Populist almost takes all

     By Damon Hodge
     View staff writer
      Round One to the outsider.
      On the strength of a populist theme and clean campaigning, controversial lawyer Oscar Goodman nabbed 49 percent of the vote in Tuesday's primary election for Las Vegas mayor, falling 277 votes short of winning the election outright in his political debut.
      The 59-year-old lawyer predicted victory in the June 8 general election over 12-year City Councilman Arnie Adamsen, who earned 29 percent of Tuesday's vote. Goodman said his election would signal an end to the good-old-boy network, of which he says Adamsen belongs.
      "The result of this election is a foregone conclusion," Goodman told hundreds of supporters at his campaign headquarters. "I will become your mayor."
      With all 204 precincts reporting, Goodman had 24,267 votes, or 49 percent of the total, just hundreds of votes shy of the simple majority he needed to be elected outright. Adamsen had 14,395 votes, or 29 percent, and developer Mark Fine was third with 7,968 votes, or 16 percent.
      Goodman developed a reputation for being quirky and quarrelsome in a 30-year career defending mob-type defendants, such as Tony Spilotro and Meyer Lansky, and once publicly questioned the mafia's existence.
      But the lawyer, who played himself in Martin Scorsese's "Casino," framed himself as a populist and champion of the downtrodden for the mayor's race and amassed support among the city's ethnic groups, whom he called his "Rainbow Coalition."
      As promised, he avoided the mudslinging that snared Adamsen and Fine. Fine, whose work includes building the Green Valley area of Henderson and Summerlin in the Northwest, sniped at Adamsen, claiming his Sister Cities program designed to spur business between Las Vegas and the Pacific Rim was a waste of taxpayers money.
      Adamsen said Fine has chosen high-brow projects on the outer rims of the city over inner-city revitalization.
      "I'm not tired, I could easily do this another month," Goodman said of the campaign. "The only thing I feel bad about is not winning outright. These people here deserved a victory tonight. We'll keep on campaigning and keeping it clean. But the next time we meet here, it will be in victory."
      Not so, Adamsen says.
      "We've got Oscar right where we want him," he said shortly after learning he had earned enough votes to force a run-off.
      The veteran councilman said he will target Fine's supporters, among other voters, and continue to stress his qualifications.
      In other races, incumbent City Councilman Michael McDonald coasted to victory in his Ward 1 re-election bid, collecting 7,236 votes, or 63 percent of the total, to defeat one-time councilman Steve Miller. Miller, loser in the 1991 mayor's race to Jan Jones, captured 2,600 votes, or 23 percent of the total.
      Another incumbent, City Councilman Gary Reese, will face Nevada Stupak, son of gaming entrepreneur Bob Stupak, in the June 8 general election for the Ward 3 seat. Reese collected 3,317 votes, or 46 percent, to Stupak's 2,043 votes (28 percent).