Suddenly, it’s a race

Friday, July 28, 2006 | 7:46 a.m.

The first thing to notice about state Sen. Bob Beers is his mouth-closed, impish grin, like a teenager who's just made a lippy remark to his geometry teacher. (And often, Beers has just made a smart-alecky quip.)

The second thing to notice are his shoes - bulky, black and sensible, which is to say, hideous. But never mind that.

Beers, who's running for governor as a Republican, actually has a reason for the grin this week. A poll done for the gaming industry by national pollster Peter Hart shows Beers trailing the front-runner, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., by just 8 percentage points, with 22 percent still undecided. He has trailed in previous polls by 40 or more.

Gibbons, like a sleeping bear finally roused, has finally acknowledged Beers, sending out a negative mailer about him.

The reason for the Beers surge may lie in that grin, the plainly obvious fact that he's having more fun, perhaps the only Republican in the country truly enjoying this election cycle.

Still, Republican insiders with ties to the state's big fundraisers, the people who could vault the cash-poor Beers over the top, say they aren't convinced.

"I think major donors are sophisticated players," said Greg Ferraro, a Reno lobbyist. "Given that level of sophistication, they knew this was always going to tighten. With that said, I don't think this is going to change anybody's view of the final outcome."

So maybe the fun time is about to end, along with the Beers campaign, on primary day, Aug. 15. But not really, which is another reason for the Beers grin. Beers is the public face of the Tax and Spend Control initiative, or TASC, which would cap state spending at inflation plus the percentage of population growth.

Even if Beers loses the Republican primary, voters will decide on TASC in November, which means Beers could be more influential than the next governor, whose wrists would be bound by Beers' small government handcuffs. (TASC will have to pass twice to become a state constitutional amendment.)

Beers, who led a fight against the tax hike in 2003, was in usual form Thursday at a Republican women's function at a Summerlin Italian restaurant with an open kitchen. "Mmm," said Beers, who's 46 and built like a football player. "Lunch smells good." The women laughed - at what, was a mystery. Beers has that effect on people.

The longtime Las Vegan gave a short speech, conversational in tone, in which he related his poll results and then deftly weaved together his own vision with attacks on Gibbons.

Beers stumped for TASC, which Gibbons, an anti-taxer himself, opposes. Beers warned the women that Nevada is rushing "pell-mell toward the cliff of California liberalism." He said he would push to eliminate the gas tax. For many petrol-loving Nevada Republicans who probably use the word "escape" to describe their flight from California, these issues resonate.

Beers also pounded the congressman for his unfortunate decision several weeks ago to say that after winning his seat in the Assembly, he lost his job at Delta Air Lines because the company wouldn't give him an unpaid absence to serve in the Legislature. Later, when a Delta lobbyist came to see him about a tax bill in the Assembly, Gibbons said, he played hardball, and his job was soon restored.

Now, Gibbons says he did meet with the lobbyist but that he misspoke about the circumstances. The bill never went before the Assembly. Gibbons says Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio sent the lobbyist to him as a tongue-in-cheek prank.

But Beers isn't letting it go. "He may be the only gubernatorial candidate in the history of the state of Nevada to call himself a liar," he quipped Thursday.

Robert Uithoven, Gibbons' campaign manager, replied: "To suggest they hired him back because of that legislation that never came over to the Assembly is nonsense.

"Bob Beers likes to talk about it because it gets him attention, and whatever gets him attention he goes with, whether there's substance to it or not."

Beers has been traveling the state for months, grinning for the cameras, ridiculing Gibbons, basking in free - and mostly friendly - press, like some college kid on a road trip.

"It's fun," he said. "I've met a lot of people. I've seen a lot of sights."

Steve Wark, a Republican consultant, said that given Beers' relentless campaign, the poll results are to be expected: "One side has done very little in terms of visible campaigning, the other campaign has thrown everything at them but the kitchen sink, so it's not surprising it would tighten."

Pete Ernaut, a lobbyist with R&R Partners and longtime Republican operative, said he still expects Gibbons to win by 20 or 25 percentage points.

Beers touts his momentum, though with his usual insouciance, which makes him sound as if his tongue is firmly in his cheek.

How much money does he have?

He waited a beat. "Zero," he said, with a laugh.

Gibbons, who has been in Congress since 1996 and was a decorated Air Force fighter pilot, holds a big financial advantage, which will become obvious quite soon. His campaign is clearly done ignoring Beers, and he has just begun to dip into the millions of dollars in his campaign account.

Uithoven noted that Beers voted for big spending increases in the past.

"TASC is an effort by Bob Beers to protect taxpayers from Bob Beers," Uithoven said. "The spending record doesn't match up with the votes. He voted for every penny, and yet he goes around campaigning his outrage about the spending. The quotes don't match the votes."

Then, almost ominously, he added, "Voters are soon going to be finding out about his record, and what he's done to create future debt for the people of Nevada."

It's likely that when Beers sees the negative TV ads, he'll grin.