Jim Gibbons

Every week PolitickerNV.com brings you the state's Winners & Losers. State Sen. Dina Titus (D-Las Vegas) was pleasantly surprised by a potentially huge cash infusion into her race against U.S. Rep. Jon Porter (R-Boulder City). Not at all surprising: Governor Gibbons has another bad week. Find out why and see all of this week's Winners & Losers. | CLICK HERE

GOP Executive Director Zac Moyle and State Chairperson Sue Lowden have to wake up every day with overwhelming fear as they click through the morning news outlets to find out how the state GOP has collapsed that day.

And the irony is that the collapse has almost nothing to do with the two of them.

Rather than accept a plan to help balance the state budget by cutting a pay bump for his swing shift workers, Corrections Director Howard Skolnik was able to save the money instead by freezing vacant positions.

The extra pay will probably be cut out in the next session anyway, but we wish we could get the same kind of outside-the-box thinking from the Gov. Gibbons (R-Sparks) as we're seeing from the bureaucrats. But beggars can't be choosers. We'll take it where we can get it.

The Review-Journal is all over the latest Gov. Gibbons (R-Reno) scandal in which university system Chancellor Jim Rogers is saying that the governor is trying to "muzzle" him for criticizing Gibbons "for his total lack of support of Nevada education."

Now this one is tough. On the one hand, no Gibbons scandal is shocking, and nothing seems to be beneath him. But have any of you met Jim Rogers? No one can muzzle that man. And even the governor isn't stupid enough to think he can.

Scream away, chancellor.

Click more to view previous Jim Gibbons cartoons by Rob Tornoe.

Do Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-Sparks) and U.S. Sen. John Ensign (R-Las Vegas) feel left out? Unlike other swing states with state-wide elected Republicans who are not up for reelection this year -- including U.S Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Ohio), and Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) -- neither Gibbons nor Ensign have been floated as potential vice presidential running-mates for U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

As the state faces what could be described as a financial crisis, Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-Reno) is facing another public scandal — this time over a questionable tax break he asked for and received from the Elko County assessor.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that Gibbons called in a favor to Elko County Assessor Joe Aquirre to redesignate a parcel of residential land he owned as agricultural in a successful bid to cut his property taxes from $5,000 a year to $15.

According to the AP, Aguirre, a fellow Republican, said he felt pressured to grant Gibbons' request against his better judgment.

"To say I was put in an awkward position I think is an understatement," Aguirre told the AP.

Just back from her windsurfing competition in Baja, Anjeanette Damon has a great catch just posted in the RGJ.

For the lazy:

Gibbons' "friend" and former Playboy model allegedly took a roundabout route home over the Fourth of July weekend, going through a couple of yards and into the side of a neighbor's pickup truck before disappearing into her garage half a block away.

With the next election cycle already shaping up to be one of the most exciting in Nevada's history, some observers are looking toward a 2010 governor's race that could end up being one of the most interesting races in the nation.

Anticipation has kicked into overdrive due in part to a handful of Democrats vying for the shot to take down incumbent Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-Sparks), who has a 21 percent approval rating, according to a recent poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research in Washington D.C.

At the head of the pack is Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid (D-Henderson), son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who surveyed 601 voters in a private poll that sized him up against both Gibbons and Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley to the tune of favorable results.