The Saga of Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons

Former Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons had a very interesting term as Nevada's 28th governor from 2007-2011
In terms of his qualifications, Mr. Gibbons 100% shined. He was a popular Nevada native who grew up in Sparks. He was a war hero, having flown combat missions during the 1990 Gulf War with Iraq. Mr. Gibbons had received the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying a reconnaissance mission above Kuwait and the Iraqi military forces in a unarmed military photo recon aircraft. During his military career, Gibbons had earned nineteen service medals, including the Legion of Merit. In his civilian career he had worked as a attorney,an airline pilot for Western Airlines and Delta Air Lines,as a hydrologist, and as a geologist.
Mr. Gibbons had served as a state assemblyman, and as a U.S. congressman for eight years. On the personal side, the governor was also a very distinguished looking man.
If you were casting a movie and needed a "governor" type actor-look no further than Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons. He had the look,and he certainly had a assertive "I am in charge" attitude. He was certainly smart, too.
So what went wrong while Jim Gibbons was Nevada governor?

Well, personally and politically, almost everything. Never a man to keep his conservative opinions quiet, Mr. Gibbons also believed any and every tax is a bad tax, and he also firmly believed the Nevada State system was wasting many millions of taxpayer dollars. As Governor, Mr. Gibbons said he would never approve a tax increase, and had almost every state department on the Gibbons budget chopping block.
He bragged often about his special "veto pen"-made for him to cut every tax dollar that was being "wasted".
Mr. Gibbons had defeated his Democratic opponent Dina Titus pretty handily, so perhaps he thought he had a mandate to do whatever he wanted.

The whole term as governor started off on the wrong foot.
For some reason, Mr. Gibbons apparently did not see eye to eye with Nevada's popular outgoing Republican governor, the late Kenny Guinn. Instead of waiting for his daytime formal swearing in to office, Mr. Gibbons was sworn in at home at midnight on the first day of his term. That early midnight surprise ceremony upset Governor Guinn, and he expressed his strong displeasure of Mr. Gibbons' act privately to others.

That night Mr. Gibbons first resigned his House seat on New Year's Eve, and then was quickly sworn in as governor just after midnight, early on New Year's Day. The swearing in ceremony in private was a highly unusual event in Nevada history. Many politicos think Gibbons did this early only in order to undo a late term appointment by Governor Guinn.

Marriage Issues?
An early personal issue was soon Governor Gibbon's seemingly solid marriage.
The governor was married for over 20 years to a popular local Reno businesswoman named Dawn Gibbons, who also had served in the legislature. She had been named Reno Business and Professional Woman of the Year, and had served as a Washoe County Airport Authority trustee. Mrs. Gibbons was also on the Board of the Children’s Cabinet, The Habitat for Humanity, and the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority. She was very active in the areas of suicide prevention and meth addiction. Her father had committed suicide, and his death was her motivation in trying to make
mental health care important.
Almost immediately after he was sworn in,rumblings were heard around Carson City the Gibbons marriage was in trouble.
Mrs. Gibbons later said in an interview she had caught her husband talking to another woman, a doctor's wife in the garage in the Governor's mansion.
Soon it came to light the Governor had texted the doctor's wife 860 times in one month-on a state cell phone-and he claimed that he and the woman-the doctor's wife-were "just friends"

There was the pre election news that an attractive Las Vegas woman, a 32 year old cocktail server at the Bellagio Hotel casino named Chrissy Mazzeo, had came forward with disturbing news. She said Mr. Gibbons had made inappropriate sexual advances and comments to her. She claimed Mr. Gibbons had even grabbed her by the wrist in a Las Vegas parking garage near the restaurant where they had dined with others. The woman filed a police report with Las Vegas Metro.
Then Ms. Mazzeo withdrew her police complaint, citing Gibbon's "power"
The security video from the parking garage that evening could not be found.
Mr. Gibbons claimed he was helping Chrissy Mazzeo to her car. Both admitted to drinking at McCormick and Schmick's restaurant that day
in Las Vegas. On little else they agreed.
Miss Mazzeo alleged that Gibbons put his hand on her knee, and then followed her to the parking garage where he grabbed her and
ordered her not to resist.
None of that reported incident happened, according to Mr. Gibbons. He said he was walking Mazzeo to her car, and held her arm when she tripped and almost fell.
By 2009, the alleged victim had filed a civil suit against Mr. Gibbons,
and other in his political circle, claiming battery, false imprisonment, and second-degree kidnapping, She also claimed Gibbon's deceit about the whole episode. The Mazzeo lawsuit was finally settled in July 2013 for $50,000.
The Gibbons legal defense cited the high court costs of a trial as the reason for a legal settlement.

