Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Rogers won’t join race for governor

University system Chancellor Jim Rogers announced this morning that he will not run for governor next year, but he left no doubt that he will play a major role in the race.

Rogers said he will fund a political action committee with up to $2 million of his own money and will use the PAC to "educate" the public about education in Nevada.

"If I find as time goes on there are candidates who are not supportive of education, I will say so," he said, later noting that he would campaign against them.

But Rogers, the multimillionaire owner of Sunbelt Communications, which owns KVBC-TV Channel 3, had been seen as an attractive candidate for governor -- he is politically moderate, a successful businessman and he could pour his own money into a campaign that is already crowded.

But today Rogers said he wanted to continue as chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

"This is where I should be and this is what I should be doing," he said during a press conference this morning at the private Stirling Club.

"I've never had any political aspirations. I don't think that way. I don't fit in any party."

He said there is still too much he wants to do and said education was his first love. The decision was "100 percent final," he said.

"I really believe we (the university system) have great potential," Rogers said.

Rogers' announcement had been expected during the state of the university system address in late September but Rogers decided he could not wait because speculation about whether he was running for governor had overtaken other news about education, he said.

Rogers' recent actions had indicated to many political analysts that he was considering a run, including switching his voter registration from Republican to non-partisan, paying $30,000 for a statewide poll on various issues related to the governership, and starting a political action committee called Nevadans Committed to Education.

Rogers also send out two separate letters to the six gubernatorial candidates asking them for detailed responses to how much they support education and to what extent they would support funding education.

Many of his questions appeared to be designed to nail down the Republican candidates more than the Democrats, particularly in the questions Rogers raises against the so-called Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). Gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, is supporting a TABOR measure here he's dubbed the Tax and Spend Control for Nevada initiative.

Rogers received responses to his letter requests from the three Democrat gubernatorial contenders Tuesday, but nothing yet from Republicans in the race, Francisco Aguilar, Roger's personal attorney who handles community relations issues for the Nevada System of Higher Education, said.

Aguilar immediately forwarded the responses to the press.

Rogers said he would use those responses to make education a priority in the 2006 governor's race. He seriously considered running for governor but did not want to break his word to the university's board of regents that he would stay in the job for three years and that, as governor, he would spend "20 percent of my time dealing with education and 80 percent of my time dealing with other issues that are equally as important to the state but not as important for Jim Rogers."

Rogers also said he doubted he could have won the governor's race. He said a recent statewide poll he commissioned showed that his name recognition was "pretty damn low," as less than 10 percent of those polled recognized his name.

He also estimated that it would have cost $8 million of his own money and that he'd rather put the funds into making education a priority in the race. Rogers and his wife, Beverly, will "pump whatever it takes into the PAC."

While Rogers wouldn't endorse this morning any one candidate, he said he thinks highly of state Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson.

He did not attack Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who is considered the front-runner. Rogers, who in the past said Gibbons was "not very bright," said he did not imagine he would give money to Gibbons.

By continuing as chancellor, Rogers said he wants to continue working with K-12 education and the city of Las Vegas on a proposed academic medical center. He also said he wants to see UNLV and UNR rise in national rankings.

Regent Chairman Bret Whipple and regent Steve Sisolak said they were both very pleased that Rogers would continue as chancellor.

"I think we can accomplish more with him as chancellor," Whipple said.

Sisolak, who had been sweating that Rogers would run for governor, said he was relieved.

"I told you he would keep his word," he said.

Both regents also said they were glad Rogers was actively making education "a hot-button issue" in the upcoming campaign.

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