Gibbons has amigos, too

By Timothy Pratt

Saturday, June 10, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

One of the 50 or so people who attended a lunch Friday at Toto's Mexican restaurant to hear Jim Gibbons speak about his candidacy for governor asked an organizer jokingly, "Where's my flag?"

But the Stars and Stripes was not to be found among the nearly two dozen tiny flags from Latin American countries awaiting on the tables. That's because this event wasn't about the United States. It was about Gibbons reaching out to Hispanics to say, "Hey, we're doing something, too," said James Campos, hired three months ago as the Republican candidate's Hispanic consultant.

Gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibson, and to a lesser extent, his Democratic primary opponent, state Sen. Dina Titus, are wooing Nevada's newly activist Hispanic community. Gibbons wanted people to know that "it's not just them out trying to spread the message," Campos said.

The lunch sped along cordially, with Gibbons telling the group, many of whom worked in real estate or financial services, about growing up in rural Nevada with a tightknit family. He said he had a hardworking father who taught him the value of education, and a mother who ran for mayor of Sparks when he was 12 and taught him about "being involved in government."

But among the burritos, there was an elephant in the room. Not one of the guests - most of whom Campos said were Republicans - asked Gibbons about the House bill he voted for in December, the same one that touched off Hispanic marches nationwide.

On May 1, an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 immigrants and their supporters pulled off the largest political march ever on the Strip.

Campos said that Gibbons' support for the House legislation was being used by his detractors on Spanish-language radio and elsewhere to "portray him as anti-immigrant or anti-Hispanic (but) he's not."

The bill would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally or to lend any help to anyone who is here illegally. It focuses more on enforcement and, unlike the Senate bill passed last month, does not offer illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

Gibbons has said that he voted for the House bill because Republican leaders told him that it would be modified - watered down - after the Senate passed its version and the two bills were reconciled.

On Friday, Gibbons said nothing about his vote. He spoke of his kids, his grandchildren, his parents and the subject of family, several dozen times in all.

When it came to immigration, he said, "First of all, let me say we're a nation of immigrants (and) here in Nevada we've benefited greatly from Hispanics." He said immigrants "were a blessing to our nation, not a problem."

Then he added that borders should be protected, immigration should be more orderly and economic realities must be remembered.

Afterward, Richard Herela, who said he directs a Bolivian foundation in Las Vegas that financed the lunch, sat down to talk with Gibbons. Herela had told a reporter that he owns a mine in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Gibbons has worked in the private sector as a mining attorney and geologist.

"Show me your map," Gibbons said. "Show me what you got." He then invited Herela to meet with him at another time.

Herela had said before the meeting that he wanted to know about Gibbons' vote on the House bill, but thought it "wasn't appropriate" to ask about the issue in public.

After lunch, Gibbons told a reporter that reaction to the House bill was "hyped-up and overexaggerated" and based on misrepresentation of the legislation.

As to whether the issue would hurt his campaign chances among Hispanics, he said, "I'm going to be judged for who I am.

"I've got a voting record, yes, but is every piece of legislation perfect? We're still working on the legislation in Congress, and it isn't finished.

"No one should ever let perfect stand in the way of good."

And then he was on his way.