Dawn Gibbons had plenty to say, but initially strongly supported her husband in these personal matters.
Mrs. Gibbons was no dummy. She had done plenty in her own career, was very bright and was a bit suspicious of Gibbon's "just friends" stories.
Their marriage apparently got worse, and finally Mr. Gibbons filed for divorce. In the unsealed Washoe Court hearings, Mr. Gibbons said on court record regarding being in the same room with Mrs. Gibbons:
"It was once said in another context that being in close quarters with such a volatile person was like being locked in a phone booth with an enraged ferret"

Here is Mrs. Gibbon's 12/2009 interview from the RGJ by Siobhan McAndrew :

archive.rgj.com/article/20091203/NEWS/912030369/Dawn-Gibbons-story-Nevada-s-first-lady-talks-about-her-divorce-humiliation-fears-future

Marital issues? That was their personal life. Many people go through those issues-let's say most people. But Mr. Gibbons had some big political issues, too.

Plagiarism?
A speech given in February 2005 by Congressman Gibbons in rural Elko, Nevada? The Gibbons speech was plagiarized from a talk given in 2003 by former Alabama Auditor Beth Chapman at a "Stand up America" rally.
Why would the governor steal someone else's speech?

Illegal Immigrant Employee?
Mr. and Mrs Gibbons had employed an illegal immigrant for five years as a housekeeper.The woman, Patricia Pastor Sandoval, says she worked for the Gibbons' for many years and the Gibbons family occasionally made her hide in the basement to keep her illegal status a secret from the media.
Government files contain an employment contract, signed by Dawn Gibbons, guaranteeing to pay Mrs. Sandoval $800.00 a month. She says that's what she was paid, every month, from the beginning, payment always in cash.

All three issues were sort of the tip of the proverbial Titanic Political Iceberg.
Was he a dedicated Governor?
Mr. Gibbons' dedication to the office of Governor was called into question.
While the state faced an economic slowdown and big budget cuts, Gibbons faced criticism from the media for spending too little time at his office. The Las Vegas Sun newspaper reviewed Governor Gibbons’ office attendance. They learned that he was only in his Carson City Capitol office five days in August 2008 and he never was at his office for a full eight hours. In September,Mr.Gibbons was in his Capitol office a total of seven days.
In an interview with Las Vegas Sun reporters, Governor Gibbons said “I never knew this job had a time frame on it that requires me to be sitting behind a desk at a certain hour.” He said that he works about 60 hours a week for the state. Previous Nevada governors were interviewed, and they all said that they believed it was necessary that they spent most of their working time in the governor's office.
Mr. Gibbons' dedication to his office was called into question again about six months later. On April 2, 2009, while appearing before a legislative panel to promote his renewable energy bill, Gibbons apologized and pulled out his cellphone and began replying to a text. News stories used this incident to revisit the days and times 860 messages governor Gibbons sent to his alleged girlfriend. Online is a 37-second video of him introducing himself to the panel, with a 17-second break in order for him to send the text message and refocus on the hearing. this is was posted on YouTube.
Here is the video of the Governor ih front of the panel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp7qRY-J5WM

Some of the other issues that plagued Governor Gibbons:

Gibbons set up a large legal defense fund just before the November, 2006 gubernatorial election to help pay for his legal expenses after Miss Mazzeo accused him of attempted sexual assault. Gibbons never reported the legal defense fund to the appropriate U.S. House of Representatives committee (even though he was a sitting congressman at the time and was required by House rules to do so), nor did he report donations to his legal defense fund as contributions to his gubernatorial campaign, He cited the money was for "personal use" and not for his "political purposes".

In January 2008, it was reported in newspapers that Governor Gibbons raised over $256,000 for his legal defense fund during 2007. This included a $61,000 personal loan Mr. Gibbons gave to his own fund, as well as $10,000 from The Palms Hotel and Casino, and $40,000 from various companies connected to Las Vegas Sands Chief Executive, billionaire Sheldon Adelson . The defense fund has spent money to defend Governor Gibbons in cases which included:

1. Investigations into the allegations that Gibbons secured defense contracts for his friend Warren Trepp in exchange for gifts and money during his time in Congress, 1997–2006.
2. A nepotism scandal regarding Sierra Nevada Corporation's hire of Nevada First Lady Dawn Gibbons as a consultant. Sierra Nevada Corp paid Dawn Gibbons over $35,000. This work was done at the same time Congressman Jim Gibbons helped the company get a no-bid federal contract.
3. The hiring of undocumented immigrant Patty Sandoval.
4. The Chrissy Mazzeo assault case.

With most of these political and personal issues going for over 3 years, and his battles with state officials over his unpopular budget cuts, it is no wonder Judge Brian Sandoval decided to resign as a Federal Judge, and run against Governor Gibbons.There was intense speculation that Governor Gibbons would not run again as governor, as his approval rating was very low in polls.
However, Mr. Gibbons did attempt a primary run against Mr. Sandoval, and he was sound defeated by 55% to 27%. A couple of other Republicans filled out the primary slate.
Certainly Mr. Gibbons overall had a outstanding career, and it's a bit puzzling why he seemingly forgot as governor he needed to build a political consensus and not a political Berlin Wall.
American politics is often the art of compromise and for an experienced politician like Jim Gibbons to forgot that is uncommon.