Thursday, Dec. 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Art Lurie was tossing a burger on the grill during a family gathering in the summer of 1973 when his son, Ron, told the family he was going into politics.
Art long before had planned to run for public office but was warded off by friends, who told the longtime Las Vegas businessman that it was not in his best interests. So, if he could not serve the people, Art was happy his son would.
"Ron told me he felt he could improve the way the city was being run," Art said. "I didn't have a lot of money to help him back then but I did what I could.
"It wasn't until Ron won the primary that the money started to come in to the campaign."
Still, Ron and Art admit it may have been a bit of cleverness more than a big war chest that got Ron's foot in the door at City Hall as a city commissioner (now councilman).
"Ron's first campaign signs read just 'Lurie,' " Art said. "After he won the election, people came into the store (Wonder World Discount Liquors on Maryland Parkway) and congratulated me. They thought they had voted for me and that I had won."
Ron agreed he had used his father's name recognition in that instance. Ron, however, would go on to carve a name of his own.
"I may have given him a push in the right direction when he was young, but everything Ron has today, he earned himself," Art said.
In more than a decade on the City Council and in four more years as mayor, Ron was in charge at the time of the city's fastest growth.
But it was that growth that helped speed his exit from politics in the late 1980s. Ron put money into a blind investment in property in the emerging northwest part of the city. Some of his partners, it turned out, were businessmen who had dealings with the city.
Although city records reflect that Ron abstained from voting on matters involving his land and that he had obeyed disclosure laws and followed the advice of the city attorney, the damage was done.
He opted not to seek a second term as mayor. But Ron says today it was not because of the media dogging him for several months over the land deal.
"Yes, I was getting bad publicity at the time, but I felt I could overcome it and win re-election," said Ron, who, while in office, was a sales executive for International Game Technology, the pioneer in video poker machines.
"Lots of people come up to me today and ask 'when are you going to run for office again? I'll vote for you.' But I feel there comes a time when you accept that it is time to go. That's the reason I didn't run for re-election."
While Ron maintains he takes his departure from City Hall in stride, his usually mild-mannered dad reaches his boiling point just thinking about that part of his son's life.
"What really upsets me is that all of the good my son did for the city in the years he was in office is practically forgotten over one thing that really was a nothing incident blown way out of proportion," Art said.
"When you look at the whole picture of Ron's accomplishments in office, they are impressive. But all you hear some people talk about is 'land deal, land deal, land deal.' "
But there was an incident after Ron left office that brings Art from the point of boiling to downright exploding.
When the city considered thanking Ron for his years of hard work by naming a park in northwest Las Vegas in his honor, a small band of disgruntled residents convinced the council not to do it. The park instead was given a generic name.
"There are parks in this town named after convicted felons," Art said. "My son was not charged with nor convicted of any crime. He deserved to have a park named after him for children to enjoy for many years."
Art also took the dishonor personally.
"I have done a lot for the children of this community with things like (building) the Golden Gloves Gym and the YMCA. In the 1960s, when no one would hire blacks to be cashiers, I went to Rancho High School and personally trained black girls and hired them to work in my stores.
"But a lot of people don't remember good things like that, just the bad. When they took Ron's name off that park, it was a slap not only in his face but also a slap in my face and a slap in my family's face."
Art recalled the time when he accompanied his son, then the mayor, to a company that was trying to establish a monorail from the airport to the downtown area.
"When they asked Ron if he liked the project, and he said 'I don't,' my mouth fell open wide," Art said. "Ron pointed out that in studying the proposal, he discovered that if the project failed, the city would be responsible for maintaining it at a cost of several million dollars a year.
"Ron refused to support it because it was not good for the people of Las Vegas. I was real proud of him for that and many other times when he put the people's interests ahead of his own."
And Ron has had many occasions to be proud of his dad. He acknowledges that he may be the only person to have been elected mayor of a city and still be known to many residents as "so-and-so's son."
"To this day, I still think of myself as Art's son," said Ron, an executive with Arizona Charlie's hotel-casino since he left office.
"To many people in this town, my dad will always be 'Discount Art,' the man who gave everyone who came into his store a bargain. I was real proud of him when he acquired his store in Wonder World. His motto was to stack it high, sell it cheap and sleep in the street."
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