Nor'Town: Politics in North Las Vegas, Nevada

And the Winner Is....

Mayor:

Buck 5,364
Robinson 4,427

Council 3:

Wood 1,650
Carvalho 1,244

Judge:

Hoeffgen 5,369
Kimble-Simms 4,160

Buck wins an astounding 6% of the registered voters as off-year elections prove once again primarily to benefit the campaign consultants.

Price per vote in the mayoral: $82.

Next question: who will council pick to finish up Buck's coucil term? Cato? Carvalho? Thomas?

[UPDATE: Buck, on Robinson: ' “I’m appreciative of his service for the past 26 years,” she said. “I hope he feels he ran a good race.” ' (RJ)]

Carpetbagging for Buddies

Sigh. I guess it's just naive to think that one's representatives, especially those at the most intimate level, would want to serve their very own neighborhoods, as opposed to a bunch of strangers across town.

You can't get any more intimate to constituents than representing a ward in Nor'Town City Council. The Assembly's like that, too, but they don't have to peer into the crazed eyes of the electorate every two weeks.

So, what could be more grotesque than to read that a candidate deliberate shopped for his ward like a convention john looking for the cheapest escort?

Angelo Carvalho fessed up to moving into a rental, leaving a perfectly good home behind, because, he says, the ward boundary moved. He used to live in Ward 3, but the boundary changed and he ended up in Ward 2. (Sun)

So what? Why make the move? Because he knew the area better, he says.

Uh, but which area? The area around the rental he's lived in for six months? Or the area around his house of 12 years?

But, wait, that's not the only reason:

Plus, he said a friend of his, Nelson Stone, plans to run for the Ward 2 seat next year when Councilman William Robinson must step down because of term limits. Stone, a former Planning Commissioner, ran against Robinson in 2003. (Sun)

Ah, so he had to make way for a buddy? Who decided that? The local Republican apparatus?

So, it doesn't matter what Ward Mr. Carvalho represents as long as it helps a buddy nab an open seat?

Or is the plan that, should he lose in Ward 3, he moves back to Ward 2 for another run for council in two years?

After all, one Nor'Townie voter with a pulse is the same as another, no matter what Ward they come from, right? Is that the idea? And is Mr. Carvalho willing to serve anywhere, as long as there's a place to hang his pink bathrobe?

Carpetbagger Carvalho?

A reader writes in concerned about Nor'Town Councilman candidate Angelo Carvalho's living arrangements.

Is the poor man homeless, one wonders? Has he lost his home and ended up renting, like so many other Nor'Towners?

According to the Clark County Assessor's office, Mr. Carvalho owns a lovely home in North Las Vegas Ward 2, the home from which he ran his campaign for State Assembly in 2006, according to page 7 of the 2006 campaign finance report of Keystone Corporation, the notorious rightwinger-enabling organization run by Monte Miller that gave you such fine politicians as one James Gibbons. Keystone provided Mr. Carvalho $5,000 for that race.

But, on his application to run for city council Ward 3, Mr. Carvalho gives an address to a property owned by fellow Planning Commissionguy Harry H. Shull. (HHS Investments, LLC, lists Mr. Shull as manager. Huh. Where do they come up with those names?)

Well, how neighborly for Mr. Shull to offer a rental to Mr. Carvalho at such a convenient time! I just hope Mr. Shull's getting good rent. Otherwise we'll all be looking for the difference to be showing up as an in-kind contribution to Mr. Carvalho's campaign on next Tuesday's finance report.

It'll work out really well, too, if Mr. Carvalho's campaign fails. He can move back to a nice comfy home in Ward 2 afterwards.

But, where will he live if he wins?

Let's just hope Mr. Carvalho doesn't own a pink bathrobe. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that none of us have recovered from the last time a politician was found out and about in one of those.

