Nevada Governor's Race Gets 'Flirty and Dirty'

Oct. 26, 2006 — -- "What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas." Right? Not if you're a politician running for the highest office in the state.

That's what Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons, who is campaigning for governor of Nevada, has learned.

In a classic case of "he said, she said," Nevada newspapers and television stations have embarked on a political feeding frenzy. And it's getting nasty. Or as one individual described the events leading up to an emerging scandal in the race, "flirty and dirty."

Here's the background. It's a little complicated.

For Gibbons, Friday the 13th proved an unlucky day. That was the day when Gibbons and his campaign adviser stopped by McCormick and Schmick's restaurant to get out of the rain and down a nightcap or two.

Somehow the two of them ended up at a table with a couple of women who were later joined by two other women, Chrissy Mazzeo and her friend Penny Puhek.

What happens from that point on depends on whether you believe Gibbons or Mazzeo, a 32-year-old cocktail waitress and student.

Mazzeo said she called Las Vegas police later that night and told them that Gibbons forced her up against the wall of a parking garage and threatened her after he'd made unwanted advances over drinks earlier in the restaurant bar.

Gibbons denies it. He told reporters at a news conference that he was walking Mazzeo to the parking garage to find her vehicle when she slipped and he grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. He said she only looked at him, said nothing, and walked away.

"I was not stumbling. I did not trip. I did not need help off a wet pavement," Mazzeo said in a news conference she called Wednesday.

The two also disagree over how much each imbibed on the evening in question. Both have claimed they each had only a couple glasses wine; each has accused the other of drinking much more.

Had enough, yet?

It gets seamier.

Remember Mazzeo's friend and companion at the bar on the night of the incident, Pennie Puhek? Now Mazzeo said Puhek acted as a go-between, relaying threats and bribes from the Gibbons' camp until Mazzeo agreed not to pursue her complaint with police, the day after the incident.