LAS VEGAS — Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada, whose marital
problems have been a titillating sideshow to the state’s more
serious budget problems, filed for divorce on Friday, starting
a legal battle to force his wife of 24 years to vacate the governor’s
mansion.
Since last month, Mr. Gibbons, a first-term Republican, has
been living in the couple’s Reno home while his wife, Dawn Gibbons,
remained at the official residence in Carson City.
“Our firm filed various legal documents pertaining to the
dissolution of his marriage and requesting a court ruling concerning
the living arrangements of Governor and Mrs. Gibbons,” Mr. Gibbons’s
lawyer, Gary Silverman, said in a statement.
The governor’s spokesman, Ben Kieckhefer, said Friday that
he was not authorized to speak about the matter. Messages left
for Mrs. Gibbons were not answered.
Mr. Gibbons had been under pressure to resolve the matter
of his living arrangements in part because of an 1866 law stating
that he must “keep his office and reside at the seat of government.”
The Gibbons are one of the state’s most politically ambitious
couples. Mrs. Gibbons served three terms in the Nevada Assembly
while Mr. Gibbons was a United States congressman. She lost
the primary race to succeed him in Congress in 2006 when he
ran for governor. The couple have a 20-year-old son.
Mrs. Gibbons has been credited by political experts with helping
to save her husband’s bid for governor when she supported him
amid accusations he had sexually propositioned a cocktail waitress
after an evening of drinking with her and other women weeks
before the election.
Mrs. Gibbons was quoted in The Las Vegas Review-Journal on
Thursday as saying that she did not “know why” her husband was
seeking a divorce. “I never asked him to move out,” she said.
