Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Six questions:

Newcomer to politics says Las Vegas should be run as a business would be

Victor Chaltiel was largely unknown before he filed to run for mayor.

Television commercials — “Victor for Las Vegas” — and public appearances have changed that. Now he’s considered a contender because of his substantial financial resources.

Born in Tunisia, Chaltiel grew up poor in France but excelled in school. He attended a prestigious Paris university before coming to the United States 38 years ago to attend Harvard Business School.

He has lived in Las Vegas with his wife, Toni, for 14 years. Their three children were born here.

Chaltiel climbed the corporate ladder at Baxter International, a medical product and service company, then ran several Fortune 500 health care companies. He now heads a venture capital fund and is founder and chairman of HealthDataInsights Inc., which specializes in reducing health care costs by fighting fraud and waste.

Why get involved in politics?

It’s my last big mitzvah (good deed) in my life. I’m not looking for personal gain. I want to give back. I want to create jobs.

Vegas was exciting, it was good. Now today, it is very different. You can’t have the same approach you had five years ago — drinking gin to promote Vegas. The situation is dramatic, so we need a serious businessman. Different times need different candidates. It is the current economic situation that makes me feel that I have to do something to help. I have created thousands of jobs in my career. Las Vegas needs something like this.

When did you decide to run for mayor?

When we started preparing for the bar mitzvah of my son in September, I said, “Thank God, here is something nice, we are happy and we have everything that we need in this life.” I felt I need to do something else. People said, “C’mon Victor. With your accent, you can’t be mayor of Las Vegas.”

But then I started hearing questions from people I respect, who said, “Tell me, Victor, did your accent over the past 38 years prevent you from being successful in this country?”

I said, “never.”

They said, “Well, you have the answer.”

What would you do to create jobs and improve Las Vegas’ economy?

Las Vegas should be the most business-friendly city in the universe. Low taxes aren’t enough. It is everything else. Las Vegas unfortunately has become bloated with red tape and regulations. You’ve got to be helpful instead of saying, “I don’t know, come back.” We’ve got to be known as a state where innovation is welcome, where we’ll help businesses and do everything we can to make their move here easy and profitable.

You have to talk CEO to CEO. Executives make decisions. They don’t want to talk to people who are just politicians making promises. They want to talk to businessmen who understand what they need.

Your company HealthDataInsights was named to Inc. magazine’s top 500 companies two years in a row. It’s growing in employment and revenue while other companies are closing their doors. Why?

Taking care of customers. We have to have the same mentality in our city. Las Vegans and the businesses of Las Vegas are the customers of our city.

The day I become mayor, I will meet with every single city employee — unionized, not unionized. They’ve all got to understand they’ve got one job: helping the people of Las Vegas and helping the businesses of Las Vegas.

How much of your money are you spending on this race? Do you think a financial advantage can overcome your lack of name recognition and political experience?

I can’t answer how much money I will invest. Yes, I’m financially independent, but I’m not part of the superelite of this city. I am far from it. Yes, I was totally unknown, but by now I think everyone knows Victor. You’ve seen the ads.

If you have an advantage, and you don’t use it, you don’t have an advantage. This is true for individuals, for cities, for states, for nations. When you use your advantage, you get rewards.

This is your first run for office. Is there anything that has surprised you about campaigning?

Everybody will say anything. It’s stupendous. For instance, everyone is against red tape. But who created it to start with? Where did it come from? It’s city-level, county-level red tape. They have been 10 years on the other side of creating the bureaucracy and suddenly they’ve got religion. They’ve converted.

I don’t blame them, everybody wants to be elected. But the difference with me is I’m not looking for a job. I want to create jobs.

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