Endorsement for Las Vegas mayor, council

Early voting starts Saturday for the June 7 municipal election, and no campaign in Southern Nevada can match the profile of the Las Vegas mayor's race. Eighteen candidates sought to replace the popular, term-limited 12-year incumbent, Oscar Goodman. His wife, Meadows School founder Carolyn Goodman, and Chris Giunchigliani, a former teacher and state assemblywoman and current Clark County commissioner, survived April's primary, giving voters a choice between two excellent candidates.

Mrs. Goodman shares her husband's enthusiasm for the city and is running to continue his legacy of downtown redevelopment, economic diversification and civic pride. Her work building The Meadows School from an idea into arguably the state's finest private school, while never drawing a salary, proves she can make bold visions a reality.

Meanwhile, few elected officials can match Ms. Giunchigliani's knowledge of public policy issues. She has a deep understanding of state and county government, and in her limited time as a mayoral candidate has developed a firm grasp of city services -- and what needs improvement.

This race swings, however, on city finances. Mayor Goodman and City Manager Betsy Fretwell have spent the past three years cutting the city's budget through department consolidations, the elimination of hundreds of positions, negotiating salary and benefit reductions from the city's unionized work force and resetting the city's pay structure to bring in new hires at lower pay. The $455 million fiscal year 2012 budget our next mayor will inherit is $6 million smaller than the current spending plan.

Ms. Giunchigliani, for all her strengths, has a long record of complete subservience to public employee unions. She has said she'd support higher city taxes.

In Oscar Goodman's absence, the city needs a leader who can bring people together, a booster who can keep people believing in Las Vegas, and a mayor who won't bow down to the unions that nearly bankrupted government. The Review-Journal endorses Carolyn Goodman for mayor.

In addition to the mayor's race, Ward 3 voters will pick a successor to longtime Councilman Gary Reese, who is leaving office because of term limits. Bob Coffin, who served in the Legislature for nearly 30 years, and Adriana Martinez, on leave from her job as a liaison for Ward 1 Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, beat five other candidates in the primary election to advance to the runoff.

Mr. Coffin is a 60-year Las Vegas resident who grew up in Ward 3. Mr. Coffin has been critical of local government budget growth and personnel costs over the years, as well as the city bureaucracy's persistent anti-business climate. Ms. Martinez has been part of the City Hall establishment for years and asserts that government has been cut to the bone and "we can't live without the services the city provides."

The City Council will have to make more tough budget choices in the years ahead. The council needs an outsider's oversight of city functions, not an insider's loyalty to every program on the books. The Review-Journal endorses Bob Coffin for Las Vegas City Council, Ward 3.