Backstory: What we should recall about recalls

By Michael Green

Only one-quarter of Ward 1's registered voters voted on Councilwoman Janet Moncrief's recall. She lost big to Lois Tarkanian, a former three-term School Board member who benefited from name recognition in an older area of the valley. Vicki Quinn, who did a great deal to mount the recall effort, finished third, just behind Moncrief.

Is the outcome that simple? No. History never is that simple. Let's count the ways:

• Moncrief's past. When Moncrief ran in 2003, rumors abounded that she was a tool of Bob Stupak, who built the Stratosphere Tower. The campaign role of his sometime friend, sometime foe Steve Miller, a one-time city councilman whose picture appears in the dictionary as the definition of gadfly, did nothing to diminish the rumors. After Moncrief won, Miller and another campaign official charged that she failed to deliver the goods to them--namely, city jobs. They testified before the grand jury that indicted her on charges of corruption within her campaign. If the charges are true, that's bad. If they're not, that's bad, because they demonstrate she was too naive to hold office.

• Corruption vs. effectiveness. Weariness with corruption helped Moncrief beat two-term incumbent Michael McDonald, who similarly benefited when he unseated Frank Hawkins, all of which begs the question of what's in the water in Ward 1. McDonald's ethical boat often seemed to be sinking, but he knew how to fix a pothole. Voters finally tired of the complaints and investigations involving McDonald.

Moncrief proved less effective than McDonald at serving constituent needs. Voters traditionally forgive politicians for questionable, even dumb votes if they tend to business: Walter Baring won 10 terms as Nevada's lone congressman despite breaking with his party and accomplishing little for the state because he tended to Nevadans' needs for a shoulder to cry on, an ear to yell into and seeds for farmers and gardeners to plant during growing season.

• Recalls. States added recalls to their constitutions a century ago during the Progressive Era. Voters had tired of politicians too corrupt or incompetent to do their jobs but too close to special interests to be driven out of office. The recall system allowed voters to collect signatures to throw the bums out.

But recalls rarely serve their intended purpose. Consider Tarkanian: She has some familiarity with recalls. Her husband, Jerry, coached UNLV's basketball team for 19 years, garnering a national championship. He left under pressure related to his players' misbehavior, dubious recruiting and constant abuse and scrutiny by the NCAA.

Many blamed Tarkanian's departure on then-UNLV President Bob Maxson. While he greatly improved UNLV, his administration gave an under-the-table contract to Tarkanian's successor and taped an illegal basketball practice with a hidden camera, not to mention engaging in some budgetary gymnastics. In the early 1990s, the Maxson-Tarkanian battle was equivalent to how George W. Bush framed the war on terrorism: You're for us or against us. But Bush is willing to get along with terrorist countries; Maxson and Tarkanian supporters weren't that easy.

The university Board of Regents split over the issue. Two Maxson supporters, Joe Foley and Carolyn Sparks, faced recall attempts, led mainly by Tarkanian supporters upset that anyone could think a university has some purpose other than fielding a basketball team. Not only did their efforts fail, but investigations found that some of those who signed the petitions had last voted in the presidential election of 1840 or thereabouts.

This time the recall worked in Tarkanian's favor, but not for her opponent, Quinn, perhaps partly because a substantial portion of her campaign funds came from Station Casinos. The reason for recalls in the first place was to enable voters to put asunder what big money and power had joined together.

• The process. Southern Nevada's most successful recall ousted three of the North Las Vegas City Council's five members in 1976 when they refused to approve more money for local police. We never can pay police enough--I learned that from my grandfather, who spent 20 years in the NYPD pulling mayors out of the gutter and beating confessions out of suspects--but the North Las Vegas Police applied, shall we say, pressure.

In the 1990s, when ethics charges dogged County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, she faced a recall attempt that received significant help from Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson, who claimed to have been a victim of her tactics. Whatever the merits of the case, Adelson's long record of hating Democrats (she is one) and unions (they support her), and the racial overtones and undertones of some of her opposition, weren't exactly what the framers of recalls had in mind.

That isn't meant to criticize Quinn, who felt strongly about Moncrief, or Station, which is entitled to spend its money. But voters in Ward 1 decided their elected representative wasn't cutting it, removed her and installed someone from whom they expect better. That may be the biggest shock of all: Sometimes, the process works.