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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

U.S. Rep. Dean Heller (R-Carson City)The Las Vegas Sun ran a story Friday analyzing the national reaction to U.S. Rep. Dean Heller's (R-Carson City) comments that the Republican Party needed to "clean house."

After an initally strong reaction against Heller's remarks, the Sun noted that many conservatives came out in support of the freshman Congressman.

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.

There's still no news yet on the Nevada Supreme Court deliberations that could kick Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas), and dozens of other elected officials off the ballot.

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.

I’m off through July 23 for some much needed rest and relaxation. I'll be heading up to Niagara Falls and Buffalo, and then down to wine country.

Talk amongst yourselves while I'm gone. I'll give you a topic. The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Discuss.

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

Fellow spelunker Anjeanette Damon has the full story.

For the lazy:

Jill Derby earned the headline "Derby beats Heller in second quarter fundraising," but for her that is the end of the fun in fundraising news.

U.S. Rep Dean Heller (R-Carson City) still raised $228,000 to her $280,000. Heller still has almost three times as much cash on hand at $940,000 vs. Derby's $350,000. Also, this year Heller has no well-funded right-wing activist as a primary opponent. His fundraising is still trending up, he has out-raised any incumbent in the history of the district with $1.2 million raised this year and he has that dazzling smile, to boot.

Heller keeps this one.

Before Zeke posts more angry messages that I'm a right-wing mouthpiece, I still think U.S. Rep. Jon Porter (R-Henderson) is screwed.

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.