Jim Gibbons (American politician)

For other people with similar names, see Jim Gibbons (disambiguation)

Jim Gibbons
28th Governor of Nevada
Incumbent
Assumed office January 1 2007
Lieutenant	Brian Krolicki
Preceded by	Kenny Guinn
Personal details
Born	December 16 1944 Sparks, Nevada
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Dawn Gibbons
Profession	Geologist, attorney, pilot

James Arthur "Jim" Gibbons (born December 16 1944) is the 28th Governor of the U.S. state of Nevada. A Republican, he is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from 1997 to 2006.

Biography

Born in Sparks, Nevada, Gibbons interrupted his studies at the University of Nevada, Reno during the Vietnam War to serve in the United States Air Force (1967-1971). He also attended Southwestern University School of Law, in Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California for post-graduate studies. A graduate of the US Air Force Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College, he joined the Nevada Air National Guard in 1975 and served as its vice commander from 1990 to 1996, participating in the first Gulf War. During his military career, Gibbons earned nineteen service medals, including the Legion of Merit and Distinguished Flying Cross. In civilian life, he has worked as a lawyer in private practice, an airline pilot for both Western Airlines and Delta Air Lines, a hydrologist and a geologist. Gibbons is a Latter-day Saint; his wife is a Presbyterian.

Political career

Gibbons served in the Nevada State Assembly from 1989 to 1993, during which time he was called to active service in the Gulf War as an RF-4C Flight Leader. During the conflict, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his extraordinary achievement while participating in a mission in which he flew his unarmed aircraft on a vital reconnaissance mission to acquire politically sensitive imagery of enemy targets in Kuwait.

Including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Gibbons has received a total of 19 service medals throughout his military service, such as the Legion of Merit, Air Medal with Two Oak Leaf Clusters, Aerial Achievement Medal and Air Force Commendation Medal with One Oak Leaf Cluster.

1994 gubernatorial race

While working as a pilot for Delta Air Lines and serving as an assemblyman in the Nevada House, Gibbons ran for Nevada governor in 1994. As the Republican nominee, he lost to Democrat incumbent Bob Miller, receiving 156,875 votes to Miller's 200,026.

U.S. Congress

He was elected to the House in 1996 for Nevada's 2nd congressional district, and served as vice chairman of the House Resources Committee, as well as on the Armed Services Committee, the Homeland Security Committee, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. His wife, Dawn Gibbons, was elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 1998.

2006 gubernatorial race

Main article: Nevada gubernatorial election, 2006

Gibbons vacated his Congressional seat and ran for Governor of Nevada. He won the August 15 party primary handily, defeating state senator Bob Beers and Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt. In the general election (described as "most contentious, ugly and negative in history" [2]) he faced Democratic nominee Dina Titus, who is the Minority Leader in the Nevada State Senate. Gibbons received 278,984 votes to Titus' 255,675. Titus won Clark County, Nevada's most populous, but was beaten by Gibbons in every other county. Gibbons called Titus "an admirable opponent," although Titus declined to echo his sentiments, saying ""We disagree on basic policies, and neither one of us is going to change our minds for the other." [3] Gibbons mocked Titus in a campaign ad, dubbing her as "Dina Taxes." [4]

Criticism and controversy

Journalist Chris Mooney has criticised Gibbons for using rhetoric in place of sound science to base judgements, particularly in regard to a 2005 report Gibbons produced with Pombo that some saw as underplaying the effects of mercury poisoning.

In November 2005, Gibbons and Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA) co-authored an amendment to the Federal Budget Reconciliation Bill easing restrictions of sale of federal lands to mining companies. This amendment attracted fire from environmentalists, anti-growth advocates, and even some Republican Senators concerned about the measure's effects on hunting and fishing. Although the bill (and amendment) narrowly passed the House, it was defeated by the Senate.

Gibbons stirred controversy in August 2006 when Gibbons was to speak before the Navada legislature, and took it upon himself to invited a young singer and a color guard to preform. Nevada House of Representatives Speaker Richard Perkins refused to allow the singer and a color guard to perform for the gathered lawmakers.

Plagiarism

A speech given in February 2005 by Rep. Gibbons in Elko, Nevada was actually plagiarized from a copyrighted speech delivered in 2003 by then Alabama State Auditor Beth Chapman at a "Stand up America" rally.

Alleged sexual assault and cover up

On October 13, 2006, Gibbons, his political campaign adviser, Sig Rogich, and four women, including a cocktail waitress, Chrissy Mazzeo, were drinking together at McCormick & Schmick's restaurant. Afterwards, Gibbons walked Mazzeo to her truck, parked in a Hughes Center parking garage. At that point, according to reports, "Mazzeo told police that Gibbons grabbed her arms, threw her up against a wall in the parking garage and tried to coerce her into having sex. Gibbons said he merely was helping Mazzeo find her truck when she stumbled just before they entered the garage and he grabbed her arms to break her fall."

