Carolyn has learning curve, big shoes to fill

In 1998, the voters of Nevada finally declared nobody would get to serve more than 12 years in one political office.

That was one year before criminal defense lawyer Oscar Goodman became the happiest mayor in the universe, and the most popular mayor in Las Vegas history. If Goodman could have run for a fourth term, he would easily have won.

Instead, the voters of 2011 found a way to compromise: They elected Carolyn Goodman in a landslide Tuesday over a better-prepared, more knowledgeable and far more experienced challenger, Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani.

Take that, knowledge and experience!

It’s not to say that Carolyn Goodman won’t become another great mayor. After all, when Oscar Goodman got elected, he couldn’t tell a zoning variance from a Zamboni, and he did all right.

In fact, Oscar Goodman made a singular promise when he launched his campaign, to revitalize downtown, and even his harshest critics would have to admit he was wildly successful. From the World Market Center, to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets, to the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, to the Fremont East district, to a new City Hall, online retailer Zappos in the old City Hall, the Mob Museum and myriad high-rise condo projects littered throughout downtown (some of which have actual residents!), Goodman kept his promise.

(Full disclosure: My wife does public relations for the Mob Museum and Newland Communities, which oversees development in Symphony Park.)

If Carolyn Goodman accomplishes even half of what her husband did, the city will be well-served. But first, she faces a steep learning curve.

What they don’t tell you on the campaign trail is that the mayor’s job at times can be mind-numbingly boring: Marathon meetings, change orders, business licenses, site plan reviews, appeals from the Planning Commission because the required retaining wall height is a few feet too high for the developer’s taste.

Although Carolyn Goodman said during the campaign her specialty was bringing people together, it’s a good bet sometime in her first couple of months, she’s going to be in the mood to crack some heads.

In the meantime, she’s going to have to come up with answers to those questions she avoided on the campaign trail, those things she said she was in no position to know because she didn’t yet have the job. Well, she’s got it now.

Another hallmark of her husband’s tenure was a weekly news conference. When Oscar Goodman started the practice, I assumed it would last a month or so.

But more often than not, the mayor marches in to the council chambers every Thursday to meet the press and answer all questions.

It’s led to some tense exchanges, and I recall him walking out in anger a couple times. But he always returned the next week, often saying more than he should.

Will Carolyn Goodman follow in her husband’s footsteps on those weekly sessions?

One of the subtexts of the mayor’s race — embraced by myself and others — was that voters felt they couldn’t go wrong, since whoever got elected would have very little real power. And while that’s absolutely true, Oscar Goodman took a powerless post and turned it into a force of nature.

Giunchigliani, a force of nature in her own right, would no doubt have done the same, especially with the head start gleaned from more than 20 years of state and local government service.

But Carolyn Goodman is a blank slate. What she does with the job is entirely up to her. Oh, and her new top adviser, the city’s new first gentleman, Oscar Goodman.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/SteveSebelius or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@ reviewjournal.com.