Columnist Jeff German: If Goodman has image problem, it doesn't show

IT'S ALMOST as if Oscar Goodman has been preparing to run for mayor his entire life.

He's certainly having the time of his life. And it's showing as his campaign steamrolls through the election.

Goodman, the criminal defense attorney who has vowed to shake up the Las Vegas establishment, has never attracted such attention in his three decades of representing some of the most notorious mob figures in the country.

Time, Newsweek, "60 Minutes" and the New York Times all are giving Goodman the kind of play he could only dream about in the old days when he was trying to tell the world that murdered Chicago mob kingpin Anthony Spilotro was a boy scout.

Before the race is over, a Harvard professor probably will decide to to do a case study on Goodman's campaign. If Goodman is successful, after all, academia may have to rewrite the political science books.

Goodman has brought star power and pizzazz to a campaign that has captured the hearts of the voters but has made the movers and shakers nervous.

Fears remain that Goodman's career as a mob lawyer will set back the new Wall Street image of Las Vegas. But there were signs last week, after Goodman came within 277 votes of winning the mayor's job outright in the primary, that those concerns are subsiding.

Mark Fine, a developer who finished third in the primary, was quick to endorse Goodman, who has been tough on those in Fine's profession during the race.

Money from casinos on the Strip also started flowing into Goodman's campaign, much to the chagrin of his soft-spoken opponent, City Councilman Arnie Adamsen, who had been the establishment's favorite heading into the primary.

And the big-name consultants who normally are on the same page now are split over the race. Sig Rogich is staying neutral. Kent Oram has joined forces with Goodman. And Billy Vassiliadis is backing Adamsen but insists he doesn't have time to play an active role in Adamsen's campaign because of his lobbying duties at the Legislature.

Some now are writing off Adamsen, an experienced political veteran who has had trouble defining himself amid Goodman's surge with the voters. That could be a mistake.

The differences between the two candidates are profound.

Goodman is flamboyant and radiates personality. But he's never had to follow up on a campaign pledge. Adamsen is steady and knowledgeable about government, but uninspiring. Goodman loves talking to the media and is comfortable in front of a television camera. Adamsen shies from the press.

Though the mild-mannered councilman faces an uphill battle in the next month, he hasn't lost the race yet. Experts say he needs to hit Goodman hard to have any chance of derailing the attorney's momentum. Adamsen has to focus on the worst of the clients Goodman has defended over the years.

If Adamsen can make the darker side of Goodman the issue in the race, he still has a chance to come out on top June 8.

In the next month that dark side may surface as old adversaries of Goodman line up to publicly to take potshots at him.

Last week Joseph Yablonsky, one of the most notorious FBI bosses ever to work in Las Vegas, became the first to speak out. Yablonsky, who headed the FBI here in the early 1980s, wrote an opinion piece from faraway in Florida blasting Goodman.

For those who recall Yablonsky's stormy and sometimes embarrassing tenure here, his words probably were enough to persuade them to vote for Goodman.

But some of his comments rang true.

"The 'boys' in Chicago, Kansas City and elsewhere must be elated about their guy in Vegas," Yablonsky wrote. "They're probably thinking, 'We'll have some political juice there again.' "

Having juice in Las Vegas may be the last thing on the minds of most of the 'boys' in the Midwest these days. They're probably more concerned about keeping their cigarette privileges in federal prison.

Still, Yablonsky's words serve to remind us that Goodman still creates an image problem for Las Vegas -- a problem the city has spent the last two decades trying to erase.

The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, ran an editorial last Thursday on Goodman's primary victory under the headline: "Is Vegas Re-marrying the Mob?"

And so the battle lines have been defined. Is it image or substance that will weigh heaviest on the minds of the voters next month?

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