Poll: Gibbons trails Sandoval in GOP primary race

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval has widened his lead over incumbent Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, according to a new poll released Friday.

The poll, commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, showed Gibbons trailing Sandoval by 18 percentage points. A similar poll conducted in April had Sandoval leading by 14 percentage points. In February, the Sandoval lead was 7 percentage points.

Early voting begins a week from Saturday for Nevada's

June 8 primary. The winner of the GOP contest is expected to face Democrat Rory Reid, chairman of the Clark County Commission, in November.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., polled 500 expected Republican party primary voters for the most recent survey. The results had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Gibbons served five terms in Congress before being elected governor in 2006. Sandoval is a former state assemblyman, Nevada Gaming Commission chairman, attorney general and federal judge who gave up his lifetime appointment to the bench in September to seek the state's highest office.

The results show Repub-

lican voters have yet to be swayed by a Democratic-led campaign against Sandoval accusing him of changing his stance on issues such as immigration, taxes and rights for same-sex couples.

A group called Committee to Protect Nevada Jobs has been airing television ads targeting Sandoval. The group is led by Dan Hart, a Democ-

ratic consultant with long ties to Reid.

Gibbons' campaign in January reported $35,000 in the bank, a fraction of the nearly $1 million Sandoval reported raising in his first three months of campaigning.