LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Next Tuesday, Las Vegas voters will choose a new mayor.
For the first time in a quarter century, a Goodman will not be on the ballot.
This week, FOX5 sits with the three leading candidates to replace Mayor Carolyn Goodman.
FOX5 begins with Shelley Berkley, who held a long career in politics.
See FOX5 anchor John Huck and Berkley’s discussion below:
Huck: In these closing days before the primary, what’s your message to voters, especially those who haven’t really made up their mind about what they’re going to do in terms of voting?
Berkley: Well, I have two messages. One is a general message, get out and vote. It’s our right and responsibility as an American citizen. And it still gives me a thrill, whether I’m voting by mail, vote doing early voting, or waiting until election day.
But right now, only about 7% of the eligible voters have actually voted in this primary. I would encourage everybody to get out and do what’s right, as an American citizen, it validates who we are as a country and a democracy. More to the point, I would encourage everybody to read the information that’s sitting in their mailboxes, watch the commercials on TV, and go on the individual candidates websites. Get a better idea and insight into what the various candidates believe in who they are, what their vision for the city is. I think that will help people make up their minds. I know there’s still a large, undecided contingency out there. But this is the time to make up your mind.
Go cast your vote. Let’s let’s look forward to a better future for all of us.
Huck: Why should people vote for you?
Berkley: I have I have a passion for public service, I’ve devoted my life to it. I’ve held a number of offices. Offices in the state of Nevada. I don’t think there is anybody that has contributed more and participated more in the political process.
I know the federal government, the state government, local government, and I’m prepared to take all the information I’ve acquired over the years and use it in order to improve the lives of my fellow citizens in the City of Las Vegas. There are four generations of my family in the city of Las Vegas. Now, of course, my parents have passed, but now my grandchildren are being born, and I am projecting into the future.
What do I want the city of Las Vegas to look like when my grandchildren are in their teens and their 20s? My goal is to ensure that people coming up behind me have all of the opportunities that my family had, what are the issues that compelled people and people are interested in and talk to me about, obviously, public safety. That’s a very large issue. And even at that, I would say is the number one issue on people’s minds. The irony is that major crime is down in Las Vegas and in all of Southern Nevada, yet there’s a sense of insecurity, and people want to feel safe in their own homes and their neighborhoods want to know that they can send their kids to the park down the street, they’re going to come home safe and older Americans are even concerned about going to their mailbox and and getting their mail without being accosted. So that’s number one.
Huck: As Mayor though, what can you really do about that? Isn’t that in the hands of Metro?
Berkley: Absolutely. I hesitate to take credit or say I can solve the problem. But what I can do and as you know, the city and the county, both fund Metro, I have a wonderful relationship with the with the sheriff when he was undersheriff and I was the CEO and senior Provost of Touro University. We work together to create a program where Touro has trained all 4,000 Metro officers for medical medical emergencies. If God forbid anything happened, like 1 October, all of our Metro officers have been trained, if they should come upon somebody in an active shooting situation, and they could save that person’s life.
They have the training to do it. Kevin and I have a history of working together.
Huck: You’ve had such a long career. Why do you want to be mayor, you’ve kind of done everything else.
Berkley: Because I’ve done everything else. I love public service. For me, my grandparents were Holocaust survivors that came to this country. Without America, my grandparents would have been killed. My parents would have never been born, nor would have I.
This is my way of giving back to the community and our nation, not only for taking my family and giving us a chance to survive, which we did, but to thrive. And we certainly have done that. I when I decided that I was retiring from Touro University, where I was the CEO and senior Provost for nine and a half years.
I started thinking, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? I have extraordinary amounts of energy. I’m very, very healthy. And what do I do? And I realized, although this was not a surprise, what do you love the most other with the exception of my family, I love public service. It gives me a tremendous sense of satisfaction, helping people, I’ve got a lifetime of experience. I’m no longer interested. I’m not interested in going back to Washington. That is not compatible with my views right now. But to be able to represent my hometown as Mayor of Las Vegas. I can’t think of anything more gratifying and something that I know I could do and help others.
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