Longtime friends of Shelley Berkley were surprised when the former congresswoman — more than a decade removed from holding elected office after losing a close race for the U.S. Senate — decided to run for Las Vegas mayor.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman was term-limited and the Goodman family’s quarter-century hold on the mayor’s office — which began in 1999 with the election of mob lawyer Oscar Goodman — is ending. Two current Las Vegas City Council members tossed their names into the race and there were 15 candidates by the close of filing.

Initially, former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones Blackhurst thought her longtime friend “had honestly lost her mind.”

But Blackhurst said that notion was fleeting when she considered the knowledge and experience Berkley, 73, would bring to the office.

“Her heart is in public service,” said Blackhurst, who became the first woman to serve as mayor when she held the office for two terms from 1991 to 1999. “I think Shelley wanted one more public service role. When you looked at what's out there, this is the one position where she could have the most impact.”

Berkley spent 14 years — seven two-year terms — representing much of Southern Nevada in Congress. Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District was added in 2003, and much of the area Berkley represented was confined to Las Vegas. 

Tod Story, who served as Berkley’s district director in Las Vegas for all of her 14 years in Congress, wasn’t surprised when she announced her candidacy for mayor in January 2023.

“She will outwork anyone and she will run circles around anyone running against her,” Story said.

Berkley was born in New York City but moved to Las Vegas with her family in the 1960s when she was in junior high school. She graduated in 1972 from UNLV, where she served as student body president, and then graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1976.

In Congress, Berkley’s record included a favorable vote to pass the Affordable Care Act of 2010 — often referred to as Obamacare — and her support in 2009 for a clean-energy bill that passed in the House but never made it out of the Senate. In 2002, Berkley was one of 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In The Indy’s first mayor’s forum in May, Berkley said she regretted the vote.

During her time in Congress, many states began exploring casino expansion. Fellow representatives — Democrats and Republicans — turned to Berkley, who had spent a few years as the vice president of government and legal affairs for Las Vegas Sands Corp., for advice.

“Shelley was the go-to person on gaming,” said former Sen. Richard Bryan (D-NV), whose two terms overlapped with Berkley. 

Blackhurst and Bryan support fellow Democrat Berkley, who is running against Las Vegas Councilwoman Victoria Seaman, the second-place finisher in the June primary election who trailed Berkley by roughly 5,000 votes.

“I believe Shelley is the right person for the job right now,” Blackhurst said. “It’s not just the job of running the city. We need someone in local government who is the thought leader and is speaking to larger issues that impact the valley.”

In an interview with The Nevada Independent, Berkley said she’s running for mayor because of her commitment to public service and her family’s history of coming to America from Russia to escape the Holocaust in the early 1940s. She repeated that statement throughout the campaign and during last week’s mayoral forum presented by The Nevada Independent at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.

“Public service has always been my way of giving back,” said Berkley, who also served a two-year term in the Nevada Assembly and two terms as an elected higher education regent. “My grandparents could have never imagined when they were on that boat and passing the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island that I would be living the life that I'm living. It was unfathomable, I'm sure.”

After retiring in 2023 following nearly nine years of holding leadership roles in the Touro University System and with Touro University Western Division, a private medical school in Henderson, she thought about other ideas to remain involved in the community.

She said it took a few months to consider running for mayor. 

“I didn’t wake up one day and think I should be mayor,” she said.

Berkley consulted her family and friends, all of whom she said were supportive, including her adult sons, Max and Sam, and her husband, physician Larry Lehrner, a kidney specialist.

“I was pregnant with Max when I ran for the Assembly. Sam was born into this,” Berkley said. The idea of “performing public service in my hometown as mayor was a remarkable opportunity. Once I made the decision, it just felt right, and everything fell into place.”

A partisan race

Berkley’s closest campaign for Congress was her first election in 1998 when she won by fewer than 6,000 votes over Republican Don Chairez. Berkley had 49.2 percent of the vote in the field of four that included Libertarian and Independent American Party candidates. 

Two years later, Berkley defeated Republican Jon Porter by more than 17,000 votes, earning a majority of 51.7 percent of votes cast in another four-person race. In her next five elections, she collected between a low of 53.7 percent in 2002 to a high of 67.6 percent in 2008.

Berkley’s political career seemed to end in 2012 when she narrowly lost a race for the U.S. Senate against then-Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV). Her campaign was marred by a House ethics investigation into charges she used her office to benefit her husband’s medical practice. 

An investigative panel for the House Ethics Committee said from April 2008 through December 2010, Berkley’s husband contacted her congressional office to complain about problems his medical practice, Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, had in collecting payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Medicare or Medicaid.

National Republicans and GOP-aligned groups spent millions of dollars questioning Berkley’s character. Heller won the race by a little more than 12,000 votes, or 1.3 percent. The race drew more than 1 million Nevada voters.

