52,555 registered voters. Council member will serve four-year term. Annual salary is $42,596. Early voting sites and times for Las Vegas Ward 6 City Council general election:
Saturday -- 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monday through Friday - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 28, -- 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday, May 31, through Friday, June 3 -- 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
May 26, Thursday, and May 27, Friday -- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
May 28, Saturday, and May 29, Sunday -- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
May 31, Tuesday, June 1, Wednesday -- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
June 2, Thursday, June 3, and Friday -- 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Candidate Bios
Mary Gillins
Age: 43.
Occupation: Legal assistant and operations manager, the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.
Education: Graduate Bishop Gorman High School.
Endorsements: Metro Police Protective Association; Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs; North Las Vegas Police Officers Association; Regional Council of Carpenters; Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.
Steve Ross
Age: 42.
Occupation: General manager of Keleeco Electric.
Education: Graduate Western High School, also took some courses at University of Nevada at Reno and UNLV.
Endorsements: Las Vegas Firefighters union; Las Vegas City Employees Association; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 357; Plumbers and Pipefitters; Laborers local 872; Southern Nevada Central Labor Council; Associated General Contractors; Nevada State AFL-CIO; United Transportation Union; Teamsters Local 14; Nevada Service Employees Union; Elevator Constructors Local 18; Painters Local 159; Teamsters Local 631; Southern Nevada Building Trades Council; Nevada Concerned Citizens; Citizens for Responsible Government Campaign Web site: www.rossforlasvegas.com.
On a January morning long before either campaign launched a negative attack, the future Las Vegas Ward 6 City Council candidates and their spouses got together for a friendly, although somewhat awkward, breakfast.
They talked mainly about their families and said they would try to avoid mudslinging in the coming campaign.
Mary Gillins had not yet publicly announced as a candidate for the Ward 6 seat, but she said her future opponent told her the meeting was to "try to talk me out of running. But I said, 'absolutely not.' "
Steve Ross, who had just announced a few weeks earlier that he planned to run, said he just wanted to get a feel for his future adversary.
He never said he would try to talk Gillins out of running, "but maybe I should have," Ross said during a recent interview.
The two candidates have similar stands on most city issues -- they both pledge to work on traffic problems and support public safety, to fight to protect Ward 6 residents from unwanted development and manage growth in the fastest growing part of the city.
However, their race has largely been one of attack and response on past personal problems and their stands on taxes -- particularly one that the City Council won't even vote on.
Ross and Gillins expect more attacks from their opponent as voters start heading to the polls Saturday for early voting, which runs through June 3. Election Day is June 7.
From early in the campaign, Ross and Gillins were seen as the frontrunners, with their backing from other elected leaders and campaign bank accounts that dwarfed the rest of the once crowded field.
Ward 6 incumbent Councilman Michael Mack had decided not to seek re-election. He said he wanted to spend more time with his family, but some political insiders say Mack avoided a potentially ugly campaign that would have focused on his past ethics and legal battles.
Mack has since thrown his support behind Gillins, making fundraising calls for her for several weeks, and earlier this week sent a letter to voters asking for donations to her campaign.
Ross said Mack is helping Gillins because a company Mack consults for, Southwest Strategies, is now working on Gillins' campaign. But Mack said his support for Gillins is based on Ross' negative comments about him and because Gillins supports a proposal to raise the sales tax to hire more police. Ross opposes increasing the sales tax.
Even before the primary, Ross and Gillins had essentially singled each other out as their strongest opponent and used mail pieces to go after each other. Ross, at Democrat, accused Gillins of being pro-tax and a pawn of the police union. Gillins, a Republican, works for the police union but has promised to quit and be a full-time councilwoman if elected.
Her husband is a Metro Police officer who works for the intergovernmental affairs division as a lobbyist. Gillins has said she would abstain from Metro-related items that come before the council.
Gillins has also questioned how many votes Ross, an electrical contractor, would have to abstain from. Ross has done some work for the city in the past, which he said he would no longer do if elected. He also promises not to do any work for anyone who has business before the council.
Just before the primary, Gillins mailed a campaign piece to voters on Ross' 1991 arrest for domestic violence -- the charges were later dropped -- and additional allegations of domestic abuse found in the divorce and child custody documents from Ross' divorce.
Ross has said he did hit his ex-wife once. He said he knows it was wrong and has since turned his life around.
Since the primary, both candidates have sent voters strong responses to what they saw as attacks and misrepresentations from the other's campaign. Ross mailed voters a campaign piece that featured a letter from his ex-wife, Traci Ross Stahlman, in which she says the attacks on her ex-husband were "vicious" and "unfair," and pledges her support for Ross.
Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins, a strong supporter of Ross, said it's unfair to repeatedly bring up Ross' troubles from 14 years ago.
On taxes, Gillins' campaign responded to Ross campaign literature that said she supported increases to property and sales taxes.
The Legislature has approved a bill that will limit the increase to homeowners' property tax bills to 3 percent, and 8 percent for businesses. Gillins said she supported the cap on increases, which she said is far different than supporting higher tax bills.
"He's lying to get votes," Gillins said. "I'm not the one who raised the values of our homes."
But Ross said he doesn't see the difference.
"Supporting a cap is the same as supporting a tax increase," Ross said, adding that he has not taken a stand on the property tax issue.
Meanwhile, Gillins is now promising to work to cut the city's property tax rate, although she said she doesn't know what changes she would make to the city budget to afford a tax cut.
"I'm convinced there's waste we can find," Gillins said. She has also called for selling the city's Durango Hills Golf Course, which lost about $150,000 last year, as a way to trim the budget.
But Gillins does support increasing the sales tax to hire more police -- a proposal known as the More Cops Initiative. It is still waiting final approval in the Legislature, but if passed, as expected, the Clark County Commission will make the final decision on whether to adopt the increases, which would be a quarter-percentage point increase in October, with another similar increase possible in 2009.
Ross said the sales tax shouldn't be increased because there is other money available to put toward hiring more police, although he would not say where that money should come from.
During a recent interview, Sheriff Bill Young criticized Ross for his opposition to the proposed tax increase the sheriff is pushing. Young is supporting Gillins in the race and hosted a fundraiser for her earlier this year.
"She has nothing to do with my sales tax initiative. The City Council has nothing to do with it. And he has no solution," Young said.
The issue is also the one that Councilman Mack points to as the main reason he is supporting Gillins.
Ross has also been critical of Mack.
"Anybody can do a better job than Michael Mack," Ross said.
"He has done a good job in some areas," Ross said, adding that Mack has apparently been successful in his efforts to secure land and money for additional parks in Ward 6. "But he has been lacking in others."
Gillins said she is glad to have Mack's support -- "It shows that he has confidence in me."
In the final weeks of the campaign, Gillins and Ross expect each other's campaigns to come out with additional negative propaganda. Gillins expects her opponent will try to tarnish her image by bringing up her multiple marriages -- she is almost three years into her sixth marriage.
"I expect them to use it because I have no criminal history. They're just trying to discredit me, but I've just been married too many times," Gillins said. "What it says about me is that I'm a strong individual."
Ross said he expects more negative campaign pieces focused on his troubles from 14 years ago with his ex-wife.
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