Las Vegas has a new mayor, Shelley Berkley. She brings a lot of experience to the job as a former assemblywoman, NSHE regent, and congresswoman, as well as the boss at Touro University. She’s the 22nd person to hold the job since Las Vegas became an incorporated city in 1911.
Some of the names have been important to our history … the first mayor, Pete Buol, who started developing what became the Scotch 80s … Ernie Cragin, who had the El Portal Theatre and Cragin and Pike Insurance, and pushed for racial segregation … Oran Gragson, who served four terms and advocated consolidation of government services and police reform … Bill Briare, a great ambassador for Las Vegas and backer of the bullet train now being built to Southern California … Jan Laverty Jones, the first woman mayor and a major force in downtown redevelopment.
Gragson holds the record for tenure with sixteen years — a record not likely to be broken, since mayors are now limited to three terms. But a name has been mayor for a record 25 years — Goodman. As in Oscar and Carolyn, who would say they are happier with their record of more than 62 years of marriage. When they moved municipal elections to even-numbered years, it gave her an extra year before being term-limited, so she leads Oscar, 13 years to 12.
Husband-and-wife political teams have been unusual in Nevada, but then again, the Goodmans weren’t expected to be one of those teams. Oscar thought about running for mayor in 1995 and did in 1999. It was controversial. He had been a highly successful attorney, representing a lot of people who are now fixtures in The Mob Museum, and not on the law enforcement side. He won big, then was overwhelmingly reelected twice. His accomplishments included the 61 acres from the Union Pacific where you now find such glittering parts of downtown as the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. He was the driving force behind The Mob Museum.
He also had the distinction of swearing in his wife as his successor. The irony is that when he first ran, some Las Vegans said the wrong Goodman was running — it should be Carolyn, the founder of The Meadows School and long active in the community. When he was term-limited and she DID run in 2011, newcomers didn’t know HER bona fides.
Carolyn Goodman always has been and always will be her own woman, and she didn’t try to be Oscar. She has been active in promoting more city involvement in education and the arts, she started a bike share program, and she has done a lot behind the scenes.
The Goodmans achieved a lot of firsts, but they fit so well into the history of the office they held. They both had business experience, with
a law firm and running a school, just as every one of their predecessors had some kind of business experience. Like every mayor since World War II with the exception of Ron Lurie, who we lost recently, they served more than one term.
It’s funny to think about. A mayor in the 1920s, Fred Hesse, was arrested for bootlegging during Prohibition. Oscar Goodman is well known for his love for martinis, and got an endorsement contract while he was mayor from Bombay Sapphire, his gin. Mayors aren’t necessarily noted for ties to booze. But—pardon the pun—we’ll end this with cheers for the Goodmans.
25 years of the Goodmans.
— City of Las Vegas (@CityOfLasVegas) November 26, 2024
Over the past 25 years, our population has grown by 215,085 people, a 46% increase. On average, that's like gaining a new resident every 61 minutes.
Housing has expanded by 80,544 dwelling units, a 43% increase. This equates to one new unit being… pic.twitter.com/h4B4PFnwoO
