North Las Vegas draws 15 hopefuls for three city races

The roster is now complete for the upcoming municipal election in North Las Vegas.

A total of 15 candidates had filed to run by Friday's deadline for two available City Council seats and a Municipal Court judgeship.

The most crowded race, drawing seven candidates, is for the council's Ward 2 seat, which is being vacated by William Robinson , who has held the seat since 1983 but must surrender it because of term limits adopted in the late 1990s.

He has endorsed his son, William E. Robinson II. The younger Robinson, a 32-year-old customer service and sales specialist for Bank of America, often sat at his father's side during council meetings as a child.

He wasn't the only child of a long-term council member to file for the seat. Just before close of filing on Friday, Pamela Goynes-Brown, an assistant principal in the Clark County School District, tossed her hat into the ring. Goynes-Brown is the daughter of Theron Goynes, who spent 20 years on the City Council.

Two others competing for the seat have run unsuccessfully for several local offices. The seats for which Anthony D. Snowden, a program director for a nonprofit organization and a longtime community activist, has previously run include Clark County Commission, state Assembly and Las Vegas mayor. John Stephens III, a library reference assistant, ran unsuccessfully against the elder Robinson in 2007. He also has run for the Assembly and Clark County Commission.

Other candidates in the Ward 2 race are Tanya Flanagan, a Web content administrator for Clark County who once worked as a reporter for the Review-Journal; Carl Gatson, a budget coordinator for the state; and Linda Meisenheimer, a property manager.

Ward 4 incumbent Richard Cherchio drew three challengers.

Cherchio, a retired letter carrier, was appointed to the seat in 2009 after his predecessor, Shari Buck, was elected mayor. He incurred the wrath of the city's police and firefighter unions during contentious contract talks and by voting in favor of laying off corrections officers. It remains to be seen how big an effect the unions' campaign against Cherchio will have on the election.

Cherchio's challengers are Richard L. Moyer, a transit supervisor and Army veteran; Goldie Pitchford, a library assistant; and Wade Wagner, a dentist.

Four candidates are competing to fill the open Municipal Court Department 1 judgeship, from which Judge Warren VanLandschoot is retiring in June. The candidates are Donishia Campbell and Laurie Diefenbach, both deputy public defenders for Clark County; Marsha Kimble-Simms, an attorney with her own law firm who ran unsuccessfully for the Department 2 judgeship in 2009; and Catherine Ramsey, a North Las Vegas deputy city attorney in the criminal division.

North Las Vegas City Council members make $41,827 a year. Municipal judges make $148,438.

The primary election will be April 5. In races in which no candidate achieves a majority, the top two finishers will compete in the general election June 7.

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.