Democrats go after Gibbons

Kirsten Searer

Friday, March 25, 2005 | 9:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., hasn't officially announced if he will run for governor in 2006, but the state Democratic Party has already launched a billboard campaign against him.

Two billboards in Las Vegas and one in Reno now remind voters of a controversial speech Gibbons gave in Elko last month when he spoke about Hollywood critics of the war in Iraq.

The billboard reads, "Gibbons for Governor? Use Americans as 'human shields' in Iraq."

It also touts www.gibbonsfacts.com, a Web site run by the party that criticizes the potential gubernatorial candidate.

The Elko Daily Free Press reported that Gibbons said people who oppose the war are "liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals," the same people who want to go to Iraq to become "human shields."

"It's just too damn bad we didn't buy them a ticket," he said.

Gibbons later admitted that the speech was largely copied from a speech given by Alabama Auditor Beth Chapman in 2003.

Democratic Party spokesman Jon Summers said Gibbons was effectively saying that "people who exercise their free speech should be killed."

"We just want to make sure that people don't forget who Jim Gibbons is and what he stands for," Summers said. "We want to make sure they don't forget that he stole a two-year-old attack speech."

Robert Uithoven, a spokesman for Friends of Jim Gibbons, a group raising money for the congressman, said the billboards show that Democrats have seen the same polling numbers he has.

Gibbons, he said, has "pretty significant leads both in name-identification and head-to-head match-ups" against other potential gubernatorial candidates.

"There's a lot of issues that they should be paying attention to rather than an election that's over a year-and-a-half out," he said.

Two potential Democratic gubernatorial candidates said they were glad to see the billboards.

"It's a good thing for the people of the state of Nevada to actually understand who Jim Gibbons is," said Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson.

Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said, "It's good for the party to be tracking Gibbons' activities and holding him accountable."