Embattled governor has piloted state during its deepest recession
Editor's note: This is the last in a series of profiles on candidates in the Republican gubernatorial primary.
On Jan. 27, 1991, Lt. Col. Jim Gibbons volunteered to pilot an unarmed RF-4 jet over enemy territory and take photos that would help Americans stop the flow of oil Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was intentionally dumping in the Persian Gulf.
Without fighter escorts, Gibbons, a reservist with the Nevada Air National Guard, and onboard systems operator Maj. John Fuller hoped to avoid enemy fire by maintaining a high altitude, but smoke from oil wells Saddam had set ablaze blocked any view of the spills.
The two could have returned to the U.S. Air Force base in Bahrain, but Gibbons had other ideas. Despite enemy fire, they would descend to an altitude of about 500 feet and, flying at about 550-620 miles per hour, try to get below the smoke.
With Gibbons in control, they evaded gunfire and two surface-to-air missiles and got photos that pinpointed the location of the gushing oil.
Still, that mission, earning Gibbons and Fuller the Distinguished Flying Cross, isn't what Gibbons calls the most difficult job he's ever had.
That would be his current position: governor of Nevada.
Since taking office during an unprecedented and controversial midnight inauguration on Jan. 1, 2007, Gibbons has piloted Nevada during its deepest recession and drawn fire from allegations of marital infidelity, incompetence and perceived political gaffes.
Less than 20 percent of the state's voters view him favorably, virtually every major donor to his 2006 campaign has defected, and a former federal judge holds an 18-point lead over Gibbons in the latest statewide poll.
Unless Gibbons can heroically drop below the billowing smoke one more time, he will become Nevada's first incumbent governor to lose a primary re-election bid.
Robert Olmer, Gibbons' former campaign manager who was fired in December after making an indelicate remark about Gibbons' estranged first lady, Dawn, says he doesn't know how the governor got up in the morning and handled his problems.
"But he did," Olmer maintains. "This is certainly one of the most embattled governorships and very complicated."
That may be an understatement.
But the first question veteran political analysts and blogging geeks must answer is this: How much of the damage the Gibbons aircraft has sustained was the result of pilot error, and how much was caused by economic and political forces that engulfed Nevada?
Opponents can make a case for the former, but defenders say that the complete breakdown of the global, national and state economies would have taken down any governor.
Nevada government is predominantly reliant on taxes from gambling, the sale of consumer goods and growth in development. All three revenue sources were battered and made it inevitable the state wouldn't have enough money to fulfill voters' expectations.
"I'm not sure anybody could really solve budget problems like that and really come out with a really high approval rating," says Josh Hicks, who from 2007-09 served Gibbons as legal counsel, deputy chief of staff and chief of staff.
"It was bad, and every time we hoped it wouldn't get any worse, it would continue to get worse."
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Not in dispute about Gibbons, 65, are his impressive résumé and solid Nevada credentials.
The Sparks native graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in geology and earned a master's in mining and geology there in 1973. Six years later, he received a law degree from Southwestern University Law School in Los Angeles.
In addition to distinguished service in Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, the Nevada Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, Gibbons has worked as a commercial airline pilot, hydrologist and geologist. He served three terms in the state Legislature and five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Gibbons married his first wife, Toy, in 1966 and the couple had two children before divorcing in 1982. He and his second wife, Dawn, married in 1986 and had a son, Jimmy, in 1987. A bitter 2008 divorce action has yet to be finalized. Gibbons has four grandchildren.
In 2006, he gave up a safe seat in Congress to win the governorship over then-legislator and now-U.S Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.
But even without the tanking economy, Gibbons' governorship took on the tenor of a soap opera.
■ A cocktail waitress said on Oct. 13, 2006, that Gibbons tried to force himself on her in the parking garage of a Las Vegas bar and grill. No charges were filed and Gibbons maintains his innocence, but a civil suit is pending, resulting in numerous embarrassing leaks, many unsubstantiated.
■ A Nov. 1, 2006, article in the Wall Street Journal included allegations that Gibbons, nearing the end of a fifth term in the House, traded money for favors for a defense contractor. The issue lingered until November 2008 when Gibbons was cleared of any wrongdoing.
■ The midnight swearing-in ceremony, which Gibbons said was necessary to maintain continuity of government. Critics said it was a slap at outgoing Gov. Kenny Guinn to block his appointments from taking effect.
■ Multiple public sightings of the governor with women, which revived affair allegations made in the divorce action by Dawn. Gibbons said the women were merely friends.
