Jon Ralston sees Gov. Jim Gibbons’ lips moving, but feels certain it’s Adelson talking

Sunday, April 29, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

Carson City - Having watched his peers in the gaming industry wield political influence as he has languished in the wilderness, Gondolier Numero Uno Sheldon Adelson's moment finally has arrived.

After years spent trying to pass anti-union initiatives and attempting to influence campaigns with almost no success, the gaming industry's pariah has become the gaming industry's richest man - and he not only has the most money, but he has the keys to the Governor's Mansion, too. It may not have the splendor of The Venetian, but Adelson has found the mansion service to be spectacular.

Ever since Adelson bundled six figures to help elect Jim Gibbons as the titular governor, Gibbons has been serving his benefactor. First, he put Adelson lieutenant Bill Weidner as the head of a gaming transition team, which produced a document well after the transition was over that was right out of the Adelson playbook. And now, several knowledgeable Carson City sources report, Gov. Adelson's ventriloquism is evident as Gibbons begins to float ideas to fund transportation needs.

Gaming executives always have held sway with governors. Adelson may figure it's his turn, and Gibbons seems eager to play the manservant to the de facto chief executive.

Sources confirm that Gibbons and his minions continue, as previously disclosed here, to talk to capital folks about diverting room tax money from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority budget to pay for transportation needs.

The administration would confirm none of this. But spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin's non-denial denial summed up what's happening: "The governor is exploring several options, none of which increase taxes."

This is the perfect dovetailing of two agendas - Adelson's long-held desire to pound the convention authority, with which he has feuded since he owned COMDEX, and Gibbons' obsession with keeping his no-tax pledge at all costs.

Lest you think I exaggerate Adelson's hand in all of this, consider the February document that serendipitously appeared on the governor's Web site - it was a Gondolier Numero Uno wish list, including the dissolution of the LVCVA.

And look, coincidentally, what it said about room taxes: "The sheer amount and velocity of increase in room tax collection in Clark County was discussed. ... How will these taxes be used? How are they currently being spent?"

Right after this was released in February, the controversy it stirred induced Gibbons Chief of Staff Mike Dayton to call convention authority boss Rossi Ralenkotter to assure him the governor would not tamper with the agency. But that was then; this is now and the governor needs a tax-free way to fund transportation or be rendered irrelevant.

Granted, the convention authority is something of a political sacred cow that Adelson has been trying to slaughter for years, going up against powerful forces at R&R Partners, which has the advertising contract for the LVCVA.

This has been a fascinating behind-the-scenes battle since the days when Sig Rogich, ironically a Gibbons guru, owned the company, through the current Billy Vassiliadis/Pete Ernaut regime. But Adelson never had a governor before.

The room-tax scheme, along with other gubernatorial brainstorms such as diverting money from a performing arts center to transportation (and I am sure there are more to come), epitomize the think-small mentality that infects Carson City every two years. So much easier to apply Band-Aids on the surface wound and hope no one notices the infection hasn't been treated. Let's spend a few million to solve a multibillion-dollar problem. And then two years later, more of the same.

It's as shortsighted as Adelson's decades-long jihad against the convention authority, which has won almost every battle against Gondolier Numero Uno. It probably is unfair, though, to say Adelson has had no success in anointing candidates for elective office until Gibbons. He did have one high-profile success in 1996 named Lance Malone, whom Gondolier Numero Uno helped bundle six figures to so he could win a seat on the Clark County Commission .

That didn't turn out so well, though, as Malone became a laughingstock, was later convicted of political corruption charges and sent to prison. Sensing any parallels here?

Now Adelson's other marquee success also is the butt of jokes and also is being probed by the FBI on allegations of taking political payoffs. But so long as Gibbons remains in office, it looks as if Gov. Adelson will make sure his man gets some work done.