Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Buck, Robinson advance to general election for North Las Vegas mayor

NLV Municipal Primary

Justin M. Bowen

North Las Vegas mayoral candidate Shari Buck keeps tabs on election results Tuesday.

Updated Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | 12:46 a.m.

NLV Mayoral Candidates

North Las Vegas mayoral candidate Shari Buck, her husband, Keith, and their dog, Benny, wait for results in the municipal primary election Tuesday at their home. Launch slideshow »

North Las Vegas City Council members Shari Buck and Will Robinson will face-off in the general election for mayor of North Las Vegas after emerging as the top vote-getters in Tuesday’s municipal primary.

Buck received 2,737 votes, or 30.63 percent of the total number cast, while Robinson, the mayor pro tem, was right behind her with 2,702 votes for 30.24 percent.

Because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers advance to the general election on June 2.

“I’m extremely happy to have had the support of voters in the primary and their confidence in me and their confidence in my plan to help the city in this tough economy,” Buck said.

Of the other three candidates, council member Stephanie Smith had 1,915 votes for 21.43 percent, followed by Ned Thomas with 1,432 votes for 16.03 percent and John 3:16 Cook with 149 votes for 1.67 percent.

All three City Council members who ran for mayor are serving their final terms on the council because of term limits.

The winner will replace North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon, who could not run again because of term limits and has announced a run for governor.

The new mayor will take office on July 1 and serve a four-year term.

Now that Buck knows who she will face in the general election, she said, not much will change in her campaign strategy.

“We’ll still work as hard or harder and I have a lot more voters to contact,” she said.

Robinson could not be reached for comment.

Buck has served on the City Council since 1999. She also serves on the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, is vice-chairwoman of the North Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency and chairwoman of the Southern Nevada Water Authority Board.

She favors zoning casinos near Interstate 15 and away from neighborhoods, diversifying the city’s economy, including luring solar energy and other green jobs, and using the mayor’s bully pulpit with the School District to improve schools.

Faced with a troubled economy, the city will need to add businesses to balance out the losses in tax and development revenues, Buck said.

“While we’re cutting out nonessential services, I need to be bringing jobs in and bringing revenue into the city,” she said. “We have a huge amount of industrial land still available, and I think that’s the key to bring some of the industrial jobs in from other states where taxes are too high and government is too burdensome.”

Robinson has been on the council since 1983, making him the longest-serving elected official in Southern Nevada currently seated. He said the city should hold off on its plans for a new city hall and wastewater treatment facility until the economy improves.

He is a member of the Work Force Investment Board, the Board of the Southern Nevada District Board of Health, the Criminal Justice Advisory Commission and is chairman of the North Las Vegas Housing Authority Board of Directors. He is also a board member of the North Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency and an alternate for the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition.

Robinson retired from the Clark County School District, where he worked as a counselor.

The combined voter turnout for the five Clark County cities holding primaries on Tuesday was 48,855 or 10.42 percent. The Clark County Election Department did not report turnout by city.

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