■ A campaign news release earlier this month that referenced atrocities in Nazi Germany while criticizing Sandoval.
Retired state archivist Guy Rocha says that Gibbons' astoundingly low favorable ratings -- which dipped into the single digits and lately are below 20 percent statewide --reflect an electorate weary of the embattled administration:
"They just say too much distraction here, not enough business."
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While acknowledging the strain of the divorce, Gibbons insists it hasn't distracted him from his duties.
"It does not affect my ability to be governor," he says. "How many people get divorced in this great state who have a job? Does it affect their ability to be a policeman? Does it affect their ability to be an airline pilot? Does it affect their ability to be the CEO of a corporation? I doubt it."
He evidences this by citing what he calls his main achievements:
■ A Renewable Energy Transmission Access Advisory Committee, which will streamline development of solar, wind and geothermal power by coordinating efforts between private companies and state government.
■ Education reform that includes an initiative requiring the Legislature to fund education before other programs; a reform proposal that would eliminate laws requiring collective bargaining agreements between school districts and workers; elimination of a class-size-reduction mandate; and a voucher system so parents could choose private schools for their kids.
Topping that list, of course, is his ongoing fight against taxes.
The most contentious battle in the anti-tax war occurred in 2009, when Gibbons issued a record 41 vetoes in an unsuccessful effort to stave off tax increases of about $1 billion.
Earlier this year Gibbons worked more closely with the Legislature to close an estimated $800 million budget gap, mostly with cuts, transfers and one-time fees as opposed to taxes.
He is proud of his record: "I think this has been a remarkably successful three years."
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Coverage of the divorce, his wife's allegations of infidelity and other incidents have, however, been an ongoing source of frustration for Gibbons.
He bristles at suggestions he is to blame for the barrage of stories that appear to have soured some voters on a second term: "That is, I think, totally unfair. They are judging me on something that is untrue, but reported and published in the media."
That assertion to the contrary, people who know him and have worked in government say when a leader's personal life plays out in headlines and on television, it does distract staff.
"If Jim and Dawn Gibbons were still married and there weren't some of the personal issues he has had to deal with, Brian Sandoval would still be a federal judge to this day," says Robert Uithoven, Gibbons' former adviser, who was on board for the 2006 campaign but passed over for a job in the administration.
"Of course it is a distraction. I don't fault Brian Sandoval for thinking he could be a much better general election (candidate). All the polls prove Brian Sandoval is a much more electable Republican."
Still, Uithoven says it is telling that Sandoval's campaign is adopting positions similar to Gibbons on blocking tax increases and reducing government spending.
"(Gibbons) is not being challenged by his own party on policy matters," Uithoven says.
Former Gov. Bob List, now a Republican national committeeman, says personal distractions and Gibbons' private and solitary nature undermined his administration from the start.
List, the last Nevada governor to lose a re-election bid, says Gibbons' staff never seemed able to communicate a message that could rise above the chatter about the governor's personal life.
"He is ultimately accountable for that. There is no question about that. The buck stops on his desk," List says. "The governor has to conceive of ideas and push them through the Legislature. And then he has to execute on them."
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Although Gibbons' supporters are quick to blame outside forces for undermining his administration's effectiveness, the governor also has alienated himself from key insiders who now support Sandoval.
The defectors share a common complaint: Gibbons was unwilling to heed advice and hewed so tightly to his broad, anti-tax philosophy that he overlooked opportunities to compromise for the good of the state.
"Until you learn how to come to a solution to a problem and not just stay on your high horse and say 'no', I don't know that you can be effective," says Norm Dianda, president of Q&D Construction in Sparks.
A major contributor to Gibbons' 2006 campaign, Dianda parted ways with Gibbons during the 2009 legislative session. The governor vetoed a measure to use increased gasoline taxes to improve Washoe County roads.
Washoe voters already had approved a bipartisan advisory measure, which Dianda says Gibbons promised to sign.
"That's when I said bullshit," Dianda says. "You tell me something, I take your word for it. I don't appreciate being turned around."
The Legislature ultimately overrode the veto and enacted the bill.
"If it wasn't for some of that work, there would be a lot more people unemployed than there are now," says Dianda, who supports Sandoval.
Longtime Republican strategist Sig Rogich also has split with the governor. Rogich, who helped Gibbons raise $6 million in 2006, says Gibbons wasn't interested in advice that could have helped his administration get off to a smoother start.
"I just thought he needed to make changes," Rogich says. "I was speaking for a lot of people supporting him."
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The women with whom Gibbons has been linked romantically all say the same thing: They are just friends. Gibbons concurs.
