Rogers will run for governor if Gibbons is GOP front-runner

Thursday, June 9, 2005 | 9:33 a.m.

If U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons is the only viable Republican candidate governor in 2006, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers will throw his hat into the ring, Rogers said Wednesday morning.

"If I see that there is a threat to education and Mr. (Jim) Gibbons is the only one running, then I am jumping in," Rogers said via cell phone just prior to flying to Reno to help raise money for UNR.

The statement, which Rogers first made earlier that morning during a taping of "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," was the strongest indication to date that Rogers is seriously considering a bid for governor.

But Rogers also stressed that he won't be making any decisions until he sees the official list of candidates, and if there's a "superstar" on that list that is pro-education, he'd prefer to stay chancellor.

Rogers, a multimillionaire media mogul, would not go into what specifically scared him about Gibbons' education views.

"At the moment, I view Mr. Gibbons as a major problem, and at the moment he appears to be the frontrunner," Rogers said.

The pressure on Rogers to run, which is coming from Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn among others, has increased substantially, Rogers said.

"I get more and more phone calls every day that people view him (Gibbons) as an empty suit, and they view him as being uncreative," Rogers said. "... He's a legislator not an administrator, and there is a big difference between the two jobs."

"There is just great fear in the community about his leadership ability," Rogers said.

Rogers, a registered Republican, said it was too soon for him to say whether he would support Republican Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt in her bid for the governor's job or a pro-education Democrat, such as UNLV political science professor and state Sen. Dina Titus. Titus' likely opponent, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, has also been supportive of education.

Hunt, who went to Las Vegas High School with Rogers, said she agreed with his views on the importance of education and the need for more private-public partnerships. She said she intended to ask him for his support in her race for governor, and said he may have been hesitant to endorse her because early polls showed Gibbons so much in the lead.

Titus, whose prior efforts have enjoyed support from Rogers, said Rogers is probably enticing to Republicans because he is more moderate than Gibbons.

Gibbons is "so anti-government that that will translate into education," Titus said. "He doesn't want to spend any money on reinvesting in the state."

But Robert Uithoven, spokesman for Friends for Jim Gibbons, took issue with the portrayal that Gibbons was not a good leader or hostile to education.

"I think education is clearly the top priority for the state of Nevada, and Jim Gibbons has worked to increase the amount of federal funding that has come to Nevada's education system and to the university system in Nevada," Uithoven said. "Clearly if you want to continue to grow our economy and provide jobs you have to have an educated workforce."

Rogers, who promised the Board of Regents three years of service when they appointed him permanent chancellor in May, said Wednesday that he would pay for a new search committee to replace him if he does run for governor.

"I wouldn't want to put them in the position where they spent $80,000 before and then I left them," Rogers said.

There is no state law mandating that Rogers resign to campaign, legislative counsel Brenda Erdoes said, but he may have to under the federal Hatch Act. The act prohibits certain state employees who oversee federal funds from running in a partisan campaign.

The Nevada System of Higher Education oversees millions of dollars in federal funding, but the question would be how much of that Rogers is involved with. If there is enough insulation, "it may be fine," Erdoes said.

Rogers would need to seek an opinion from the office of the U.S. special counsel, Erdoes said.

"By state law, it wouldn't be a problem, but federal law -- it beats me," Erdoes said.