After the election, the House Ethics Committee ended the case by adopting the findings of its investigative panel, ruling that although she violated House rules by “running afoul of standards of conduct,” no discipline was necessary because of Berkley’s cooperation. The conclusions also said the Nevada Democrat did not attempt to enrich herself. The committee said her activities “appear to have been motivated by factors wholly divorced from her family’s financial well-being.”

Berkley said at the time the findings “put to rest any claims that I acted improperly in fighting for (my constituents’) health care needs.” In the aftermath of the race, Berkley released a statement wishing Heller well, adding, “He’s got an enormous task ahead of him.”

Heller could not be reached for comment.

Following 2019 legislation that required eight Nevada cities to move municipal elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years starting in 2022, this campaign marks the first time the nonpartisan mayor’s race is on the ballot with partisan contests, such as those for president and the U.S. Senate.

With Seaman having served two years in the Assembly as a Republican lawmaker, and Berkley’s long-standing ties to the Democratic Party, the campaign has taken on a partisan demeanor.

UNLV history professor Michael Green, who closely follows local politics, said party polarization has been a part of municipal elections since the transition to even-numbered years helped change the nature of the races.

“Oran Gragson served four terms as mayor and I don’t think anyone realized he was a Republican,” Green said, noting that Blackhurst twice ran for governor as a Democrat while she was mayor. “It was a lot less polarized back then.”

Steven Slivka, who spent six years working with Berkley at Touro overseeing communications for the school, said she always stressed the importance of bipartisanship when it came to the school’s relationship with the community and the state. 

During legislative sessions, Slivka said Berkley would escort Touro students, faculty and staff to Carson City to meet with state lawmakers from both parties.

He added that Berkley worked with governors from both parties to help ensure Nevada’s budget included funds for more residencies, “which meant more physicians for our growing population.”

Berkley said she is conducting her campaign in a bipartisan effort, reaching out to Democrats and Republicans within the city limits. She said she knows she needs votes from members of both parties as well as nonpartisans and criticized Seaman for making the campaign more Democrat vs. Republican. 

According to the most recent voter registration numbers from the Clark County Election Department, the city of Las Vegas has about 132,000 registered Democrats, about 101,000 Republicans and about 136,000 registered nonpartisans. 

“The more partisan she is, the more that plays to my advantage,” Berkley said. “When a constituent wants a pothole fixed, they don’t care if the mayor is a Democrat or a Republican, they just want their damn pothole fixed, and I’m good at that.”

Berkley cited her efforts in 2006 to secure more than $400 million in federal funding for Southern Nevada’s first Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which was built in North Las Vegas. At the time, Republicans were in control of the White House, Congress and Veterans Affairs.

“I was able to sit down and convince them that we were in desperate need of a hospital for the 200,000 veterans living in Southern Nevada,” Berkley said. “That’s how I operate.”

A downtown medical center

One priority that Berkley said she would like to accomplish as mayor is settling the long-running land-use dispute surrounding the defunct Badlands golf course that could cost taxpayers upward of $450 million to $650 million. That’s one issue where she and Seaman agree. However, they disagree about how to accomplish that.

Other goals include converting the site of the now-closed Grant Sawyer State Office Building into a downtown medical complex with an anchor hospital.  

“I think that would be a game changer for that area, so that would be my preference,” Berkley said. “But if a better suggestion comes along, I'm certainly open to it.” 

She said she would also look forward to working with “an exciting group of young downtown developers” who have ideas to boost the efforts that took place during the past few years to improve the downtown area for tourists and locals.

“They are changing what Las Vegas looks like,” Berkley said. “If you walk around Main Street, there are really good restaurants and some really good shopping. It's just a fun place to be and I will continue to be supportive.”

Earlier this month, Elaine Wynn said she wanted to create a Las Vegas Museum of Art on 1.5 acres in the city’s downtown cultural district. The museum, a partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is expected to cost $150 million and open in 2028.

“Creating a serious art hub that will draw people that are on the Strip is an extraordinary idea,” Berkley said. “I want to promote that and do everything I can to encourage it.”

‘Las Vegas is a different city’

According to data from AdImpact, Berkley has reserved $445,000 in television advertising for her election. Seaman has yet to book any television advertising. Berkley said she has the endorsements of council members Brian Knudsen, Olivia Díaz and Nancy Brune.

According to the campaign contribution and expense reports, as of June 30, Berkley has raised nearly $518,000 while Seaman raised about $412,000. Berkley’s campaign is being managed by longtime Las Vegas advertising executive Tom Letizia, who handled the campaigns for both Goodmans. 

Las Vegas City Councilman Cedric Crear, who finished third in the primary with almost 19 percent, has not endorsed either Berkley or Seaman. Council member Francis Allen-Palenske has not made an endorsement, and neither has either Goodman.

“What the Goodmans have done well in the city I hope to maintain and build upon it,” Berkley said. “Las Vegas is a different city than it was 25 years ago when Oscar took control. It would probably be different when my term ends.”