Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.
If there were ever a time when Gov. Jim Gibbons needed lots of political friends and allies, it would be now.
The housing economy has stalled, in no small part because Nevada for nine months has led the nation in a surging number of foreclosures. Unemployment has reached 5 percent, which is above the national average.
And, of immediate concern to the Republican Gibbons, state tax revenue continues to come in below expectations. In September, for instance, statewide sales tax revenue was down 2.5 percent from the previous year's.
Suddenly, Gibbons' choices are grim. Having declared again that he won't raise taxes, Gibbons will have no choice but to cut services, so he's asked department heads for ways to cut spending 5 percent this year and again next year.
The governor wants to plan strategically for any contingencies, said his spokeswoman, Melissa Subbotin.
Still, back-to-back 5 percent reductions would translate into a roughly $100 million cut, for instance, out of the Nevada Health and Human Services Department, which includes programs for pregnant women, children and the mentally ill.
The state is already at the top of many of the lists of social and health-related woes, such as numbers of uninsured and shortages of doctors and nurses.
Surely, it's only a matter of time before the priests and rabbis come out with the widows and orphans, decrying the cold heart of the governor.
"The minute he cuts a dollar, people will scream bloody murder," said Chuck Muth, the former executive director of the state Republican Party who's now a conservative activist and blogger. "He'll need some allies to give him cover."
Gibbons, whose positive poll numbers have languished in the 30s since his election last year, seemed to shore up his Republican base at the tail end of the legislative session. He was able to secure a small amount of money for his education priority - so-called empowerment schools that take money and authority from the hands of central administrators and put it in the grasp of school principals and communities. He also managed - without raising taxes - to come up with $1 billion for road building.
But Muth and a half-dozen Republican lobbyists, who declined to be named because they have business before the governor's administration, said Gibbons has alienated friends and would-be allies with inexplicable violations of protocol.
He removed Republican National Committeeman Joe Brown from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
As a Republican lobbyist quipped: "Not only does (Brown) have a street named after him, but it's a street that runs right into the Las Vegas Country Club."
About a year ago, when Gibbons disputed that he'd done anything improper to a Las Vegas cocktail waitress, Brown, a major contributor to Gibbons' campaign, stood in solidarity.
Worse yet, Gibbons dispatched a junior aide to tell Brown, who has a long record of service to Republicans back to the Laxalt era.
Subbotin said Gibbons publicly thanked Brown for his service and said the governor wants fresh thinking and perspective among his appointments. It's entirely appropriate, she said, for the staffer who handles boards and commissions to deliver that kind of news.
Brown said nobody gave him any inkling of why he was booted.
"I'm not happy about it. I enjoyed the commission. I would have preferred to serve another term," he said.
The name of Larry Ruvo, the Las Vegas liquor distributor and philanthropist who gave generously to Gibbons' campaign, was painted over at the reception hall adjacent to the Governor's Mansion. The hall had been named for Ruvo after he donated money and helped raise more for the hall and repairs to the mansion. (After Gibbons won the election, first lady Dawn Gibbons instituted a mansionwide liquor ban, though the Gibbonses backed off.)
Subbotin declined to comment on the Ruvo paint job.
Leading Republicans also found wanting the governor's plan to deal with the foreclosure issue. Gibbons said it's not really a crisis and hosted a Las Vegas "summit" that included only lenders, which could harden perceptions that Gibbons' real loyalties lie with his corporate backers.
Subbotin said the governor's people are compiling information to provide educational resources for those at greatest risk of losing their homes and working with lenders to provide assistance to those facing foreclosure, though nothing concrete has happened. A task force is said to be forthcoming. But Subbotin provided no specifics and no timeline.
By contrast, in other states hit with the housing crash, including Arizona, California and Ohio, led by Republicans and Democrats alike, governors have received recommendations from respective task forces and begun addressing them.
Robert Uithoven, who was Gibbons' campaign manager, said the governor couldn't have been clearer when he ran for governor: He wouldn't raise taxes and would force state government to act like any family - to trim the fat when times got tough.
It's a message Gibbons has preached for years, Uithoven noted, certainly back to 2003, when as a U.S. congressman he stood at the speaker's podium in the state Assembly. He said raising taxes was bad and unnecessary, even as then-Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican who had proposed significant new taxes, looked on.
Guinn had allies of his own in that fight and managed to get a package through.
For Gibbons, the question is, who will stand with him when the cutting begins?
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