GOP holds on to Nevada governorship

The final weeks of his ultimately successful campaign for Nevada governor were a nightmare for Republican Jim Gibbons, a five-time congressman and former combat pilot who said he’d never seen anything like it in his nearly 20 years of politics.

His troubles began last month on Friday the 13th, when a cocktail waitress he had drinks with told police he propositioned and assaulted her in a parking garage just off the Las Vegas Strip.

“I’ve been in politics nearly 20 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a race for governor, lieutenant governor or any office as hard as this one was, with almost every day filled with such negativity,” Gibbons said Wednesday.

“I just put my faith and trust in the voters of Nevada. I believed they would be able to see through all the nonsense and they did.”

Gibbons was declared the winner early Wednesday over Democrat Dina Titus -- keeping the governor’s post in GOP hands on a night a Democratic tide was rolling across the country.

Republicans also kept the governorship in Alaska -- where Sarah Palin, who unseated unpopular Republican Gov. Frank H. Murkowski in the GOP primary, defeated Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles and independent Andrew Halcro.

But Democrats took 20 of 36 governors’ races to give them a majority of top state jobs -- 28 -- for the first time in a dozen years. Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio went into the Democratic column.

Democrats also gained a decisive edge in state legislatures, taking control of several and solidifying their hold on others. With the wins, they will be in a better position to shape state policy agendas and will play a key role in drawing congressional districts.

Gibbons ended up carrying 48% of the vote to Titus’ 44%, with 100% of the vote counted early Wednesday.

The only member of the U.S. House to have served in both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, Gibbons had been the odds-on favorite to succeed Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn in the state that Bush carried twice after President Clinton had done the same earlier.

But Gibbons saw his lead in the polls shrink last month after a 32-year-old woman accused him of propositioning and assaulting her after a night of drinking at a restaurant off the Strip. The case is under investigation by Las Vegas police.

Though Titus largely avoided the issue, the scandal dominated the final three weeks of the campaign along with revelations that Gibbons and his wife had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny and reports that the he had done favors for a defense contractor, who was a friend and heavy campaign contributor.

“The hardest part of that is all of those distractions, watching your family and friends have to listen to this time and time again and knowing the truth was on my side,” Gibbons said. “It was as if I was guilty until proven innocent.

“It made for a very long three weeks,” he said. “I will forever be grateful to the loyalty of my family and supporters standing with me.”

Gibbons said he would review polling numbers and other research to see how many votes the accusations cost him.

“But for now, it’s time to heal Nevada, put behind us all the negativity and move forward with a positive agenda,” he said.

“I’m hoping maybe in the next election we can instill some of the Boy Scout motto and all those good things a Boy Scout stands for, like trustworthiness and honor.”

Titus said Wednesday that she was eager to return to her job as state Senate minority leader, noting that Democrats had picked up a legislative seat to cut the GOP majority to 11 to 10.

“This new governor may not find it quite as easy to push some of his agenda,” Titus said.

“I’ve conceded the race to him. I called and congratulated him,” she said.

“But I’m not conceding the state. I still have an agenda, and I’m going to work for it very aggressively.”