Editorial: Gibbons confuses the issue

Saturday, March 10, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons and his staff are making it sound like the rules governing legal defense funds are riddles wrapped in enigmas.

But for the legal defense fund set up by Gibbons in November, the rules should have been a no-brainer. At that time, even though he was a candidate for Nevada governor, Gibbons was a member of the House of Representatives.

All of the House rules still applied to Gibbons, including the one outlining clear and detailed procedures for setting up a legal defense fund. But Gibbons did not follow that rule on the unwritten grounds that he was running for a state, not a federal, office.

If Gibbons had been truly sincere about that reason, though, logic dictates he would have then abided by any applicable state law, such as the one requiring candidates to file timely and unabridged financial disclosure statements.

This week, after reporters began asking Gibbons about why his defense fund didn't seem to be complying with any rules, the governor filed an amendment to his Jan. 16 financial disclosure statement, formally revealing the existence of the fund, the amount raised and the donors.

In a press release explaining his action, Gibbons said, "... attorneys have told me that it is not clear what rules govern that fund - federal or state ..."

We wonder why, after 10 years in the House, Gibbons himself would have been unclear about such a straightforward House rule. And Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller wants to know why Gibbons only belatedly disclosed details of his fund by way of his amended financial statement. In a letter sent to Gibbons on Wednesday, Miller posed that and several other pointed questions about the fund.

In response to Miller's letter, a spokeswoman for Gibbons, Dianne Cornwall, told the Las Vegas Sun, "The bottom line is, it's a very gray area in terms of whether we have to report this money and the (legal defense) fund."

In our view, it's very black and white that Gibbons has a cavalier attitude about openness and his responsibility to follow government rules and the law.