Gibbons scores a public relations coup

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)

Monday, Dec. 18, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

When the number of esteemed Nevadans on Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons' transition team reached the number of state legislators - 63 - some Nevada political insiders smirked.

By the time the number reached nearly 200, the amount of pointing and laughing was no longer trivial.

"I don't know if anyone knows the purpose," said conservative activist Chuck Muth.

"Dog-and-pony show," said Democratic operative Steve Redlinger.

At closer inspection, however, some observers are lauding Gibbons' move for its political and public relations acumen, a way to build coalitions and public support after a bruising election campaign that left him with fewer than 50 percent of the votes and no clear mandate other than not raising taxes.

A transition expert says Gibbons' plan has been used successfully elsewhere, and is a technique employed at the presidential level.

"Master stroke," said Pete Ernaut, outgoing Gov. Kenny Guinn's former chief of staff who ran the Guinn transition.

A Nevada transition team is more typically a small group that helps establish a new government out of the old. The Guinn transition team numbered in the high teens and was focused mainly on personnel issues while Guinn himself waded into the state budget, Ernaut said.

The Gibbons transition, by contrast, has roughly 10 transition team "working groups" covering broad policy areas such as business and industry, public safety, education and the budget.

Its members include Republicans and Democrats, Gibbons' two Republican primary opponents, as well as the distinguished (former Sen. Richard Bryan), the rich (MGM CEO Terry Lanni), the strident (Liberty Watch magazine publisher George Harris), and the local pizza guy (Metro Pizza co-owner Sam Facchini).

Skeptics have wondered what the point is, calling the process unwieldy and - given the divergent political priorities of the members - ridiculous.

Gibbons' communication director, Brent Boynton, said the groups would not produce policy and that the group leaders would decide when the groups would meet. Moreover, Gibbons has said he would leave the budget being proposed by Guinn largely untouched.

That raised questions about how relevant the working groups would be if the most important policy decision - where to spend the money - has already been settled.

Their primary purpose is fact-finding, Boynton said, and they've been charged with delivering information to the new governor by mid-January.

Former governor and senator Bryan, a Democrat who's a co-chairman of the effort, said there have been lots of calls between individual members, as well as a conference call he participated in so far; he said he doesn't know which of the groups have met or how often.

State Sen. Bob Beers said his budget group has met once. Its members hope to find areas of potential savings in state spending to ward off any threat of higher taxes.

Boynton said because the meetings are in the hands of the various committee chairs, the Gibbons team doesn't know who has met or how often. Everyone sitting on one of the working groups is a volunteer, so the vast effort won't cost taxpayers any money.

For whatever the policy implications, if any, the political and public relations strategy is clear: Gibbons is a team- and consensus-builder who will reach out to enemies - former and current - to move Nevada forward.

"It looks very good from a public relations standpoint, and he needed that," Ernaut said. "It's focused the first days on building a team rather than on all the media scrutiny of the end of the campaign.

"From my vantage point it was a timely idea and a good idea. Whether it adds to the process or is workable, who's going to know or care?"

Billy Vassiliadis, chief executive of R&R Partners, the advertising and public affairs firm, agreed.

"The governor-elect, usually in this time period, is under the radar screen, but they've found a way for the governor to be visibly active preparing to govern," he said, noting that Gibbons and his big-name transition team have been in the news for days on end, helped by the ever-slow holiday news season.

Vassiliadis mentioned another advantage: Each working group becomes like a constituency that will likely help lobby and advocate for the governor's agenda because its members will feel some personal investment in the policy.

Similarly, Ryan Erwin, a Republican consultant who has worked in different capacities for various government transitions, said the big transition "forced some adversaries into at least some buy-in of his administration."

The idea is not unique, said Alvin Felzenberg, a visiting lecturer in politics at Princeton University and an expert in government transitions.

Eliot Spitzer, New York's newly elected governor, also has a number of task forces.

Often, governors-elect name large transition teams, which can create natural allies for future legislative battles because of a sense of loyalty.

Felzenberg noted that when Robert Ehrlich, a Republican, was elected governor in heavily Democratic Maryland, he named a Democratic predecessor to his transition team. "It's a signal that politics is over, and governing is about to begin," he said.

A large transition team also can be a back-door way to find personnel because the newly elected governor or president will come into contact with the knowledgeable and the prominent.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a 68-person team, including Democrats.

The most successful transitions are governed by a clear policy focus, Felzenberg said, citing Ronald Reagan, who had his chief adviser, Edwin Meese, prepare for a potential Reagan presidency before the 1980 election.

The Gibbons agenda is the unanswered question he'll address next month at his first State of the State speech.