A few weeks ago Gov. Jim Gibbons’ Chief Operating Officer, Dianne Cornwall, made the family’s personal marriage problems public by commenting on a scheduled family meeting to discuss the matter.
Then the issue went dark for awhile, until newspapers found out and reported that the governor was no longer living in the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City. Still, pretty much a one-day story and not much, really, to chew on.
But then last Thursday Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison published excerpts from a phone interview she did with First Lady Dawn Gibbons which seriously stoked the fire, especially this…
“Dawn Gibbons said her husband’s move back to their Reno home was not at her request. ‘I certainly didn’t ask him to leave. I had nothing to do with it.’ She said his clothes and boots are still at the mansion. ‘I’m standing in the closet looking at them right now,’ she said. The lines of communication have been cut from his end, said his wife of more than 20 years. ‘I can’t get ahold of him. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know why he’s divorcing me. All I’m trying to do is keep it together,’ she said. ‘I never asked him to move out.’ No divorce papers have been filed, she said.”
The following afternoon Gov. Gibbons officially filed for divorce. It would seem Dawn’s going public and airing the family’s “dirty laundry” was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
While one would hope that cooler heads would then intervene and keep this matter under control and out of the public arena, Jon Ralston is reporting that the governor’s lawyer persuaded Judge Bill Maddox to seal the Gibbons divorce case today “without the knowledge of Dawn Gibbons’ attorney,” Cal Dunlap.
“I believe public officials’ actions, including divorce, ought to be transparent,” Ralston quotes Dunlap as saying in response, before throwing even more gasoline on the fire…
“She (Dawn Gibbons) basically got him (Jim Gibbons) where he is today,” Dunlap said. “She is the moving force to just about every office he has been elected to. I can’t say he didn’t play a role. She is the more charming of the two. This will be contested unless he is willing to provide what he should.”
Them’s what we call back East “fightin’ words.”
It appears that any hope for this matter being resolved quickly and quietly has now vanished. The spectacle of a long, drawn-out, ugly public divorce appears to be in the cards. Dunlap, after all, in addition to being lawyer is reportedly a former Democrat congressional candidate and party donor who would like nothing better than to inflict political damage to the Republican governor in addition to defending his client.
It’s truly a shame that Jim and Dawn Gibbons are going through this terribly painful end to their marriage. It’s an even bigger shame that the citizens of Nevada will apparently now be dragged through it with them.
Posted on May 5th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
I’ve never been a fan of Dawn’s. Apparently, Jim and her marriage has not been perfect for a long time. She always seems to be trying to run on his coattails. Of course Jon Ralston likes her better, she’s a Rino!
Time for her to leave and good riddance. We don’t need a tax and spender in the Governor’s mansion. The people of Nevada did not vote her in, nor did they vote her in to take Jim’s place in Congress. Wake up and smell the coffee. It’s OVER!
I wonder where COO Cornwall fits in this matter?
Far be it for me to take sides in a divorce, the details of which I know nothing, but since its called the “Governor’s Mansion” and not “the soon to be ex-first lady’s mansion” shouldn’t the living arrangements be reversed?