2 experienced lawmakers vying to succeed Mayor Carolyn Goodman
For the first time in a quarter-century, Las Vegas residents will elect the city’s first mayor not named Carolyn or Oscar Goodman, the married couple and political dynasty.
Months of campaigning and several debates later, Councilwoman Victoria Seaman and former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley await voters’ decision for the nonpartisan seat.
The winning candidate is poised to take on the challenge of a growing homeless population, a critical shortage of affordable housing and decisions related to the city’s yearslong legal battle with the would-be developer of the defunct Badlands golf course.
City officials warned that continuing to lose lawsuits to Yohan Lowie’s EHB Cos. could cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars. The city was exploring pausing projects and freezing open positions.
The candidates cleared out a field of a dozen other candidates in June’s primary, which saw Berkley lead Seaman by about 7 percentage points, or just under 5,000 votes.
Seaman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she sees the seat as an opportunity to continue taking a leadership role in the seven-member council, while Berkley said she’s weighing her extensive professional experience to steer the city.
“I believe that the next 10 years are going to be explosive throughout Southern Nevada, including the city of Las Vegas,” Berkley said. “I think we need a good, steady hand at the helm that we manage this growth effectively.”
Seaman, who has business experience, served in the Nevada Assembly and has represented Las Vegas’ Ward 2 since 2019, winning re-election for the current four-year term in 2022.
“I realized that we need a bold leader,” Seaman said about her run for mayor. “We need somebody who is going to take a lead in some of the stuff that was happening at City Hall.”
Shelley Berkley
Berkley paid her way through law school and represented Southwest Gas and Sands Corp. as an attorney, and also served in the Nevada Assembly. She served in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms.
She worked for the Touro University, ending her nine-year career as the senior vice president of the national university system.
Mayor Carolyn Goodman has positioned the city “in a very good shape” and local developers and entrepreneurs have told her that no big changes are needed, Berkley said.
Barring massive losses from the Badlands litigation, she said, the budgets are “flush.”
Berkley, who lives in the Queensridge community that opposed Lowie’s housing project, said she has not played an active role in discussions with the city or the developer.
“I think it would be inappropriate to do that,” she said. “There’s only one mayor at a time in any office.”
Still, Berkley — like Seaman — has advocated for a timely settlement.
She said she would sit with city staff to learn the city’s perspective, and then negotiate with Lowie.
“My goal is to protect the taxpayers to the best of my ability and help make the developer whole in a way that he will accept it.”
While crime is trending downward, Berkley said she would use her longtime professional relationship with Sheriff Kevin McMahill to address public safety, such as her creation of a program while at Touro after the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting to train thousands of Metropolitan Police officers in immediate first aid to injured people.
Berkley would push for a regional and “holistic” approach to address homelessness.
“What we’re doing now, I don’t think anybody can be proud of,” she said.
Berkley is hopeful that $100 million approved by the 2023 Legislature with a pledge promise from the resort corridor will help.
“I think you need to take care of the root cause of the problem before you move forward,” she said.
Berkley described affordable housing as “a big issue” and said she wants the U.S. government to keep freeing up federal land for housing development. She said she opposes rent control proposals.
Victoria Seaman
As a councilwoman, Seaman has taken a lead in addressing overpopulation and alleged mismanagement at the partially publicly funded Animal Foundation shelter.
The councilwoman has been the lone “vociferous” voice in the council, at least publicly, about a need to reach a settlement out of court with the Badlands developer.
“This should’ve never happened,” Seaman said. “And having strong leadership, I believe could of prevented this.”
She noted that she wasn’t in office when the Badlands issue began shortly after Lowie bought the golf course in 2015.
“I didn’t overstep my boundaries when it came to (it). I did what I could as a council member,” she said.
Seaman added: “I can’t force people to take responsibility for getting us into Badlands.”
She also said that outside attorneys the city has hired have no “incentive” to settle the lawsuit.
Seaman has cited public safety as one of her top issues, and she touts endorsement from police unions throughout Nevada.
Since she took office, Seaman has championed small Las Vegas businesses in weekly video segments. She said she wants to eliminate red tape when it comes to permitting.
Seaman has advocated for the city’s camping ban implemented to address homelessness, which Las Vegas is considering strengthening,
Seaman said enforcement allows the city to offer social services, and that she would like to see Clark County follow suit.
She, too, would like the issue be addressed regionally.
“The problem with being the only municipality that has done a (public) shelter, is that we’re getting everyone,” Seaman said, adding that “Southern Nevada needs a bigger facility.”
Seaman touted the city’s efforts to combat the shortage of affordable housing and cited four housing projects that have broken ground within the city.
“I believe in mixed usage,” she said. “I believe that when you work with developers and you can do a mixed-use project, then people can’t complain, ‘I don’t want it in my backyard.’”
Seaman, who also wants to see the federal government release more land, said she doesn’t think that rent control measures work.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.