Mazzeo went to police and claimed that if there were surveillance tapes for the garage, they would prove her allegations. The next day, police contacted the garage and were told that no tapes existed, whereupon Mazzeo decided to drop the charges. Tapes did exist, however. On October 25 Mazzeo held a press conference in which she claimed that some in Gibbons' camp had pressured her to drop the investigation, and that she would cooperate if the case were re-opened. On that same day, the real estate firm that managed the garage turned the tapes over to the police, and a few days later this became public. At that point, Mazzeo reinstated her complaint and the police resumed their investigation.

On November 3rd, the Associated Press reported that a partial review of the surveillance tapes showed no attack, nor either Gibbons or Mazzeo, during the time in question. Complicating the matter was not only the 11-day loss of "chain of custody", but the many ties that Gibbons has to the various parties involved: the real estate firm is a major supporter of Gibbons and held a fundraiser for him the night before the incident. Rogich, Gibbons' campaign manager and drinking partner that night, was previously a lobbyist for the real estate firm, and has a company that leases offices from the firm. Additionally, Gibbons and the Sheriff investigating the case, Bill Young, share the same lawyer, Don Campbell, and the case was initially heard by District Judge Douglas Herndon, who "owes his seat on the bench in part to Sig Rogich."

On December 28, Clark County District Attorney David Roger announced that there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal charges and that the case was effectively closed.

Hiring of illegal immigrant

On October 25 2006, the Las Vegas CBS affiliate reported that an illegal immigrant from Peru was employed by the Gibbons family as a nanny.[5] The story came to light after the nanny, Martha Pastor-Sandoval, decided to speak out against Gibbons' anti-immigration views.

Federal Contracts to Supporters

On November 1, 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported that Gibbons, as a Representative, had helped a software entrepreneur based in his district, Warren Trepp, to get federal contracts. Trepp's eTreppid Technologies has millions of dollars in classified federal software contracts from the Air Force, U.S. Special Operations Command and the Central Intelligence Agency. Trepp contributed nearly $100,000 to Gibbons' campaign for governor, and hosted Gibbons, his wife, and his son, on a weeklong Caribbean cruise in March 2005, including flying the three on a chartered plane back to Nevada. Gibbons failed to report the trip as a gift on his financial disclosure forms, or to request approval in advance as required by House rules.

Additionally, the Journal reported that according to sworn testimony in a civil lawsuit filed in February 2006 in federal court in Reno, Gibbons also got unreported gifts of cash and casino chips from Trepp. A former employee of Trepp's says Gibbons got about $400,000 in cash and casino chips. Gibbons and Trepp both deny that there were such payments to Gibbons.

Nevada law prohibits individuals or corporations from giving more than $10,000 to a candidate in a single election cycle. Gibbons said the campaign contributions to him, though nearly $100,000, didn't violate Nevada law because they came through different corporate entities owned by Trepp.

On February 15, 2007 the Wall Street Journal followed up with more documents in the Gibbons/eTreppid case including two damning emails:RGJ

March 22, 2005 (Jale Trepp days before a Caribbean cruise with Gibbons)

"Please don’t forget to bring the money you promised Jim and Dawn,”

March 22, 2005 (Warren Trepp within minutes of receiving his wife's email)

"Don’t you ever send this kind of message to me! Erase this message from your computer right now!"

Gibbons continues to deny any wrongdoing while the FBI has confirmed an investigation is underway.

Governor Gibbons is now being investigated by congress for receiving gifts and payments from an executive of a software company that got millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Governorship

Gibbons has created two groups to work on policy regarding the state budget and the K-16 educational system. It is his stated intention not to raise taxes, and to use public dollars efficiently for schools. [6]

On February 15, 2007 the Gibbons/eTreppid scandal came back into the headlines. (See entry in Federal Contract to Supporters)

Quotations

• "Tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals [in Hollywood should]… go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else…. It's just too damn bad we didn't buy them a ticket [to become human shields in Iraq]."
• "Anybody who is against that [corporate-funded inaugural bashes] obviously must be a communist."
• "Look at the movie 'Wag the Dog, I think [the Lewinsky scandal] has all the elements of that movie. Our reaction to the embassy bombings should be based on sound, credible evidence, not a knee-jerk reaction to try to direct public attention away from his (Bill Clinton's) personal problems."
• "... I learned an important lesson, never to offer a helping hand to anybody ever again", following the alleged assault involving Chrissy Mazzeo in October of 2006.[7]
• "I would have loved to have been the committee chairman and when the choice was made to go with Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), of course that disappointed me...but as my mother would say, when one door closes, another opens up", regarding Gibbons' non-selection for chair of the House Intelligence Committee, and the possibility that he could instead run for Governor.

External links

• Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons official state site
• National Governors Association - Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons biography
• Follow the Money - Jim Gibbons 2006 campaign contributions
• On the Issues - Jim Gibbons issue positions and quotes
• Project Vote Smart - Governor James A. 'Jim' Gibbons (NV) profile
• Jim Gibbons for Nevada official campaign site