LAS VEGAS -- Carolyn Goodman, the wife of term-limited Mayor Oscar Goodman, has won the race for mayor.
Goodman beat Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin. The margin never changed as results came in.
Check out full election results
Goodman said her administration will be similar to her husband's who first took office in 1999. This was her first campaign for office.
She gave her victory speech shortly after 9 p.m. She thanked a long list of supporters. She will be sworn into office next month.
Mayor Oscar Goodman said he is pleased voters backed his wife.
"Carolyn is going to lead the City of Las Vegas to places that we never dreamed of being," he said. "She is going to take us to places that we never thought we could get to. She is going to take us to the major leagues. She is going to take us to the next level. She is going to do it with honesty and integrity."
Carolyn Goodman says she wants to bring a professional sports team to Las Vegas. She says she also wants to continue her husband's efforts with downtown redevelopment, the arts and medical tourism.
Giunchigliani says she and Goodman discussed working together in the future. Giunchigliani will remain in her job as county commissioner. She won re-election in November. She discussed the challenge of running against the Goodman name.
"It was huge, because, basically, I was running against a name and incumbent in a different way," she said. "We never let that stop us. It was never about them. It was about the city."
Giunchigliani says she's blessed and is proud she ran what she calls a positive campaign. She thanked her supporters for donating their time and effort. During her campaign, Giunchigliani says she learned a lot about the challenges minorities face in this community.
"The minority communities in this town were absolutely ostracized. When you have to go to Food for Less on Bruce and find the voting area in the produce department, there's something wrong. That's part of what I think the city council and the county commission need to improve," she said.
Giunchigliani wants to see permanent voting sites throughout the valley where everybody has access. When asked if she will run for mayor again, she said she'll focus on her job as a commissioner for now.
Another race was for the contested Las Vegas City Council seat in Ward 3 where Bob Coffin faced Adriana Martinez. Coffin beat Martinez by about 200 votes.
The race became heated when Coffin questioned whether Martinez really lives in the district. Martinez said she had been living with her sick mother, but still maintained a residence in the district.
Coffin was also the target of negative campaigning which claimed he wanted to legalize prostitution and allow brothels in urban areas. He says he trusted his supporters to ignore those allegations.
"We just stuck with the issues," he said. "We plowed ahead knowing that people knew me. People who had been voting for me understood that. They didn't really believe the accusations that were made."
Coffin is considering legal action against Martinez for what he calls "false and defamatory statements."
In Henderson, the race for City Council Ward IV had Sam Bateman beating Mike Mayberry by double digits.
Boulder City, Mesquite North Las Vegas, and Henderson also had several open races. In North Las Vegas, Wade Wagner beat Richard Cherchio by just one vote for the North Las Vegas City Council Ward 4 seat.
