Growth dominates Democrats’ gubernatorial debate

By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)

Saturday, June 17, 2006 | 7:42 a.m.

If not for the TV cameras and the locally famous moderator, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson and state Sen. Dina Titus could have been debating for a seat on the Henderson Planning Commission on Friday.

The two Democratic candidates for governor sparred - sometimes in minute detail - over growth and how to manage it, before lightly touching on education. Part 1 of the two-part debate aired Friday night on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable channel 19. Part 2 will air Monday.

The two Democrats showed passion on the growth issue, with Titus charging the Henderson mayor of presiding over a city whose rapid growth had threatened the quality of air and water, while Gibson mocked the charges and defended his city and his record managing growth there.

Despite the passions that growth policy and Henderson issues stirred in the candidates, voters don't seem to share their concerns. Peter Hart, a national pollster with the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, asked 1,105 Nevada residents in March about issues important to them. By a healthy margin, "improving the quality of K-12 public schools" topped the list at 42 percent. Thirty percent said "making health care more affordable" was most important.

A good portion of the face-off had the two candidates arguing over a decade-old, Titus-backed growth-management plan dubbed "ring around the valley" that failed to pass the Legislature.

Titus also attacked Gibson over a proposed Henderson shopping center next to chemical plants and a lack of affordable housing in the mayor's city.

Gibson has removed himself from the shopping center debate because one of his law clients is a partner in the project. He cited the city's efforts to redevelop the oldest part of Henderson as an affordable-housing success story.

Sometimes the discussion grew deeply Henderson-centric, with the candidates banging away on issues such as, whose idea was Nevada State College at Henderson anyway? Was it Gibson's? Or somebody else's? And what about that construction blasting?

The subtext of the growth argument was ethics. To wit: Titus began the debate by saying Gibson "wants to sell the governor's office to the developers," referring to the large bundled contributions he has received from Henderson builders.

Gibson cited the amenities Henderson has required from developers, such as land for parks and schools, as examples of smart growth policies the city has instituted.

Referring to the frequent attacks from Titus that he has set up a "pay-to-play" system for Henderson developers, Gibson called the charges "spurious, reckless, unethical allegations about my character."

Some snippiness during commercial breaks suggested the pair have developed more than a mild distaste for each other.

"What's so fascinating running for governor is that there's so little truth," Gibson said during a break. Titus wondered aloud during a break whether a Gibson campaign ad was shot in Nevada. (A Gibson spokesman said it was.)

The tension is all the more tangible as the campaign winds down, with just six weeks before early voting begins. Rep. Jim Gibbons, the heavy favorite to win the Republican nomination, is sitting on a pile of money and - to his advantage - largely staying out of sight. Gibson has TV and radio ads running; Titus doesn't.

On education, Gibson and Titus share a lot of agreement. They both believe in substantially higher teacher salaries, for instance.

Still, they found plenty of room for accusation and recrimination Friday.

"Can anybody say after 17 or 18 years as a legislator that education is better off?" Gibson said, referring to Titus' career as a legislator.

Titus responded: "You call the Millennium Scholarship a failure?" she said, referring to the program that allows qualified Nevada high school graduates to attend Nevada universities on a scholarship. "You call class-size reduction a failure?"

She then cited her own career as a UNLV professor. "Of course it's been a priority. I'm a teacher."

Gibson said his large family has given him plenty of experience in the K-12 education realm. "I have six kids, for heaven's sake."