Jeff Simpson explains why candidates such as Lorraine Hunt don’t get casino money

Sunday, July 9, 2006 | 7:40 a.m.

I feel bad for Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt.

The gaming industry and the broader Las Vegas business community have their favorite candidate in the Republican primary campaign for governor - and it's not Hunt.

Rep. Jim Gibbons gets most of the casino companies' campaign cash and received the endorsement of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

Hunt understandably feels slighted. She has served as the state's second-highest official for two four-year terms, easily winning election and re-election in 1998 and 2002. She also was elected to the Clark County Commission in 1994.

In her current post she has chaired the state's commissions on tourism and economic development and garnered praise for her work. A lot of folks make fun of the lieutenant governor's position, but Hunt makes the most of it.

Her politics are solid, middle-of-the-road Republican. Pro-business. Pro-development. She's a small-business owner.

Among the Republican candidates, her politics seem to most closely align with the casino industry and the business community.

And she's likable. She's always been kind and helpful to me when I've reported on tourism and economic development issues. Everyone I talk to in the business world likes her.

So why doesn't she get more support from the gamers and the business establishment?

The blunt truth, as one executive told me, is it's not about her.

The reason they back Gibbons, pure and simple, is that he's going to win the primary. Take Gibbons out of the race, they say, and they'd be helping Hunt.

In politics, there's two main types of cash: Practical money and philosophical money.

Businesses don't give philosophical money. The money in politics is mostly about who is going to win.

Of course, once the decision is made to donate to the expected winner, the expectation becomes closer to reality.

So despite the fact that Hunt is probably philosophically closer to the city's leading business interests, business support flows to Gibbons, the presumptive primary winner.

Maybe the polls are wrong or people will re-evaluate the candidates, and Hunt will pull off a shocker. But for businesses, especially the casino operators who make their profits from knowing which side of a 51-49 proposition to book, Gibbons seems like a sure bet.

Hunt likely won't be the only disappointed candidate in the race for governor.

Of all those running, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson is the candidate most gaming executives believe would be the best governor. He also received the endorsement of his hometown chamber of commerce.

If Gibson wins the Democratic primary, expect him to get some financial backing from the gaming industry - but not nearly as much as Gibbons, and for the same reason that the industry backs Gibbons over Hunt.

Gibson is seen as an able executive, like industry-favorite Kenny Guinn, but with more political savvy. Gibbons is seen as a sound-bite candidate - but one whose packaging will likely make him the winner.

And being with the winner is what really matters to business.