Oh, and probably the worst answer to the View New's question about foreclosures came from Mr. Carvalho:

We can not control the foreclosure problem at a city level as we have no say or control over what the banks do. (VN)

Um. Well, it's true that only the federal government can regulate the banking industry, but surely local leaders can take steps to mitigate the effects of foreclosures on local folk, through better education about the process, ways to avoid foreclosure, debt management, etc. Some of which the city has in fact done. Cities can provide support services for the foreclosed, too, such as emergency shelters, food banks, counseling, etc. Unless, I suppose, Mr. Carvalho wants to get rid of that kind of stuff?

No, not Mr. Carvalho's finest moment, but, now, we should not judge the homeless too harshly in these troubled times, should we?

She Parties With Gibbers!

So, claim the Clark County Democrats of NLV mayoral wannabe--and spouse of a Richard Ziser enabler--Shari Buck in an entertaining flyer graced with a lovely fake photo of the councilwoman and her epic fail party leaders.

Okay, okay. I admit to spiffin' it up a little. After all, Captain Null wouldn't want to wander around without his costume, would he? Some legislator might recognize him, otherwise, and maybe call him a funny name.

Sniff! Don't it bring back fond memories of all those other guys who partied with Gibbons and paid the price? All except the 'Do, course, who's still in office, but seems to have embraced the Gube's inner nuttiness as he tries to revive his moribund party with grotesque, satanic undulations.

Yup. I'm sure it was my "I party with Gibbons" campaign what done 'em in, too. Couldn't have been all that Reid family trust fund money.

Still, one wonders what possessed the CC dems to go after the Buckster. Probabaly has nothing to do with that nasty fight she had with a cowboy hat fetishist over a clark county commission seat so long ago. No, probably not.

The Clark County Republicans are rather listlessly touting Buck over on their site--along with one Angelo Carvalho who's running for Nor'Town City Council Ward 3.

Oh, but shhhh. All the seats up in Nor'Town are non-partisan. It would just be a plain shame to remind folk of which ones belong to the Epic Fail party.

Tho, one wonders why a Sun story on the perhaps mythical "Obama bounce" in city elections would only interview two of the Democratic Candidates for Nor'Townie mayor. Yup. Ned Thomas is indeed listed over on the Dem's site, but is apparently not sufficiently anointed with front-runnerness by the MSM punditry to warrant a phone call.

[UPDATE: Ooops: Ned Thomas is mentioned in the Sun Story.]

But as for that bounce... You know, I can't think of the last time a Nor'Towner bounced for anything, except maybe closing time at the local tavern.

Cross posted from Vote Gibbons Out.

It's Official!

Candidates have officially started signing up for Nor'Town mayor and council seats.

So far, Shari Buck, William Robinson, and Stephanie Smith have signed up to run for mayor. On their Declaration of Candidacy forms, both Robinson and Smith admit to being Democrats, although stating one's party affiliations is optional in this presumably non-partisan race. Buck leaves her affiliation blank. Could it be that admitting she's run as a Republican in the past is a little like admitting one has leprosy these days?

Rolando Cruz has decided to run for city council in Ward 1. Presumably the incumbent Robert Eliason will be turning in his paperwork for the seat in the next few days.

There are two contenders to take over Stephanie Smith's term limited seat for Ward 3. Angelo Carvalho, the boss of the planning commission has signed up as has Michael Little.

Carvalho seems to be a favorite of Mayor Mike, seeing how the Mayor has slipped Carvalho $5,000 for his campaign. (Sun) Quite a gesture given the Mayor seems to be running a little behind in the cash grubbing for the governor's race. (AP)

