Las Vegas mayor who offered to reopen city as coronavirus ‘control group’ faces recall effort

The mayor of Las Vegas who revealed that she offered to reopen the city as a “control group” during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in a jaw-dropping interview on CNN is facing a recall effort.

Professional poker player Doug Polk is leading the effort to recall Mayor Carolyn Goodman.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Mr Polk filed a notice of intent to circulate a recall petition with the city clerk’s office on Wednesday.

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Mr Polk has 90 days to submit a petition signed by 25 per cent of the voters from the 2019 election. This is approximately 6,745 people.

If enough valid signatures are collected by the 4 August deadline, it will trigger a mayoral recall election.

Mayor Goodman tweeted a response to the recall effort, saying that it is Mr Polk’s choice as an American to move forward with the recall.

“Regarding recall effort: This is America. That’s his choice,” she tweeted on Thursday.

Mr Polk replied: “Thanks for the support mayor!”

Explaining his reasons for recalling the mayor, Mr Polk said he doesn’t only want to recall her for wanting to “reopen Las Vegas” in the midst of a pandemic, but also for putting casino owners’ interests above those of the people of the city.

“I don’t want to recall the mayor just because she wants to re-open Las Vegas,” he tweeted.

“She also cares more about the ‘sensitive’ casino owners interests than the people of Las Vegas. Additionally, she was unable to maintain a conversation with functional sentences.”

Ms Goodman’s interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper went viral partly due to her stance on reopening the city and her apparent refusal to link the low number of cases with effective social distancing, and partly due to Mr Cooper’s disbelief and frustration at her answers to his questions.