Poll: Nevada governor unpopular

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons is the least popular governor in the Mountain West, an analysis by three regional newspapers indicates.

Gibbons, a Republican, has a 23 percent positive rating. That's at least 30 points lower than any of the other five Western governors whose job performance was rated by voters in their states in a regional poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Denver Post and the Salt Lake Tribune.

The survey found 46 percent of Nevadans polled believe Gibbons is doing a "poor" job as governor. By comparison, just 3 percent of Wyoming residents said they believe Gov. Dave Freudenthal has been a poor governor, the Review-Journal reported Sunday.

"It is embarrassing to the state and embarrassing to himself," Nevada Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said of Gibbons' low ratings.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. interviewed 400 residents in each state to determine the ratings. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.