Stuff Coming Up

• North Las Vegas Association of Home Owners' Association and Concerned Citizens meets tomorrow, Jnue 10, at the Aliante Library at 6pm. Here's the Agenda in Microsoft Word format. And lookee, Richard Cherchio's in the news again. (Sun)
• Same day, the City of North Las Vegas will hold a meeting about the Master Plan for downtown Nor'Town.
• Wednesday, Nor'town Planning Commission will crank through a bunch of reclassification applications for the Boyd's Gaming casino slated for Park Highlands. (NLV). It's been in the news that Boyd's Gaming got the nod from Olympia Corp., presumed developers of Park Highlands, to put up the casino alloted to the development. The casino company will be asking the commission to allow them to move the site up to the beltway so that the west end of 215 will make a more suitable extension to Casino Alley. I say "suitable" because the city clearly is unconcerned about the number of casinos in the area--having decided they don't want to spend any money on a consultant to learn anything about it. (Sun) The planning commission in turn snubbed no less an organization than the Nevada National Guard at its last meeting in its haste to approve the Miller Casino as it backed motions by none other than army reservist Angelo Carvalho.

Monday Goings On

Two-time failed Assembly District candidate Angelo Carvalho is off to Iraq for a tour of duty. Although I never liked him as a candidate, and shiver at his threat to run for the North Las Vegas City Council, I hope he has a safe tour and enjoys much better luck against terrorists than he had against Kelvin Atkinson. (Sun)

And the North Las Vegas Coppers are taking the fun out of dodging traffic in North Town. They're actually ticketing drivers who don't slow down or stop for pedestrians. (RJ) (KLAS)

Did you know that City Council Guy William Robinson won by only 500 votes last time? (LVBiz) Must be why he's got the signs out early this time.

And isn't that what all us North Towners want? A place to "get drunk and get out of the way"? Sounds like a town motto to me. (Sun)

Northtown For Sale: AD 17

Jon Ralston reported recently that the CEO of overstock.com, one Patrick Byrne, was trying to buy some Republican politicians for North Las Vegas, home of the 'Monger, and elsewhere throughout the state.

Byrne suddenly is a major supporter of North Las Vegas and its mayor, Mike Montandon, who not so coincidentally has decided to start pouring his PAC money into legislative races.

This is the handiwork of GOP consultant Steve Wark, who not so coincidentally consults for Overstock.com in Utah and not so coincidentally is Montandon's political guru. Add this up and you suddenly have what Wark sees as swing districts inundated with cash from Montandon's city PAC and at least two other PACs that Byrne, thanks to Wark, has made flush during the last few months.

Byrne has given an aggregate of $110,000 to Montandon's PAC, a committee run by Wark's mother-in-law, ex-state GOP boss Earlene Forsythe and a conservative group, Keystone. Welcome to Nevada, Mr. Byrne. And you thought Howard Rich of Americans for Limited Government and the Club for Growth folks were the major out-of-state types trying to influence Nevada politics.

Besides the mayor and two other Repubic Assembly wannabes mentioned in Ralston's article, the Assembly District 17 race has Byrne money flowing into it. There, Republican Angelo Carvalho is running for a second time against Democrat incumbent Kelvin Atkinson. In 2004, Carvalho ran with just over $19,000 in contributions. Now, in 2006, he's got over $90,000.

Part of the difference comes from, you guessed it, the Byrne-Montandon slush fund. You can have a look at Carvalho's reports over at the irritating Clark County elections website. There you'll find the following list of interesting contributions to Carvalho:

$10,000 NLV PAC

$10,000 Montandon For Mayor

$10,000 Keystone Corp.

$ 5,000 Republican Assembly Caucus

According the financial records over at the crappy website for the Nevada Secretary of State's office, Byrne gave $50,000 to NLV PAC, $30,000 to Keystone and $40,000 to the Republican Assembly Caucus. Other large contributions to Carvalho come from the usual suspects, $10,000 from the Boyd family trust, and thousands from other casinos and Northtown developers. Yup, out lords and masters.

Kelvin Atikinson, the incumbent, is trailing Carvalho, as of last month, by about $20,000. His campaign coffer is depressingly filled by casino magnates as well.

However, the mind boggles at the amounts of money being thrown at these elections. And, guys, you can use some of that money to spiff up the websites. Although websites at the Assembly level probably don't matter as much as walking the neighborhood. And money from Utah wackos.