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Monday, June 27, 2011

Something shady is brewing in North Las Vegas

When North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck's dentist, Wade Wagner, won the Ward 4 City Council race by one vote over the Democrat incumbent, Richard Cherchio, North Las Vegas prepared itself for a recount.

During the Clark County election department's audit, it was discovered that someone voted in the wrong ward. The election might be invalid. Shit got real.

A city council meeting was called. The decision was made by the council to re-do the election in the precinct where the "mis-vote" was cast. Mayor Buck abstained from voting because not only is Wagner her dentist, her husband worked for his campaign. Cherchio also abstained from voting.

As expected, the Wagner campaign is suing over the decision. And for some reason, former North Las Vegas mayor (and failed gubernatorial candidate) Mike Montandan filed a restraining order. But to be quite honest, as a resident of unincorporated Clark County, I didn't care. I don't live in North Las Vegas and I never plan to.

I have nothing against Wagner because I have no idea who he is except that he's a republican. I had no opinion of Cherchio except he had a strike against him for hiring Bradley Mayer, a campaign manager to conservative candidates, including Carolyn Goodman. Mayer was running Carolyn's campaign for mayor of Las Vegas, and I knew not much attention would be given to Cherchio. Cherchio knew from the beginning his reelection was not going to be easy. He was going against the current mayor's personal friend and Cherchio needed a campaign manager who woke up in the morning and went to bed at night thinking about him.

After a conversation with a friend in North Las Vegas who is emotionally invested in this election and is "in the know" when it comes to North Las Vegas politics (disclaimer: said friend works for neither campaign or any political campaign or consulting firm), I suddenly became very interested.

You think the city of Las Vegas has problems? Let me tell you about what's going on in North Las Vegas:

Wade Wagner is Shari Buck's Dentist, and hand-picked candidate for her former City Council seat

The two PACs that sent direct mail pieces attacking Cherchio have never filed Campaign and Expense reports. They have been fined by the Secretary of State and the matter has now been referred to the Attorney General's office. [Delen Goldberg of the Las Vegas Sun with details LINK]

The Precinct with the illegal ballot happens to be that of both Mayor Buck's parents and former NLV Mayor Mike Montandon

An ethics complaint was filed against Cherchio in December by a Jay L. King. King lives on the same street as Mayor Buck, and shortly thereafter was appointed to two City Advisory Boards – the Citizens Advisory Board and the Utility Advisory Board.

On June 15th, when the City Council was slated to canvass the vote, the Mayor chose to abstain from the vote because she donated to the Wagner campaign and her husband worked on the campaign "and was paid". On both of Wagner's C&E reports, Keith Buck, the Mayor's husband, is not listed as a Campaign Expense.

On June 23rd, former Mayor Montandon and Jay King waited until after the filing deadline for Temporary Restraining Orders. As mentioned, Montandon lives in the contested precinct. Initially, Montandon was claiming that he would have been "disenfranchised" by the new election but in fact, he would be super-enfranchised.

Wade Wagner has 9 registered voters in his residence. Six are clearly family, but three have different last names. Does the El Dorado HOA allow that? Might be a zoning violation.


It should be no surprise to anyone that there is now talks of recalling Mayor Buck. How realistic are those threats? We'll see.

--

Laura

2 comments:

  1. For Immediate Release:
    Steve Sanson President of Veterans In Politics International 702 283 8088

    Madness in North Las Vegas Nevada

    Veterans In Politics believes that North Las Vegas is border line of being dysfunctional

    North Las Vegas Nevada: North Las Vegas has a lot to offer to its constituency, but they have been comfortable for far too long. Let’s start out with their voting public 6% of North Las Vegas voters control the vote. Somebody tell us where 94% of their voting population is?
    In this year’s 2011 primary municipal election for the Ward 2 City Council race we had two candidates Tanya Flanagan and Linda Meisenheimer tied for second place with 328 votes. they had to revert to the highest card being drawn to declare a winner to move onto the General Election. Are you kidding me, where are the voters? See the video on Hacking Democracy: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7926958774822130737#

    Now, in the General Election for Ward 4 City Council we have two candidates in the General Election that have a one vote separation to declare a true winner for the race between Councilman Richard Cherchio and Wade Wagner. Later, we found out that one of the precinct casted an illegal vote. Some of our members attended both North Las Vegas City Council meetings regarding the election between the two candidates. It is clear to the City Council that they cannot canvas the vote and a new election would have to take place.

    Questions were asked would that illegal vote tie the election or give a two vote lead to Wade Wagner. With this the City Council made up of William Robinson, Anita Wood, and Robert Eliason unanimously voted for a new election in precinct 4306 where the illegal vote was found. Once the election is over they would add all the votes that affect the Ward 4 race with the new votes casted in precinct 4306, because of this I couldn’t understand why some voter’s were saying that their vote would be disenfranchised. Especially a legal action filed by former North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon. According to Larry Lomax our Voter Register mail in ballots would still be accepted.

    Veterans In Politics have received an e-mail and heard testimony at the North Las Vegas City Council that former Mayor Michael Montandon wanted an $11,000 settlement from the city of North Las Vegas to withdraw his law suit. This is the same person that received benefits, notoriety, and a salary from the city for years. This is the same person that wants money from a city everybody knows that is going through a financial downturn that has laid off its employees. Where is his loyalty to a city that put his name on the map?

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  2. We also witness the current Mayor of North Las Vegas Shari Buck recuse herself from the city council special election meeting, due to having her husband and children as paid workers on Wade Wagner’s campaign the opponent of City Councilman Richard Cherchio. Veterans In Politics was told that Wade Wagner was brought into this race by Mayor Buck. We believe Mayor Buck needs to take lessons from Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and stay out of council races.
    North Las Vegas Mayor Buck a registered Republican has aligned herself with the police and fire fighters unions. Republicans are against unions going back to the Eisenhower era. It is clear that Mayor Buck is the type of politician we warn the public about; self serving and an opportunist not looking out for the people’s best interest, but looking to win the next election.

    That goes the same for Wade Wagner who made it clear on Veterans In Politics endorsement interview that he did not know the budget of North Las Vegas, but he would be willing to raise taxes on his constituency. This is the same individual that has none of his four businesses in North Las Vegas. See interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD2fHaKTsEE
    Veterans In Politics believes the madness and dysfunctionality that is now faced with the North Las Vegas City Council is there budget deficit. The council is now faced with laying off employees. The council is trying to be fair about it by laying off people across the board however the Police Union appears to have a sense of entitlement and feels that they are “God” and should not follow suit with everyone else.

    According to the Police Unions President Michael Yarter, libraries and parks are frivolous spending. We would like to find out if the spending that is done by the Police Unions are frivolous as well, for example attack mailers against Councilman Richard Cherchio and billboards all over North Las Vegas telling criminals that they have a safe haven in North Las Vegas.

    What about unethical behavior that is being conducted by the Police Unions, they have their off duty police officers wearing their “POLICE” shirts knocking on doors and intimidating the people of North Las Vegas to vote for Wade Wagner?

    Has anyone asked why the Police Unions want Wade Wagner so bad? Four words “puppet on a string”.

    For more information:
    http://www.veteransinpolitics.us.com/joomla/

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