LAS VEGAS (AP) – Sin City-martini-Swimming, Mayor of limited duration might have found a loophole that would allow him to hang around Las Vegas City Hall a few years.

Banished to a fourth term, announced Wednesday that Oscar Goodman, he will do everything in its power to ensure his wife, Carolyn, succeeded him as mayor.

It was the first self-proclaimed “happiest mayor in the universe” has endorsed a candidate since he entered politics in the city. He said his motivation for the Safeguarding of the mother of his four children was simple.

“Let’s put it this way,” he jested, “I love my dinner.”

As mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman unbuttoned style has attracted national attention and become a symbol of glitter of Sin City and excess. At public events, he often found with a martini and an arm draped around the waist with a covered button Las Vegas showgirl. He worked to revive the once decaying downtown Las Vegas and tried to attract a major sports team with promises of a state of-the-art stadium.

Carolyn Goodman founded a private pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school in Las Vegas in 1984 and ran it until 2009. After her resignation that year, she told the Las Vegas Sun, “The only reason I would even consider running for mayor is if we don’t find someone who is truly going to carry that torch.”

Critics grumble that Carolyn Goodman’s candidacy all but ensures the family’s continued grip over City Hall. Oscar Goodman is, after all, a popular, well-connected former lawyer who garnered 84 percent of the vote in his final re-election bid in 2007.

The couple sat side by side as Carolyn Goodman filed her campaign paperwork Wednesday and a gaggle of reporters watched.

“I said, ‘I thought about it all night long, too, and I am going to do it,’” she said. “He said, ‘You go girl.’”

Oscar Goodman denied that his wife’s mayoral ambitions were born of a need to remain on the public stage.

“We are not in this for the rubber chicken,” he said, alluding to the ubiquitous entree served at so many political dinners.

Carolyn Goodman said she would continue her husband’s goals of growing Las Vegas and would even honor his tradition of carting showgirls to public events.

She summed up her campaign advantage in one word: “huge.” But she also assured voters that she would campaign on her own laurels.

“We share,” she said. “But we each have our own lives and our own brain.”

At least 11 other candidates filed to run, including a handful of representatives from the City and County of close ties with the mayor. The deadline to enter the race is on Friday.

“Oscar was in his 12 years, it is the turn for someone else,” said Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, a former state legislator who intends to file mayoral race on Thursday.

Giunchigliani said the city needs a mayor who will focus on community development and downtown revitalization. If elected, she said she is not traveling with an entourage of Showgirls glitter-speckled.