Gibbons cruises in re-election bid

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2000 | 9:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Rep. Jim Gibbons rolled to an easy victory in the GOP primary election Tuesday. It may have been a preview of his race in November, when he faces a Democrat who says she can't even get any support from her own party.

"I'm overwhelmed," Gibbons said after polling nearly 88 percent of the vote.

He defeated fellow Republican Mitchell Tracy in the 2nd Congressional District, which includes all of Nevada except for portions of Las Vegas and Henderson.

Gibbons, seeking a fourth term, goes against Democrat Tierney Cahill of Reno, who was unopposed in her party primary. She acknowledges she has an uphill battle in the general election against the well-financed and entrenched Gibbons in a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats 247,415 to 202,851. Gibbons has collected more than $500,000 in contributions.

She has raised $5,000 but has only $50 left in the bank.

"My own party doesn't take me seriously, because I don't have $1 million," Cahill said. "You would think the party would rally behind a little schoolteacher ... a single mom. I'll get 30 percent of the vote because of the 'D' behind my name."

You probably won't see her in a television ad because she doesn't have the money.

Cahill, 32, got into the race to show her sixth grade students at Sarah Winnemucca School in Reno that anybody can run for election. Sadly, she said, it has demonstrated that, "You can't win without money."

It's not a lesson she wanted her students to learn.

She said both Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his son Rory Reid, who is state Democratic chairman, have written her off. Her campaign is grass roots, with her students helping her hand out buttons.

Tracy, of Las Vegas, said he got into this election to get name recognition and to set the stage for his run in two years for a third congressional seat in Nevada.

The general election ballot will also include these five minor party candidates: Terry "Curt" Savage, a Libertarian from Incline Village at Lake Tahoe who was named Tuesday as director of the state Department of Information Services by Gov. Kenny Guinn; Ken Brenneman of Las Vegas, of the Citizens First Party; A. Charles Laws of Reno for the Green Party; Daniel Hansen, who founded the Independent American Party in Nevada and has tried unsuccessfully for public office at least six times; and Robert Winquist of Incline Village, representing the Natural Law Party.