Fine to throw weight behind Oscar Goodman

Mark Fine, who finished third in the primary race for Las Vegas mayor, was to endorse Oscar Goodman today.

Fine, a developer and businessman who garnered 16 percent of the vote in the primary, planned an afternoon news conference to throw his support for the June 8 general election to the criminal defense attorney who has threatened to shake up the Las Vegas establishment.

"He considers him the most viable candidate, an outsider who can bring a new perspective to City hall," a source close to Fine said this morning.

Fine is endorsing Goodman after expressing his concerns to the outspoken lawyer about his tough stance against developers, sources said.

Goodman's opponent in the general election, City Councilman Arnie Adamsen, has said he will attempt to win over Fine's supporters, whom he believes are more inclined to back his candidacy, even if Fine opted to join Goodman's camp.

Adamsen said he remained confident that he can make up enough ground and upset Goodman on June 8 because of his strong union support and the large number of scads of voters who didn't pick either man in Tuesday's primary.

"You start a whole new campaign, you widen the base and you discuss specific answers to specific issues," Adamsen said, discounting the difference of 20 percentage points between Goodman's win and his second-place finish.

Adamsen cites the 1987 mayoral election when Ron Lurie lost to Bob Stupak in the primary but later won the general election and similar campaign feats by City Councilmen Michael McDonald in 1995 and Larry Brown in 1997.

But Goodman won't hear anything of it, vowing to continue shaking hands and shaking up the political establishment.

"We have another month of fun ahead of us," a hoarse Goodman said Wednesday after spending much of the preceding night shouting to supporters.

Goodman spent Wednesday afternoon making a thank-you television spot, expected to air this weekend, and said he feels a "moral commitment" to the supporters who have donated their time and money.

"There is a sense of, even though we're essentially at 50 percent, that we can keep on climbing," Goodman's campaign manager Mark Fierro said. "You think about the polls that were out (before the primary) and we moved 12, 13 points in a week."

Fierro said Goodman got much of his support from older, established residents and from typical Western-attitude voters who don't like the notion of big government.

Although Goodman's populist message seemed to catch on in the mayoral race, voters seemed fine with the incumbents for both City Council seats.

Michael McDonald won easy re-election to Ward 1, while Gary Reese received 45 percent of votes in Ward 3 and has a 30-to-1 fund-raising edge over his general election opponent, Nevada Stupak.

Some believe voters were attracted to Goodman's ebullient personality and celebrity status -- something that Jan Laverty Jones also brought to the mayor's seat.

Will Adamsen, noted for having a bland personality, hold up to the challenge?

"There is going to be no more wide-ranging campaign rhetoric," Adamsen said. "It's all issues."

A television blitz by both Adamsen and Goodman is expected in the next 35 days as both try to woo those who did not vote in the primary and the 10,425 primary voters who didn't cast ballots for either of them.

Developer Mark Fine got 7,968 of those, and the other six candidates split the remaining 2,457 votes.

Adamsen said his polls consider Fine's support base to be made of "traditional" voters -- the type he claims won't cast ballots for Goodman.

"We're going to have to work hard to get them to come over to our side," Adamsen said.

Fine, however, said he would be more apt to endorse Goodman than Adamsen.

Adamsen stands to lose the most if he is not elected mayor because a city ordinance requires that he resign from the City Council after the general election.

Already Adamsen said he is planning to discuss traffic signals, bus systems, the planned Beltway and monorail proposals. Those issues will be the focus of his television campaign, for which fund-raising began anew Wednesday.

"Today was very good, in parentheses," Adamsen said. "The very is in parentheses. We're going to raise what we need."

Although Goodman said his primary win has helped his fund-raising efforts, he said that if elected mayor, "I am going to champion campaign reform because it's unfair to have campaigns cost what they do."

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