Former state lawmakers Beers, Allen-Palenske vying for Las Vegas council seat
Public safety would be a top priority for both candidates trying to re-enter public life by running for the city of Las Vegas City Council seat being vacated by term-limited Councilman Stavros Anthony, who represents Ward 4 in the west valley.
Bob Beers, a former assemblyman, state senator and candidate for state treasurer, formerly served on the City Council from a different ward. Francis Allen-Palenske is a former two-term Nevada assemblywoman.
They’re seeking to replace Anthony, who is running for lieutenant governor.
“About two-thirds, three-quarters of what the city of Las Vegas does is public safety, so clearly that has to be a very high priority,” Beers said. “And it will continue to be for me as it was before.”
Allen-Palenske’s late father was a police officer, and her husband and son-in-law are city firefighters.
“I eat, drink, breathe these issues at my dinner table every evening,” she said, touting endorsement from law enforcement, including Clark County Sheriff-elect Kevin McMahill. “The people that we trust to keep us safe, they trust me.”
Beers and Allen-Palenske came out ahead in a four-candidate June primary, obtaining about 37 percent and 28 percent of the vote, respectively.
Allen-Palenske raised about $160,000 in 2022, loaning her own campaign more than $30,400, according to secretary of state records. She had about $70,000 on hand. In the same time period, Beers raised about $130,000 and had roughly $7,000 left.
Another run at local government
Beers represented Las Vegas’ Ward 2 from 2011 to 2016 but lost his re-election bid in a race centered on the yearslong dispute over development of the defunct Badlands golf club.
Going through with the litigation will end up costing taxpayers tens of millions more dollars than the proposed $64 million settlement that recently collapsed, and that sort of “inattention can bite city taxpayers in the a—,” Beers said.
“I think I can bring a resolution,” Beers said. “But more importantly, I can stop the city council from taking other people’s stuff.”
Beers noted that while November’s election, on the state and national levels, will center on polarizing issues, City Hall’s role is more practical “make sure that you have clean water in and dirty water out,” garbage services, adequate streets and budgets.
“The City Council is much more about boots and wheels on the ground that we live and walk on every day,” the long-time certified public accountant said. “I have a long history of bringing together taxpayers and the government they fund, and that experience, that history is what I bring to the table.”
Legislature experience
Allen-Palenske became the first Asian American elected into the Nevada Assembly in 2004. She lost her second re-election bid around the time she was accused of stabbing her then-husband in the arm in 2008. She’s since been open about the experience.
“I lost my reelection and with it, my dream of serving Nevada’s people,” she wrote on her campaign’s website.
Since then, she remarried, gave birth and grew a successful Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop franchise.
But in the years that she’s been out of office, “I watched things deteriorate,” she said. In the dispute with the Badlands developer, she said she would do her “best to clean it up,” noting that “everyone involved has lost.”
She cited the water shortage, homelessness and depleting first responder numbers as other top priorities and would like to see home ownership be more attainable for more Las Vegas residents.
Her experience at the legislature make her the “more credible candidate,” she said. “Bringing that to City Hall is the best that I offer.”
The City Council is nonpartisan, and that’s how she would approach every issue she said, adding “I want to do what I can to ensure that there are real tangible results. And I think when you get wrapped up in the partisanship, you don’t see real results in the end.
Beers and Allen-Palenske share a bit of Nevada political trivia; when he was elected to the state Senate in 2004, Allen-Palenske was the candidate elected to represent his old Assembly District 4 seat.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.
An earlier version of this story misstated the time period in which candidates has raised money. Fundraising totals were for January through June of 2022. The story also misstated when the legal fight over the Badlands golf course began.