New PAC targets candidates in Las Vegas City Council race

A newly formed PAC launched an attack last week on two Las Vegas City Council candidates for their opposition to the controversial Badlands golf course development.

A mailer circulating in the western valley’s Ward 2 urges voters to say no to what it calls a $250 million tax, contending that denying development on the course would result in inverse condemnation. That occurs when government action causes private property values to plunge, often resulting in the owner suing over the financial loss.

“These two opportunist candidates want you the taxpayers to foot the bill to benefit a few wealthy homeowners in the lavish Queensridge neighborhood,” the mailer says about Christina Roush and Steve Seroka.

Citizens for Better Neighborhoods, a political action committee that formed last month, funded the mailer.

RESIDENTS, DEVELOPER FIGHT

The closed 250-acre course winds through the well-to-do Queensridge development, where neighbors have fought developer EHB Companies’ plans to put homes on the course.

The Badlands issue looms large in the City Council race, where Roush and Seroka are aiming to unseat Councilman Bob Beers. The mailer does not name Beers and says it was not authorized by any candidate or their campaign.

The City Council on Feb. 15 narrowly approved a pared-down plan for the course’s eastern edge. Beers was among the four yes votes for 435 for-sale condominiums at the corner of Rampart Boulevard and Alta Drive, which was an eleventh-hour reduction from 720 rental units.

But the fate of the rest of the course remains unclear, and some city officials have said they won’t get behind “piecemeal development.”

Roush and Seroka both spoke against the development at that council meeting and a Las Vegas Planning Commission meeting where commissioners discussed a proposal to build homes on another segment of the golf course.

THE PAC FORMS

Less than a week later, on Feb. 21, the PAC filed its registration paperwork with the Nevada secretary of state’s office.

“The PAC is clearly funded by the developer,” Seroka’s campaign manager, Jim Ferrence, said Friday, adding that the “mailer is tantamount to coming from the incumbent. They’re hand in glove, the developer and Beers.”

Beers said Friday that he had seen the mailer but does not know who is behind it.

“It is unfortunate that the same developers who are lining the pockets of Bob Beers are now spreading their lies under a misleading name of ‘Citizens for Better Neighborhoods,’” the Roush campaign said in a statement to the Review-Journal.

The Roush team called the mailer “the perfect example of smoke-and-mirror politics” and “a desperate attempt by the developers to confuse voters with legal jargon.”

EHB Companies responded that Roush was put in the race to circumvent the city’s decision-making process.

“It’s interesting Christina Roush, a planted candidate by her business partners and wealthy friends in Queensridge, wants to blame anyone and everyone to further her own personal agenda,” EHB Companies’ statement said.

Beers has repeatedly raised inverse condemnation throughout the city’s consideration of the Badlands proposal. The issue came up at a candidate forum Tuesday, where Roush told Beers to quit raising the idea because “you know it’s not true.”

“She’s either badly confused or making it up,” Beers said Friday of Roush’s stance on inverse condemnation.

Roush and Seroka “want the city of Las Vegas to buy the closed golf course, so these wealthy homeowners, who are supporting their campaigns, don’t lose their view,” states the mailer, which misspelled Seroka’s name.

THE MONEY TO THE PAC

In a campaign contribution and expense report filed with the secretary of state’s office last week, the PAC lists three different $5,000 contributions, all made Feb. 24, from Level CM; Sahara LLC; and Summer DeHart. The latter contribution lists the associated address as EHB Cos.’ Las Vegas headquarters as listed on the company website.

The PAC does not list expenses in its most recent report, but exactly how it’s spending that $15,000 should become clearer by March 31, when the next round of reports are due to the secretary of state.

The city primary is April 4. Early voting began Saturday and runs through March 31.

Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Find @JamieMunksRJ on Twitter.