Dawn Gibbons says otherwise, but short of pictures of the governor hugging (or comforting) a former Playboy model, attending a performance of one Reno woman's child or hundreds of texts with that same woman -- Kathy Karrasch -- one incident has recently drawn much attention.
In February, Gibbons arrived at the Reno airport on a flight with Karrasch. They were returning from a governors' conference in Washington, D.C., at which Karrasch had accompanied him to a social event.
Confronted by a Las Vegas television news reporter, Gibbons denied Karrasch was with him, despite video evidence to the contrary.
The on-camera confrontation shifted the public's attention from discussion about the tough policy choices facing the governor and Legislature to the gossip surrounding Gibbons' personal life.
Robin Reedy, Gibbons' deputy chief of staff, said the governor should have told the truth about Karrasch joining him for the trip.
"Clearly, there is no doubt about it the airport episode was a mistake in my mind and it was disappointing," Reedy said.
Reedy was adamant that Karrasch didn't travel on the state's dime and that Gibbons has the right to travel with whom he pleases.
Reedy says coverage of the incident, like coverage of much of the governor's tenure, highlighted the salacious at the expense of substance.
In a May first-person article Karrasch penned for a Reno newspaper, she described a platonic relationship with Gibbons and called the first lady "an opportunistic bitch." Her article came five months after Dawn talked about her disintegrating marriage to Gibbons in a Reno lifestyle magazine and accused him of affairs with Karrasch and two other women.
Although Karrasch says she and the governor aren't in contact, even estranged, she describes him as an earnest and gentlemanly friend: "He really is the last standing Boy Scout that I know of."
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Despite the hail of unrelenting criticism, Gibbons has managed to maintain the loyalty of a disparate band of supporters. Their common theme is that Gibbons sticks to his guns, wants smaller government and opposes special interests.
Somewhat curiously, former campaign manager Olmer is among them.
In December, he responded to a question about the governor's divorce and referred to first-lady duties as "window dressing."
Gibbons fired him. Olmer maintains the remark was taken out of context but doesn't blame Gibbons for the decision.
Olmer was with Gibbons throughout 2009, a brutal fundraising period for the governor as he ended the year with just $35,000 on hand.
He is bemused by the public's apparent rejection of Gibbons because, he says, the governor kept his campaign promises to fight against taxes.
In many ways, Olmer says Gibbons is a model public servant: "He is not a rich guy. Most people in public positions that he has had leverage themselves into being wealthy people. I've never seen him do anything remotely crooked. Ironically, in many ways he is one of the last honest politicians out there."
Accurate characterization or not, polls so far show the majority of voters aren't buying it.
Longtime Gibbons' friend and current campaign manager Maj. Gen. Ron Bath is a Democrat with no political experience but who served with Gibbons in the Persian Gulf.
Gibbons likes Bath's experience as a former strategic planner in the Defense Department and his loyalty as a friend.
"What is a campaign?" Gibbons asks. "It is a battle for the hearts and minds of the people. ... When you look at this idea you have to be some kind of political guru to run a campaign, I think it is a misperception that is out there."
The lack of funds and political experience on team Gibbons, however, has produced more distractions for a campaign that doesn't need them.
Most notable was a news release that sought to attack Sandoval for comments he made in 2002 during a conversation with a columnist about the attorney general's role in enforcing the law.
The columnist challenged an assertion by Sandoval, then running for attorney general, that the job entailed enforcing the law in any circumstance.
He asked Sandoval if that meant even if the law required Jews to sew a yellow star on their clothing.
"It's my job to enforce it," Sandoval replied.
Gibbons' campaign dredged up the quote and used it for the basis of a scathing news release that said, in part, "Sandoval would promote ethnic bias and anti-Semitism, justifying this by saying that he would just be doing his 'job to enforce it.'"
The effect, rather than hurting Sandoval, was more criticism of Gibbons for the over-the-top rhetoric.
Bath says he didn't write it but takes the blame for what he calls "obviously not the best move."
Like some others close to the governor, Bath's loyalty comes from witnessing Gibbons in some form of battle -- personal, political or military.
But Bath can't explain why Gibbons' leadership skills in battle haven't won more support for his gubernatorial tenure: "I don't know what it is that isn't translating. He didn't waffle. I think that is a classic thing a leader needs."
Bath recalled the 1991 reconnaissance mission.
"He volunteered for that mission ... not knowing what he was going to get into," Bath says. "What I still see in Jim Gibbons is a guy who is willing to make the tough calls."
Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.
