Ross pounds Brown’s tennis ‘racket’

And Steve Ross seemed like such a nice guy.

The Las Vegas City Councilman and mayoral candidate has a reputation as a clean-living family man, but he showed Thursday he’s capable of a little political street fighting when he issued a bruising release critical of opponent Larry Brown.

The release is headlined, “Ross calls a fault on Larry Brown's claims of fiscal responsibility” and blasts the County Commissioner for his tireless efforts to get a tennis complex built in Las Vegas. The tennis complex has experienced a series of problems, and Ross is attempting to paint Brown as a spendthrift. Brown has pushed through the creation of more park space than any individual local elected official in recent years.

"With 50,000 Las Vegans out of work, it's time for the other candidates to serve up a winner and join me in writing a plan that will create jobs now," Ross said.

Ross chides that Brown is guilty of a political “double fault.”

-  “First fault: In 2009, a state-appointed arbitrator determined that Brown and his staff put pressure on the city's public works department to get a quick project bid for a tennis center in Brown's Ward.

Brown's rush to get the plans approved, skipping the normal process of getting them approved by the City's Building and Safety Department, led to a flawed construction plan.

-  “Double fault: The flawed plans were cited as the reason the courts were ultimately constructed improperly, and the tax payers ended up paying the contractor 2.13 million after an arbitrator found they didn't listen to the contractor's warnings about the flawed designs.”

A Ross backhand: "Tax payers are out millions, but hey, Larry Brown got to host the Tennis Channel Open. That money could have gone to worker retraining or providing tax credits to employers that create new jobs.”

Does this mean there’s no “love” lost between them?

It also provides a possible tell from Ross, who is said to trail in the polls. It likely means Brown is substantially ahead of him.