Nevada Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons blasted President Obama for headlining a Las Vegas fundraiser last month for Majority Leader Harry Reid, the four-term senator from Nevada.
Now Gibbons’ wife, Dawn, has jumped onto the Harry Reid re-election bandwagon. The move is not as surprising as it might first appear, though: the ex-first couple is embroiled in a bitter and public divorce.
Dawn Gibbons’ endorsement of Reid is particularly interesting because Reid’s son, Rory, chairman of the Clark County (Las Vegas) Commission, is said to be considering a run for governor in 2010 that could turn into a challenge to Jim Gibbons. The first-term governor’s poll numbers are abysmal and he faces a lawsuit brought by a former cocktail waitress who has accused him of assaulting her in a Las Vegas parking lot — so Democrats are hoping he stays in the 2010 race, even though a number of fellow Republicans are trying to urge him out.
Marital sparring aside, Dawn Gibbons is part of a group of close to 60 Nevada Republicans who on Wednesday launched “Republicans for Reid.”