Dawn and Jim Gibbons celebrate his victory over Democratic opponent Dina Titus in the race for governor at Red Rock Resort Tuesday night. Photo by John Locher. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dina Titus works her way through the crowd after giving her concession speech Tuesday night at the Democratic election night gathering at Caesars Palace. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Republican Jim Gibbons survived last-minute scandal and a tough year for Republicans to keep the Nevada governorship in Republican hands for four more years after a close battle.

Gibbons, a Reno congressman, was beating Democrat Dina Titus, a state senator, by more than 20,000 votes with most of the vote counted early today. Gibbons had 48 percent of the vote to Titus' 44 percent.

"The voters of Nevada have spoken, and I'm so humbled and so honored to be chosen as your next governor," Gibbons, 61, told a cheering crowd of Republicans at Red Rock Resort around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. "There were times when it (the campaign) reminded me of 'Groundhog Day,' when I thought it would never end."

It was a tense night for Gibbons and Titus, with the first round of statewide returns showing Titus ahead by 2,000 votes. But Gibbons soon took a 300-vote lead that continued to grow as the evening wore on and rural counties' vote totals came in.

On his way to address his supporters, Gibbons told the Review-Journal he felt "magnificent" about his victory.

"It feels just wonderful," he said.

The governor-elect said the controversies of the past weeks would not affect his ability to govern.

"Now that the truth is out, nothing we feel is going to divide us as we move forward," Gibbons said.

Just three weeks before Election Day, Gibbons was hit with an accusation that he assaulted a Las Vegas woman in a parking garage after having drinks with her and others in a local bar-restaurant. Police are still investigating the allegations, but Gibbons has declared vindication after the release of surveillance tapes last week didn't show him in the parking garage in question.

Gibbons also faced a newly surfaced charge that he hired an illegal immigrant household worker in the 1980s and a national news story that implied he took lavish gifts from a friend and campaign contributor in exchange for securing federal contracts for the friend's company.

Gibbons will succeed Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn, who is leaving office after the constitutionally mandated limit of two terms.

Gibbons called Titus, 56, "an admirable opponent."

"I have tremendous respect for Dina, and I look forward to working together, to working together with her team," he said.

But Titus, who said she would stay on as state Senate minority leader, indicated she would continue to consider Gibbons the enemy.

Titus predicted Gibbons will not have an easy tenure as governor.

"We disagree on basic policies, and neither one of us is going to change our minds for the other," Titus said at a Democratic Party gathering at Caesars Palace.

The unresolved scandals will continue to hang over Gibbons, Titus said.

"Tomorrow we rest. Then, the next day, we start to take the state back in 2008."

She said Democrats created a groundswell on Tuesday that they would continue to build on.

"We don't want to lose that momentum," she said.

Titus won Clark County by more than 23,000 votes, but Gibbons won every other county by at least 10 percentage points and some by as many as 50 percentage points.

Titus said she knew that rural counties would make or break her campaign.

"We worked hard in the rural counties, but it didn't make a bit of difference," said Titus, who spent most of Election Day in Reno and Sparks.

The outcome was, in large part, a reflection of partisan voting, she said.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, political scientist David Damore agreed with Titus that her strategy of aggressively campaigning in Democrat-unfriendly rural areas didn't work.

Damore said Gibbons was favored from the beginning to win by 10 percentage points or more, and it was only the last-minute scandals that allowed Titus to draw close.

"Incidents pushed it into the margin of error (in late polls), but he pulled it out," Damore said of Gibbons. "Dina put in the time (in the rural areas), but it didn't pay off. All those Republicans came home at the end."

With perceptions of Titus largely negative, partly a result of Gibbons' ads painting her as too liberal and too biased toward Las Vegas, she couldn't create a positive contrast between herself and her opponent when negative news about him started surfacing, Damore said.

The result may have been that voters didn't want to pick either one, he said, noting that more than 20,000 voters picked "none of these candidates." In addition, more than 6,000, or 1 percent, picked the Green Party candidate, Craig O. Bergland, who had thrown his support behind Titus, and nearly 20,000, or 3 percent, chose the Independent American Party candidate, Christopher H. Hansen.

However, "none of these candidates" was an even more popular option in other races where it was available, including statewide constitutional offices and state Supreme Court races.

Damore said enough people voted for minor-party candidates or no candidate, presumably as a protest, to make a statement about Gibbons and Titus. "What does that tell you about the system, the race, the candidates?" he said.

Despite an election widely described as the most contentious, ugly and negative in history, Gibbons said he hoped to put it behind him and lead from the center.

Gibbons said he wanted to unite Democrats and Republicans during his next four years in office.

"It is essential that we develop a new spirit, a new framework of optimism and determination for the citizens of this state," he said.

"Only in Nevada can you have the American dream. I pledge to you that we will continue that American dream for everyone that is here and everyone that is coming here."

Review-Journal writers Lisa Kim Bach and Alan Maimon contributed to this report.