Jon Ralston has end-of-the-week nuggets about bizarre behavior, Republican infighting and Democratic literacy

Friday, May 5, 2006 | 7:40 a.m.

The Dawn Gibbons Watch: So with her strange speeches on the campaign trail, noticed by more than one audience, and the departure of a close family friend and lead campaign consultant, the ex-assemblywoman's campaign is looking shakier by the moment.

No one is placing odds now on whether she will actually file. Billboards went up in Reno this week for her campaign, but they were purchased months ago. Gibbons told Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Anjeanette Damon that she intends to move forward.

"I'm going to run because I'm not a quitter," Gibbons told Damon. "I believe in my message. People are going to say that I'll never be able to stand the attacks, but you know what, I'm going to run as Dawn Gibbons. I'm positive. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing ... My husband believes in me. I believe in me and if someone doesn't want to vote for me, that's their choice."

Whether her husband, Rep. Jim Gibbons, the gubernatorial front-runner, wants his wife on the campaign trail for his seat is a matter of some debate. Certainly members of his campaign team would rather see Ms. Gibbons off the ballot, as they fear that the ample ammunition that Secretary of State Dean Heller and Assemblywoman Sharron Angle fire at the wife will cause collateral damage to the husband.

Ms. Gibbons called me just this week - at 6:05 a.m. Tuesday - to ask me about the format for a debate with Heller and Angle that she agreed to long ago and is scheduled for Monday. Earlier in the week, she had phoned, at a more normal time, to ask whether the debate was an hour or a half-hour, so she could make plane reservations to return to Reno.

Then, 13 hours after that early Tuesday morning call, she called again and left a message abruptly backing out of the debate and mentioning something about a son having surgery and needing some tests. A close family friend tells me it is a knee surgery.

This is all very weird, very Dawn Gibbons-ish. But does it mean she won't file? As one insider who knows the family put it, "With Dawn, you never know."

Yes, indeed. And have I mentioned that she is the front-runner?

Knowing your candidates: Republican Party Chairman Paul Adams, a relative newcomer to Nevada politics, has taken some guff from the faithful in his brief tenure. That's par for the usually loony partisan course. His attempt to marginalize impeached Controller Kathy Augustine was seen as brave by some, unnecessary by others.

Now Adams is in dutch with some Republicans for touting the candidacy of an Assembly hopeful and seeming not to know that the person he is hyping is challenging an already announced Republican hopeful endorsed by Bob Seale, the well-respected, retiring incumbent, and the caucus leadership.

Last Friday, when he heard of Michelle Sanders' candidacy for Seale's seat, Adams gushed in an e-mail:

"Don't know if anyone knows Michelle, but she is fantastic. A conservative, black woman who is a member of a union. She was heading the CCRP (Clark County Republican Party) grass-roots union coalition - she is articulate and against the liberalism of union management.

"Not sure if anyone else is running, but she is good."

Not sure?

Kris Munn, with Seale's anointment, had announced almost three weeks earlier and there was a story in the newspaper. Did he forget to inform Adams? Or does Adams not read the newspaper?

Adams said Thursday that he wrote the e-mail "and hit send before (my) brain was fully engaged and registered the district number. Michelle is fantastic, so is Kris. We are ready to support the primary winner."

I am sure that makes Munn feel better.

These Republicans are going to be fun to watch this year as they are showing early signs of cannibalistic impulses.

Getting it write: Poor Kelvin Atkinson. First the Democratic assemblyman had to be shamed into changing some illiterate questions about, of all things, education funding on his Web site. But he still has this passage on his campaign site:

"While the White House assault on education funding continues; Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson joined other legislative leaders in promoting smaller class sizes, safer schools, and more funding for textbooks ...

" 'Nevadans believe supporting teachers in the classroom - not more bureaucratic programs and cost-shifting - are the key to education success.' Said Assemblyman Atkinson."

I wish Atkinson could learn to punctuate his thoughts with better punctuation and could capitalize on the opportunity not to capitalize.