supports a proposal before the Legislature to approve of a one-quarter-cent sales tax in Clark County to raise cash to hire local cops.

It stems from a 2004 voter-approved measure to increase the sales tax one-half cent to hire more police in Clark County. In 2005, the Legislature enacted a quarter-cent increase in response but has yet to enact the second half of the measure.

Now supporters want not only to enact the second half but to change the language to make it easier to spend the money. The original measure had restrictions to prevent local governments from directing money from police to other programs and replacing it with the new tax.

“We want to make sure this community is safe and the best way to do that is to hire police officers,” Anthony said.

Geary said he would oppose such an increase.

“I don’t believe we need to direct more money toward the Police Department at this time,” he said.

Both candidates have been critical of spending on downtown redevelopment.

As a councilman, Anthony voted against spending money on a new City Hall and the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement, two issues important to former Mayor Oscar Goodman and his wife, current Mayor Carolyn Goodman.

But since then, Anthony, who is mayor pro tem, has joined the Goodmans’ good graces and received campaign support from Carolyn Goodman.

Geary said he would spend less time than even Anthony on downtown-related issues and focus on Ward 4.

“To the naked eye, it just seems to be throwing good money after bad downtown on the same old, same old,” Geary said of redevelopment agency spending on grants to bars and restaurants.

He said Ward 4 residents would be better off if the council worked harder to alleviate the fallout of the real estate crash, possibly by trying to enact rules similar to those that homeowners associations use to make it more difficult for rental homes to cluster in neighborhoods.

Anthony counters he has focused plenty on Ward 4.

Among his accomplishments he counts new median landscaping along Rampart Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue and a new fire station in Sun City Summerlin.

“You are proud to drive around in that particular area,” Anthony said.

Early voting is March 16-29. Election day is April 2. The annual salary for City Council members, who serve four-year terms, is $73,687.05.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285 .