Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beers got unexpected support from Democrats after his campaign posted a sock puppet ad ridiculing his GOP rival, Jim Gibbons, on the Internet and sent it to supporters, asking whether the campaign should use some of its resources to put the ad on the air. Photo by Isaac Brekken/Review-Journal.
Jim Gibbons' campaign has declined to comment on the GOP gubernatorial candidate's assertion that he used his position as a state legislator to get his job back after being fired by Delta Air Lines in 1989. Photo by Clint Karlsen.
Some of the strangest bedfellows in recent political memory were made last week when the Democrats got behind Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beers. What brought them together, you ask? A sock puppet.
A Beers supporter created a handmade commercial ridiculing Republican primary rival Jim Gibbons for his assertion that he used his position as a state legislator to get his job back after being fired by Delta Air Lines in 1989. The ad depicts Gibbons as a googly-eyed sock puppet who explains to viewers how he supposedly "shook down" the airline.
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The Beers campaign posted the spot on the Internet and sent it to supporters with a note that said, "We'll be the first to admit it's a little over-the-top, frankly, and so we're not sure it should be aired. ... Do you think we should spend some campaign resources to put this on the air?"
The Democrats' answer to that question was a resounding "yes."
"Beers is right on the money ... today," was the headline on an e-mail to Democratic supporters. It linked to the sock-puppet ad and urged party members to tell the Beers campaign to air the ad.
"We all know that Jim Gibbons is dangerously incompetent," the Democratic e-mail said. "We're just glad that many Republicans are starting to realize it, too!"
Beers campaign manager Andy Matthews said the campaign still was "counting the ayes and nays" on whether to air the sock puppet ad.
The Gibbons campaign has declined to comment on the airline incident.
MONORAIL WOES TIED TO GIBSON
Democrats weren't too busy beating up on Gibbons last week to remember to beat up each other.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dina Titus unveiled a new Web site calling attention to primary rival Jim Gibson's work for the Las Vegas Monorail, which on Thursday announced plummeting ridership numbers.
Monorail ridership in the first half of 2006 was down nearly 30 percent compared to the same period in 2005.
"The Las Vegas Monorail already has cost us millions in lost sales and property tax revenues, and ultimately taxpayers could be asked to bail it out," Titus said. "Jim Gibson needs to justify how he can pocket all the money he made while taxpayers were subsidizing a failed project that benefited the mayor and a few of his friends."
The Web site, "Jim Gibson and the Las Vegas Monorail ... Taking You for a Ride," can be found at www.MonorailJim.com. It is the third anti-Gibson Web site the Titus campaign has erected. There's also JimNoDem.com and PaytoPlayWithJim.com.
The monorail site features an animated graphic of a monorail whizzing by, stirring up a flurry of dollar bills in its wake.
Gibson spokesman Adam Candee said Gibson wasn't responsible for the project's woes, which also have included mechanical failures and a year-late opening.
"The monorail was in deep trouble before Gibson ever arrived," Candee said. "He was brought in with the goal of getting it open, and in the time of his service he did exactly that."
GIBBONS REVERSES HIMSELF
GOP gubernatorial candidate Gibbons took some heat last week for reversing his position on whether there should be an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
When the proposal came up in the House of Representatives last week, Gibbons, a congressman representing rural and Northern Nevada, voted for it, even though he had previously said he opposed such a measure.
In 2004, he told the Review-Journal he didn't think a federal amendment was necessary to defend marriage.
After his surprise yes vote last week, Gibbons told the Review-Journal it was because Congress had failed to protect traditional marriage using other means. He said he backed a bill that would have stripped federal courts of jurisdiction on the issue, but it stalled, so he decided to support the constitutional amendment.
"This is the only way to ensure that marriage has the protection it needs from activist federal judges," Gibbons said.
Gibbons was the only representative to vote in favor of the amendment after having voted against a similar previous measure. And commentators on both the left and right criticized him for it.
"Is this the sort of flip-flopping and pandering we can expect from Mr. Gibbons when the heat is on should he be elected as the state's chief executive?" wrote Carson City conservative activist Chuck Muth, who said he believes same-sex marriage is a states' rights issue. "If so, that's not very reassuring to limited government conservatives here in the Silver State."
Hugh Jackson, the liberal blogger behind the Las Vegas Gleaner who usually finds himself in opposition to Muth, agreed.
"Gibbons' capacity to abandon apparently strong beliefs about the U.S. Constitution in such a cavalier manner raises yet again a long-standing question that surely must continue to nag Gibbons' supporters," Jackson wrote. "How are you going to trust him?"
There was, however, one group that applauded Gibbons' vote: the anti-gay marriage bloc. Richard Ziser, chairman of Nevada Concerned Citizens, wrote, "NCC is pleased to see that the congressman now sees the necessity of a marriage amendment."
PRE-ELECTION POLLS
As the Aug. 15 primary election draws nigh, polls are flying fast and furious.
Conservative activist Muth's firm, Citizen Outreach, conducted recent automated telephone polls on both sides of the upcoming gubernatorial primary and found that Gibbons and Titus were the probable nominees.
On the Republican side, Gibbons' lead was shrinking. Gibbons polled 30 percent to Beers' 20 percent while Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt had 14 percent. Thirty-six percent of highly likely Republican primary voters were undecided.
That compares to February, when Citizen Outreach put Gibbons at 33 percent and Beers and Hunt at 13 percent each.
"As of today this race has tightened considerably," Muth said of the new numbers. "The question is whether or not this will be the Beers campaign's high water mark."
As for Hunt, Muth called the results a death knell for her stalled campaign.
Muth's Democratic primary poll put Titus at 35 percent and Gibson at 24 percent, with 41 percent undecided.
Although that was a strong lead for Titus, it was actually smaller than her lead in Muth's February poll, in which Titus had 30 percent to Gibson's 18 percent.
Another recent poll, conducted by SurveyUSA for KVBC-TV, Channel 3, got different results. It put Gibbons well ahead of Beers, 44 percent to 23 percent, with 16 percent for Hunt.
The SurveyUSA poll put Titus and Gibson in a statistical tie -- 42 percent to 39 percent, well within the 5 percentage point margin of error.
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