Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Las Vegas to hold special election to fill vacant council seat

Las Vegas City Council Additions

L.E. Baskow

Newly sworn in Ward 2 Councilman Steven G. Seroka with the Las Vegas City Council participates in his first vote on Wednesday, July 19, 2017.

The next Ward 2 City Councilor in Las Vegas will be chosen through a special election on June 11, coinciding with the general municipal election in the city, the Las Vegas City Council decided Wednesday.

The seat in Ward 2 has been vacant since March 5, when former city councilor Steve Seroka resigned abruptly. The council was required to either propose a special election or appoint a caretaker to fill the empty seat within 30 days of Seroka’s resignation.

The council unanimously supported holding a special election in June, rather than at an earlier date. This will reduce confusion among voters and increase the filing period for interested candidates, said City Clerk LuAnn Holmes.

It also means that there won’t be a primary election for the ward, and that Ward 2 will be without a representative for the next four months, as the new representative will be sworn in this July.

Interested candidates can file with the City Clerk’s Office starting Monday and through March 28. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Because the special election will take place on the same day as a general election, it will come as no additional cost to the city, Holmes said.

Two candidates have announced their intention to run for the seat: former republican state assemblywoman Victoria Seaman and former republican state assemblywoman Valerie Weber.

Seaman previously led an unsuccessful effort to recall Seroka in December, on the basis of his role in a fight over the vacant former Badlands Golf Course and his support for an open-space ordinance that critics said limits development. Weber ran for Nevada Senate District 8 last year, but lost to Senator Marilyn Dondero Loop. 

This isn’t the first time that the city council favored a special election over the appointment of a caretaker when a ward became vacant. Last March, Cedric Crear was elected by special election following the resignation of former council member Ricki Barlow.