Clark County Commission candidate has unique advantage: Everyone has heard the name
Source: Las Vegas Sun
Running for political office is a constant battle for name recognition — a challenge that hits first-time candidates especially hard.
But for one candidate vying for a four-year seat on the Clark County Commission, that fight may already be won. His last name graces one of the most iconic buildings in the region: the Thomas & Mack Center.
“I think when you’re a kid, everything’s excitement, so going to Thomas & Mack (Center) and seeing a game, and seeing your name up there or your family name up there didn’t really click,” said Albert Mack, CEO of private equity firm TBD Group and grandson of banker Jerome Mack, who founded Valley Bank and co-founded UNLV. “But for me, my grandfather was my North Star and everything.”
Mack, a Republican, is one of 11 candidates in a crowded race to succeed Commissioner Justin Jones in District F — a sprawling west valley seat stretching from Charleston Boulevard south to Cactus Avenue and encompassing neighborhoods like Chinatown and Southern Highlands. The primary is June 9.
Jerome Mack founded the Bank of Las Vegas in 1954, but 15 years later merged with E. Parry Thomas’ Valley Bank of Nevada to create a new institution of the same name — the first bank to lend money to Las Vegas casinos, helping finance the development of properties such as the Sahara.
In the 1950s, Jerome Mack worked alongside Maude Frazier and Archie Grant to establish Nevada Southern College — the institution that would later become UNLV. In 1967, he and Thomas later launched a land foundation that added 400 acres to the UNLV campus, and together they funded the university’s basketball arena, which was named the Thomas & Mack Center in their honor.
Albert Mack, a fourth-generation Las Vegas resident, said he grew up in a family that took pride in their history and instilled in him the values of hard work and giving back. That ethos, he said, is a driving force behind his run for the commission.
“When I look at the valley, I look at development; I look at business; I look at affordability, and that’s my give back, is to be on a county commission and work for that,” Albert Mack said. “The commission seat is, to me, the most important seat in the state, short of the governor … the commission has a power for everything, and they can push development; they can push land use; they can push small business; they can push public safety, obviously, because they’re in charge of all of it one way or another.”
One of his priorities is “unnecessary spending,” saying he would push for regular reviews of county programs and spending to determine if any need to be fixed, scaled back or ended if they’re not producing meaningful results, he explained.
Mack also criticized the rising prices of housing in the valley, stating that “we’re not keeping up with housing that’s actually attainable for working-class families,” which he believes could be remedied by making “a stronger push” to be more efficient with existing funds.
Public safety is another area that he is passionate about, especially as someone who has served on Metro’s Citizen Review Board that investigates use-of-force incidents. That experience “helped me tremendously in understanding not just what officers go through, but what the public goes through when there’s a shooting,” he said.
He would support policies backing law enforcement and first responders, and improve coordination between county agencies — actions that he believes earned him the endorsement of Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.
There are 11 candidates in the race for the seat, including Nevada Assemblymember Heidi Kasama, R-Las Vegas, and Becky Harris, a former chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Control board and former state senator.
Kasama is running on her conservative legislative record, pointing to her sponsorship of voter ID bills, support for law enforcement and defense of Second Amendment rights in the state. She pledges to oppose tax increases and cut what she calls “bureaucratic barriers that hurt small businesses and families.”
Harris, a law professor at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, said she will push for improved roadways, expanded local infrastructure, greater small business support, stronger education, increased access to career training and “fairness in government.”
Democrat Minddie Lloyd, co-founder of a local domestic violence prevention and antitrafficking nonprofit, is also in the race. She has prior electoral experience, though it ended in defeat — she lost the 2018 Clark County clerk’s race to Lynn Goya, capturing 42% of the vote.
Lloyd has set her sights on lowering the cost of living, promoting safer communities through investments in policing and infrastructure, expanding access to affordable housing and diversifying the local economy through workforce development.
Other candidates include business owner Brian Baron; Lenna Hovanessian, a lawyer who co-drafted Nevada legislation for education on the Holocaust and other genocides, which became law in 2021; real estate agent Justin Lieberknecht; Sebastian Crawford, who described himself on Instagram as “MAGA minus Israel, ICE, and billionaires”; and UNLV alum Minja Yan, who helped develop the Chinatown Redevelopment Plan.
Baron said he’s running a “neighbors first” campaign that puts people over corporations and developers. Hovanessian, an Armenian-American immigrant, wants to “fight for affordability and a better tomorrow for all Nevadans,” prioritizing areas such as affordability, improving health care, increasing public safety and expanding economic opportunities.
Yan wants to expand Clark County’s Department of Economic Development budget to boost opportunities for small businesses; champion the construction of a regional light rail system; improve and expand existing public transit; reform zoning rules and building codes to diversify the housing supply; and bring more health care to underserved communities.
grace.darocha@gmgvegas.com / 702-948-7854 / @gracedarocha