Republican Whoremonger Outpolls Romney

Lance Gilman is a happy camper. He was just elected County Commissioner in Storey County, Nevada-- and elected by a wide margin. It's a tiny county-- population 4,010, horseshoed between Washoe (Reno) and Carson. Storey was the only county in the state to vote to legalize marijuana in the 2006 referendum. Earlier this month, President Obama got 920 votes there (40%) and Romney got 1,321 votes (57%). Of Nevada's 17 counties, Storey was the 5th best-performing for the president. Gilman, a grandfather, did better than Romney, winning 62% of the vote.

Prostitution is legal there-- and it isn't legal in Reno. That means big business. And that's Lance Gilman's business; he owns the Mustang Ranch brothel 10 miles east of Reno down the I-80. Gilman employs between 30 and 80 prostitutes there, depending on the season. The brothel was seized by the Feds from the original owner, Joe Conforte, as much a tax evader as Mitt Romney but now a fugitive in Brazil, and Gilman bought it from the government and added it to his small but thriving prostitution empire. He also owns two restaurants and a Harley-Davidson dealership.

Gilman has been a generous donor to the GOP, especially to Dean Heller, one of the state's two senators but he used to give money to Heller's predecessor, John Ensign and to another Republican senator who was certainly never a client, outed closet case Larry Craig of Idaho. Gilman describes himself as a "dye-in-the-wool Republican who loves American values." He sees prostitution as a libertarian value and he's damn proud that his girls are regularly checked by doctors. Republicans, especially the dye-in-the-wool ones, are the damnedest critters.