Ex-Mob Attorney Wins Big in Vegas Mayoral Election

Oscar Goodman, a flamboyant attorney who gained fame defending mobsters such as Tony “the Ant” Spilotro and Meyer Lansky, was elected mayor of Las Vegas on Tuesday in a landslide.

The victory over Arnie Adamsen, a veteran city councilman, completed Goodman’s transformation from mob mouthpiece into a populist figure promising to solve some of the burgeoning city’s growth problems.

With 166 of 204 precincts reporting, Goodman had 27,807 votes, or 64.4%, to Adamsen’s 15,405 votes, or 35.6%.

“I want to make things happen overnight,” Goodman said. “Unlike other people, I’m impatient.”

Adamsen sought to make his opponent’s past a campaign issue, but voters seemed more interested in Goodman’s personality and his promises to make developers pay to fix roads and combat pollution.

His legal work for mobsters “was always a nonissue with me. I love my past,” Goodman said. “I don’t apologize for one day in my life.”

Before voting ended, Adamsen conceded that the election might not be close. “You pray for the best, but you prepare for the worst,” he said.

Goodman came within 277 votes of winning outright against eight others in the May 4 primary. He ran a near-perfect race with bluster and bravado, in contrast to Adamsen, who prided himself on attending to more mundane matters, like crossing guards and stop signs.

“I’m colorful. That’s what got me in the limelight,” said Goodman, who played himself as an attorney in the movie “Casino.” “But I honestly believe I’m going to be the best mayor Las Vegas ever had.”

Goodman, 59, entered the race seemingly on a lark, with $160,000 of his own money and not much more than a relentless drive to succeed--plus, some say, an ego to match. He ended his campaign with money pouring in from casinos that jumped on his bandwagon after the primary. In contrast, Adamsen saw his donations dry up after the May vote.

The defeated candidate, who spent 12 years on the City Council and was the favorite when the mayoral race began, held out hope until the end that a grass-roots effort to get out the vote might make a difference. But his theme that Goodman would be dangerous for the city’s image didn’t take hold, with 69% saying in a poll last week that the victor’s mob lawyer background would not hurt Las Vegas’ standing.