Goodman only sounds like eager beaver in possible gubernatorial bid

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman declared he'll announce in January whether he'll run for governor in 2010. He sounded like he was champing at the bit to run when talking to NewsOne's Jeff Gillan.

Yet I don't think the Democrat will do it, even though he's wanted to for more than a decade.

Remember, less than three months after he was elected mayor in 1999, he told The New Yorker he might be interested in running for governor in 2002. He toyed with both the U.S. Senate and the governor's race in 2006 before saying no. Now it's 2008, and he's dallying again about running for governor. He wants it; he really, really wants it. But he won't run if he isn't confident he can win. His ego wouldn't survive a defeat.

He says his change of heart is because his wife, Carolyn, is no longer opposed. Her opposition seems to have run out when his options as mayor ran out. "My wife has a lot of confidence in me; she feels I am able to accomplish things that perhaps other people can't," Goodman told Gillan on Nov. 6. "She feels that if I went up there, I would be able to have consensus, collegiality, get everybody talking to one another and try to resolve these horrible problems that face the state."

Goodman's third and final term as mayor ends in 2011. After that he won't be the mayor sandwiched between two showgirls.

Two main reasons I don't think he'll run: Rory Reid and the potential for vicious television ads.

If Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid decides to run -- and he seems to be heading in that direction -- Democrats, including the happiest mayor on Earth, will hesitate before running against the son of the most powerful Democrat in the U.S. Senate.

But even if Rory Reid decides not to run, I suspect Goodman won't actually get into the fray.

Goodman, who loves being loved, hasn't undergone the rigors of months of negative television ads and mail pieces that make you look like an ax murderer. I don't think he'll put his family through the hatefulness and exaggeration of an ugly campaign.

Whatever horrors the Republicans dumped on Democrat Dina Titus in the congressional race, they would quadruple that nastiness if Goodman ran for governor, presuming he became the Democratic nominee.

A mobster may kill you, but ruthless political consultants willing to play hardball don't hesitate to destroy your reputation.

There's no shortage of material out there to provide fodder for negative ads against the former mob lawyer.

I always thought Las Vegas Councilman Arnie Adamsen would have defeated Goodman in that first mayoral race in 1999 if he'd made some ads using footage from the 1998 British documentary "Mob Law." In that documentary -- made with Goodman's cooperation -- there were scenes where he was portrayed as little more than a thug among thugs.

Goodman's own mouth is another rich source. He compounds the stupid things that emerge from his mouth. When a fourth-grader asked him what he would take to a deserted island, Goodman answered "a bottle of gin." No regrets from Goodman. Later, he told a reporter, "What was I going to tell them, a Bible?"

Some of the silly things he's said about the mob would be easy pickings. The New Yorker interview offers plenty of damning quotes, such as Goodman's tale of a mobster riddling someone with bullets while saying, "I love it! I love it!" Not everyone would see it as amusing as he did.

Even his biography, "Of Rats and Men" by Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith, has disturbing quotes from his friend and one-time client U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne about how Goodman went "money crazy" representing the mob.

Goodman has been a better mayor than I expected. His vision for downtown Las Vegas is bold, and today there are high-rises and an art district and a burgeoning entertainment district that didn't exist before he was mayor. Union Park, the 61 acres now under development, will stand as a point of pride for Goodman. If he decided to run, he could point to legitimate accomplishments.

But I doubt he'll run for governor.

So what should Oscar Goodman do to remain in the limelight? Your ideas?

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison/