He said that, once he left the poker realm, he wanted to concentrate on other areas of interest in life outside the game, and he is now doing just that. Former poker professional Doug Polk has started a petition drive against Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman, seeking to have the mayor recalled from office – basically, a vote of “no confidence” that would remove her from office and force her to run again. The effort has drawn a mixture of replies both in support and against his actions.
Goodman “Failed to Represent Her Constituency Responsibly”
In an interview with KTNV Las Vegas, Polk stated that his recall effort was because of her inadequacies in representing the city. Goodman has demonstrated a “clear disregard for public health” in many of her interviews representing the city, Polk stated to the television station. “She is barely able to speak coherent sentences while discussing the subject matter,” Polk said. With that in mind, Polk founded The Committee to Recall Carolyn Goodman and he has set out to make his plan successful.
Under the guidelines for recalling an elected mayor in the city, Polk must first have a petition drive reach 6745 signatures. That is roughly 25% of the total who voted for Goodman in the elections held just last November. The signatures must be documentable residents of Las Vegas and a registered voter who voted in the 2019 elections.
Polk isn’t holding back in this endeavor, either. He’s gone online with a video of why he believes it is necessary to remove Goodman, who is the thrice-elected mayor of Las Vegas (and who succeeded her husband, three-term mayor Oscar Goodman, in the office), and has even created a website to further garner support for his efforts. Polk is also behind a Twitter feed, @RecallGoodman, to get further attention for his cause. The 81-year old Goodman, for her part, is now in the final term she can legally serve as mayor; she will be term-limited out come 2024 during the next municipal election.
There is an even divide behind and against Polk in his efforts. “She sounded ridiculous (and) made Vegas look bad!” one Tweet stated. “I was shocked (by) not only her incredible stupidity and incompetence, but also her lack of tact, sarcastic nature and insensitivity,” another said. One of the opponents of Polk’s efforts Tweeted, “You want to recall the (mayor) because she wants to re-open the economy and let folks work again? That’s not GTO thinking, bro.”
Disastrous Television Interviews Seem to be Catalyst
Polk’s drive for the recall of Goodman seems to have been sparked by several national and international interviews that Goodman gave to news media. In particular was one with journalist Anderson Cooper of CNN at the end of April, where Goodman made several stunning statements about how Las Vegas should be reopened “immediately.” She also at some points in the interview simultaneously volunteered the citizens of Sin City as test subjects (or “a control group” as Goodman put it) to see how the COVID-19 virus could be handled in a post-outbreak world while not taking any responsibility for how the hotels, casinos and restaurants in Las Vegas should go about making this happen safely.
The following is that interview in its entirety, where Goodman arguably isn’t taking the questions as seriously as possibly she should:
With Las Vegas still in a lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Polk is going to have a difficult time in reaching his objective. The petition drive has 90 days to garner the required signatures and, without being able to physically meet with people who are willing to sign the petition, Polk has the deck stacked against him. The clock is ticking and, as of yet, Polk has not given any details as to the status of the petition drive.