Nevada political roundup: Market meltdown and weekend highlights

By Lisa Mascaro

Monday, Oct. 6, 2008 | 11:14 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nobody said the $700 billion bailout would make everything OK. But watching the Dow slip below 10,000 this morning was probably not what folks were hoping for on the first workday after Congress passed the bill.

Here on Capitol Hill, the first in a series of hearings into the market meltdown has been underway this morning. Most lawmakers returned home to campaign, but some have stayed behind to dig into the questions we all want answered. Today: Lehman Brothers. More hearings throughout the week.

But peel yourselves away from your 401(k) statements to check out the Nevada political news roundup. Lots of interesting stories in the weekend papers. Here goes:

- When all else fails, do the math. The Sun’s David McGrath-Schwartz crunched the numbers and discovered Gov. Jim Gibbons was in the office five days in August and seven in September, far fewer than his predecessors.

The governor responds that running the state isn’t a desk job:

Gibbons said in an interview last week that he spends about 60 hours a week working for the state. “I never knew this job had a time frame on it that requires me to be sitting behind a desk at a certain hour,” he said. “I often work 16- to 18-hour days in this job, getting home at midnight."

- A payroll services company that once counted Republican Sen. Bob Beers of Las Vegas as an exec benefited from an amendment slipped into an insurance bill passed in the final days of the 2007 legislative session, the Sun’s J. Patrick Coolican reports. Beers resigned from the company before the start of the session.

- The Sun’s ongoing series continues in the race for the 3rd congressional district in Henderson profiling Republican Rep. Jon Porter and his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Dina Titus. Sunday’s installments, the third in the series, visit their legislative records in Carson City, where Porter was known as a low-key legislator and Titus for her strong style. No baby photos this week, but you can catch those in the archives.

- The Sun’s Michael Mishak says Mitt Romney’s visit reminds us of the importance of the Mormon vote importance of the Mormon vote (it usually goes Republican.)

- The R-J’s political notebook this morning highlights campaign ads and the governor’s fundraiser.

That’s it for now. Today’s bailout hearing continues on C-SSPAN, if you're interested. Check back later for more political news from Nevada.