Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006 | 12:48 p.m.
LAS VEGAS - Fresh off primary victories, Nevada's gubernatorial candidates offered a glimpse of the weeks to come Wednesday as they traded barbs and staked claims in what's sure to be a hot contest for the state's top office.
State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, the Democrats' pick in Tuesday's primary, held a news conference to "highlight the differences" between her and Republican nominee U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons.
She criticized the Reno congressman's voting record on the environment, education and ethics, and challenged Gibbons to debate in the "next couple weeks."
"I think you can't hide ... We're just going to aggressively go after him if he refuses to debate. I think the people of Nevada spoke. They wanted change, they want to talk to the representatives to see where they stand."
The Gibbons campaign returned fire.
Gibbons campaign manager Robert Uithoven said there was "clear contrast between the two" and described Titus as a tax-and-spender and urban liberal.
"Dina Titus has a proven track record of pitting Nevadans against each other. She pits the north versus south, urban versus rural," Uithoven said. "She has never been able to say no to a tax increase or say yes to small government."
Uithoven said Gibbons would debate Titus in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko, but would not commit to an early face-off.
"We will schedule debates and we'll work with the Titus campaign to find out the best and most successful time," he said. "We are mindful that Jim Gibbons still has a congressional schedule in September."
Experts said the challenge for Titus, a sharp-tongued political science professor and 17-year legislator, is to avoid the pattern set by Gibbons' two primary opponents, who tried to coax the congressman into public debate but had little success until the end of the race.
Gibbons is prone to verbal gaffes and 18 months ago plagiarized a speech in which he called anti-war activists, "tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals." He has since apologized.
"He has done what he can to quiet down some of those ... that say he isn't smart enough to be governor and he's avoided the missteps that have plagued him in the past," Democratic consultant Gary Gray said of Gibbons primary fight. "Titus' challenge will be to draw him out."
This will be Gibbons second bid for governor. The former Persian Gulf combat pilot first ran in 1994, falling short by 11 percentage points to Democrat Bob Miller. He won the 2nd Congressional District seats two years later and successfully held it for a decade.
The primary results highlighted Gibbons stronghold. He beat anti-tax advocate state Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, by an average of 30 percentage points in rural counties, but won by only 4 percentage points in populous Clark County.
Primary results also showed possible soft patches of support for Titus. She lost four rural counties to her opponent, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, a more moderate Democrat. Titus won Clark County by 17 points.
Titus said Wednesday that she was looking beyond primary voters.
"We're not talking about the hard-core within his party or the hard-core within my party. We're talking about a big group of voters out there who didn't participate in this partisan primary. They're going to be the swing voter," she said.
Only about 28 percent of the registered voters cast ballots in the gubernatorial primary.
Republican analyst Chuck Muth said Gibbons goal will be to court the "mushy middle" of independent voters, who in Nevada are unified by a libertarian, small-government thread.
"I think he does have to pin on her the label 'liberal,' because she is, but it will be interesting to see if she runs away from that label or if she continues to put on this new centrist suit she's been trying on the last year," Muth said.
Titus, who says she owns a gun and won't raise taxes, but has called for spending increases in education, resisted the liberal label.
"I don't think labels mean anything in Nevada. People don't vote a straight party ticket, they vote for the person who represent their interests," she said.
"People keep records for a reason," Uithoven said. "Dina Titus has a record of using kids and education as a pawn for raising taxes. Jim Gibbons is proud of his record of fiscal discipline, security and improving education."
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