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Councilman leads in North Las Vegas fundraising
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Incumbent North Las Vegas Councilman Richard Cherchio is leading all of the city's other candidates in fundraising this year.
The councilman, who is campaigning to keep the Ward 4 seat he was appointed to in 2009, raised $79,289 during the first reporting period, which ran from Jan. 1 to March 24.
The total "speaks to the rapport he (Cherchio) has built with the community since he's been in office," said Bradley Mayer, Cherchio's campaign manager.
Cherchio's biggest contributors included Station Casinos properties Aliante and Texas, which gave $5,000 each. The Committee to Elect Anita Wood also gave $5,000. Wood is a North Las Vegas councilwoman.
Cherchio, who spent $95,864 on his campaign during the period, is in a battle with the city's public safety unions, who have been campaigning against him. The councilman butted heads with union leaders during contract concession talks and voted in favor of cuts to public safety. The city's police and firefighters unions have endorsed Wade Wagner, one of Cherchio's two opponents.
More than half of the $55,514 raised by Wagner in the period came from Las Vegas Valley public safety unions, including $10,000 each from the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association and the North Las Vegas Firefighters Local 1607 PAC.
Wagner, a dentist, spent $44,714.
Mayer said Wagner's contributions show he is "completely owned" by the unions.
"I would say voters should question just how independent Wagner's going to be," he said.
But Wagner insisted that if elected, he will be beholden to no one but "the taxpayers of North Las Vegas."
"That's exactly what I've told everybody who has given a penny to my campaign," he said.
He also said he is proud to have the support of the unions.
"The No. 1 function of government is public safety," he said. "People and businesses won't come here if they don't feel 100 percent safe."
The third candidate in the race, Goldie Pitchford, raised no money during the period.
In the Ward 2 race, the son of term-limited Councilman William Robinson raised the most money in a field of seven candidates. William Robinson II reported $46,650 in contributions.
Next was Pamela Goynes-Brown, daughter of Theron Goynes, who spent 20 years on the council. Pamela Goynes-Brown raised $15,335.
Tanya Flanagan raised $13,679, and Linda Meisenheimer raised $10,215. The remaining three candidates, Carl Gatson, Anthony D. Snowden and John Stephens III raised a little more than $4,000 combined.
The four women competing to become North Las Vegas' first female Municipal Court judge raised a combined $54,555. Catherine Ramsey had the most contributions at $30,075. Donishia Campbell raised $13,320, Marsha Kimble-Simms raised $10,020 and Laurie Diefenbach raised $1,140.
Early voting ends today , and the primary election is Tuesday . In races in which no candidate wins a majority, the top two finishers move on to the June 7 general election.
North Las Vegas City Council members serve four-year terms and earn $41,827 a year. Municipal judges in the city serve six-year terms and earn $148,438 a year.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.
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vto please I ask you again give the voters of NLV the evidence you have of illegal gotten gains by Mr. Cherchio. We need to vote for the correct candidate, we need to see for ourselves that a crime has been committed. You say Mr. Cherchio has mob connections don't you think Law Enforcement should be made aware of this. You should have let Mayor Buck know about this before she voted to let Mr. Cherchio finish her term. Why would a NLV citizen allow this. Why.
Richard Cherchio is a retired postman who according to him had a salary of $32,000 when he retired. Somehow he was able to purchase an $814,000 luxury condo and 3 houses in NLV.
He claims to have "invested" his money wisely. I doubt anyone but his close friends believe that line of bull.
vto like yourself I also attend all city council meetings. You know as well as I do because you attend all council meetings that last year when the city was begging for wage concessions from the Unions that the question of how many NLV Union members lived in NLV was asked, the answer was less than 10%. Maybe you were to angry that day and didn't here it. You know only an angry person would suggest that someone has Mob affiliations and is for sale. Thank God we all have cooler heads than that. Please answer one question vto haven't all council members in the past been paid and won't all council members in the future be paid. I guess everyone else being paid is ok just not Mr. Cherchio. I have a request, if you have access to information that can prove wrongdoing by Mr. Cherchio why would you not provide it to all NLV voters and allow them to see his miss deeds. NLV voters deserve all the information they can get, then the right candidate can be elected. Please give us access to the facts.
Attention NLV taxpayers!! Richard Cherchio's combined salary and benefits is over $75,000 a year for a part time position.
His salary is $41,827, car allowance $500 a month, PERS retirement $18,000 a year, health insurance, vision and dental $1000 a month, and city charge account.
He is only required to attend 2 city council meetings a month which usually last 90 minutes.
Are you ready for this? Richard Cherchios hourly rate is $1500 an hour!!
Cherchio is up for sale. Just get in line and have your checkbook ready. You have to compete with the casinos and republic services though and they have deep pockets.
Not sure where you intelligent fellas are getting your information about where the NLV police and fireman live since that information isnt available to the public and for good reason. With angry people like you its a good idea to keep their addresses private.
I wouldnt expect anything less from the angry Cherchio supporters.
Stations Casinos in NLV, Republic Services in NLV, Boyd Gaming in NLV. All major employers and tax payers in NLV. Public Safety Union members with less than 10% living in NLV, smearing one candidate with misinformation and lies allowing them to control another candidate when its contract time. They don't own homes in NLV, don't pay taxes in NLV, don't send their kids to schools in NLV, don't shop in NLV, don't go to church in NLV. What they do in NLV should be restricted to their excellent job of Policing and Fire fighting and not electing city officials.
Stations also donated to Wagner, and accounted for roughly 20% of what he raised, where they accounted for roughly 10% of what Cherchio raised. But don't let facts get it the way of a good comment. But the unions donated more than 50% of Wagners total...which doesn't take into account the massive amount they've been spending on their independent expendature smear campaign. All told, they probably spent 70-80% of the money supporting Wagner in this race. But he would never be beholden to them, right? He's beholden to the taxpayers, who he will raise taxes on to preserve the fire union salaries that average north of $150,000 a year. Make sense yet? Follow the money.
Sounds like Wagner is owned by cops & firefighters who don't even live in NLV. Not my idea of anyone I would want to represent me!
Cherchio just received $10,000 from Republic Services, $10,000 from Station Casinos, and $3,000 from Boyd Gaming.
Nice to see the Casinos are finally starting to report their contributions to the mob.