Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman

Las Vegas has a new mayor today, well sort of.  Carolyn Goodman takes over the job that her husband Oscar Goodman held for the past 12 years.  His self proclaimed legacy of being the “happiest mayor in America” fueled by his gin drinking and showgirl entourage caused some Las Vegans to scoff while others thought he was a brilliant PR man for the city.  With those perks what man wouldn’t be happy?

The new mayor is seen as a little more low key than her husband, but maybe as equally unqualified.  These facts did not deter the voters who gave her a 61% victory over her opponent last June.  Carolyn has done some wonderful things for Las Vegas on her own. One of her biggest accomplishments is founding Nevada’s first nonprofit, nonsectarian, coeducational, pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade college preparatory school, The Meadows School. However, Goodman will have to face strong challenges from a city that is still in the thick of the recession with a 12% unemployment rate and more than 80% of its homeowners with mortgages underwater.

Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman

As for the former mayor, opinions vary about his tenure.  Many Las Vegans thought he did a great job promoting the city becoming the best salesman for the brand “Las Vegas”. During his 12 years in office Las Vegans got used to seeing him at nearly every event the city offered from the most mundane to those with national exposure. He was certainly the most visible mayor this city has seen in a long time. He never really acted like a politician, he was more like an ambassador to Las Vegas, but no one can deny that he loves this city.  He fought tirelessly for revitalizing the downtown area and campaigned doggedly for a professional, national sports team for the city.  But still, many had a hard time forgiving his career as mob attorney and didn’t see him as being worthy of the title of mayor.

So an era is over, but Oscar Goodman will not go quietly into retirement. He has been offered a job with the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority and he will go on to promote the city he loves while drinking gin in the company of beautiful showgirls.  What a life!

Some interesting facts on our former mayor:

• Oscar Goodman is the 20th mayor of Las Vegas
• His time in office was June 8, 1999- July 5, 2011
• In 2002, he became a spokesman for Bombay Sapphire Gin
• He was known as the Mob Mouthpiece during his career as a defense attorney he spent 35 years defending notorious U.S. crime figures, including, Meyer Lansky, Anthony “Tony The Ant” Spilotro and Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal (The last two were portrayed under different names, in the film Casino starring Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro).
• In 2004 Goodman renews calls to sue the NFL over the league’s refusal to air Las Vegas advertising during the Super Bowl.
  
• Early in 2010 Goodman chastised President Obama for making the statement “when times are tough you don’t go blow a bunch of cash in Vegas.”  He saw this as an attack on the city’s number one industry, gaming.