Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JIM GIBBONS: Lawmaker gave job to radio reporter

Reno journalist received $8,000 for consulting work last year

Jim Gibbons Consultant conducted post-election analysis for congressman

Rep. Jim Gibbons paid a veteran TV reporter $8,000 for consulting last year while she worked as a freelance reporter for a Reno radio station, according to campaign finance reports.

A Federal Election Commission report filed by Gibbons, R-Nev., lists the payment to Andrea Engleman on Nov. 30, 2004, just weeks after she had been fired as co-host of the television news program Nevada Newsmakers. At the time the contract was in effect, she said, she was compiling reports for KOH-AM, 780 in Reno.

Gibbons' spokeswoman, Amy Spanbauer, said Engleman was hired to conduct post-election analysis for the congressman.

"It was our understanding that she was not contracting with any media at the time," Spanbauer said.

Spanbauer said Engleman performed the work in December and has not done any work since. However, she said, future consulting work is a possibility.

"It depends on what she does with her career," Spanbauer said.

Engleman, the former director of the Nevada Press Association, said the consulting work proposal was made by Gibbons' wife, Dawn Gibbons, a former Republican state assemblywoman.

Shortly after her Nov. 9, 2004, firing from Nevada Newsmakers, Engleman said, she and Dawn Gibbons met for a previously scheduled lunch.

"Dawn talked to me at the end of November and wanted to know how I was going to get through Christmas," Engleman said. "Frankly, they did it more to help me. They asked me to do some research."

Engleman, 64, declined to specify the type of research she did for the congressman, saying only that the contract was for December only.

Dawn Gibbons did not respond to a message left for her.

Engleman said she didn't sever all reporting ties when she took the consulting job. She said she was working as a freelance reporter for KOH at the time and that she cleared her consulting work with her contacts at the station.

Station news director Dave Marz referred calls to general manager Dana Johnson, who could not be reached Monday.

KOH is one of more than 200 stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting in 24 states. The Reno station has a talk format featuring conservative voices Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly.

Gibbons has formed an exploratory committee to run for governor next year, and Dawn Gibbons has stated she will probably seek her husband's congressional seat at that time.

Engleman has held other political jobs over the years, working briefly in Democratic Gov. Richard Bryan's administration in 1984 and serving as public information officer for Republican Secretary of State Dean Heller in 1998.

She is somewhat of a fixture in Northern Nevada journalism, having worked at KOLO-TV and KRNT-TV in Reno over the past decade. She worked for the press association from 1983 to 1984 and again from 1985 to 1995, lobbying the Legislature on a host of media issues.

The consulting work comes just days after state Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, and Sunbelt Communications severed a contract which had paid the senator $3,000 a month to provide news consulting to KVBC-TV, Channel 3 in Las Vegas. Sunbelt, which is owned by interim University and Community College System President Jim Rogers, also owns KRNT-TV in Reno and airs Nevada Newsmakers on both stations.

Engleman said Newsmakers host Sam Shad fired her Nov. 9, expressing concern the on-air pair were not getting along well enough.

Shad, whose company produces the show, confirmed Engleman's firing, but he declined to disclose the circumstances surrounding it.

Engleman, a Carson City resident, continues to cover legislative issues and was at the Legislative Building last month for Gibbons' speech to lawmakers. She covered the controversy that arose that day when the state Republican Party objected to Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins' decision to bar a 12-year-old girl from singing as part of Gibbons' speech.

"I collected information on the controversy with the 12-year-old girl (for KOH)," Engleman said.

Perkins, D-Henderson, is also planning a bid for governor next year.

Engleman said she sees nothing wrong with the consulting work she did and noted that other journalists have dabbled in political work over the years.

"Clearly, clearly, there are reporters that go back and forth, and there is the potential for conflicts," Engleman said.

She said that during last year's impeachment trial of Controller Kathy Augustine she was complimentary of Perkins.

"I thought that Richard Perkins did an outstanding job during the impeachment, which I reported," Engleman said.

Democratic Party spokesman Jon Summers, a former television reporter, questioned Gibbons' hiring of Engleman.

"It looks like a page taken right out of the Bush playbook trying to buy positive coverage in the media," Summers said.

National controversy has arisen over three columnists paid by the Bush administration to tout its policies.