Aide: 'Difficult time' for Gibbons family

RENO - A longtime adviser to Gov. Jim Gibbons confirmed Thursday the governor and first lady Dawn Gibbons are going through a "painful time" but refused to comment on a report the couple would meet with family this weekend to decide the future of their marriage.

"Many families go through difficult times and the Gibbons family is no exception," Jim Denton told The Associated Press.

"Unfortunately, their role in public life has brought this into the public arena, which doesn't happen with most people," he said.

Jim Gibbons, a Republican who served five terms in Congress, was elected governor in 2006.

Denton, a top adviser to Jim Gibbons dating to before his congressional campaigns, said the governor had scheduled a family meeting this weekend to decide whether the marriage of 21 years would continue.

"I believe there is a family meeting this weekend to make a determination as to what is going to happen," Dianne Cornwall, the governor's chief operating officer, said. "It is a personal issue with the governor until a decision is made."

Denton - who also advised Dawn Gibbons briefly on her failed congressional bid in 2006 - declined to comment on the prospects for a weekend meeting.

"I've known Jim and Dawn Gibbons for over two decades, have immense respect for both of them and I know this is a painful time for them. However, this is a personal and private matter and we would ask the press to treat it as such," Denton told AP.

He said Jim Gibbons had no direct comment to the media.

Dawn Gibbons, a former state assemblywoman who had sought the GOP nomination for the congressional seat her husband held for 10 years, did not immediately return telephone messages left at her home and on her cell phone by media organizations.

Sharron Angle, a former state legislator who ran against Dawn Gibbons in that 2006 GOP primary won by Rep. Dean Heller, said Thursday the couple's marriage is "really none of our business."

"It's a personal thing and something that never should have gone to the news," Angle told KKOH Radio in Reno. "Pure gossip, that's what it is."

The rumor has been the hot topic in Nevada political circles for several weeks. While media outlets and at least one Washington blogger are reporting divorce papers have been filed, a check of Nevada court clerks revealed no such filing.

It was also unclear which one of the two was supposedly seeking the divorce.

There have been rumors off and on since before his election a year ago that the couple was having marital problems.

Those rumors were brought to a head just before his election when Gibbons was accused of making a pass at a Las Vegas cocktail waitress in a parking garage outside a bar. He denied any improper conduct and Dawn supported him through that controversy.

The rumor mill charged that Gibbons was served with divorce papers Wednesday but that's not likely since he was in Washington D.C. for the winter meeting of the National Governor's Association and didn't return to Nevada until late Wednesday.

She attended the association meeting with him but returned to Nevada a day earlier.

During his time in the U.S. House, Gibbons was the only member of Congress to have served in both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. A former combat pilot, he also served eight years in the Nevada Assembly.

Dawn Gibbons filled his legislative seat when he was deployed with the Nevada Air Guard during the first Persian Gulf War. She then was elected in her own right when he was elected to Congress in 1996.

The two were married in June 1986. They have three children and three grandchildren.

• The Appeals Geoff Dornan, Associated Press writers Scott Sonner and Sandra Chereb in Reno and Kathleen Hennessey in Las Vegas all contributed to this report.