There’s a good profile of Democratic gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Dina Titus in today’s Review-Journal. Intrepid political reporter Erin Neff brings out a lot of background on Titus, including the fact that party elders have passed her over for runs at Congress or the Clark County Commission. Her bid for governor, as a result, is all but unstoppable.

A few of other interesting points, too:

• Consultant Terry Murphy — who worked with Henderson Mayor (and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful) Jim Gibson when Gibson was president of the now-defunct company that “managed” the Las Vegas Monorail — has come around to Titus’ camp.

“As much as I admire Jim Gibson, I don’t see how he can get out of the primary,” Murphy says in the piece. “The people who will vote in a Democratic primary in the middle of August are not likely to vote for him unless he can establish some real Democratic bona fides.”

• Consultant Mike Sullivan, on the other hand, embraces the No. 1 pragmatic criticism of Titus: “I think Dina’s very, very good but I’m just not sure how she beats Jim Gibbons,” he said, referring to Republican frontrunner. “I’m not going to say she can’t, but I don’t see how she brings the kind of Democrat who will vote for George Bush to the table.”

Um, if there are any Democrats left who would vote for George Bush out there, they need to get down to the county elections office and change party registrations. But that’s just us talking. Anyway, polls show Titus running stronger against Gibbons than any other Democrat. Then again, those polls do show her losing.

• Uber-consultant Billy Vassiliadis, head of R&R Partners, didn’t exactly come out against Titus, but neither did he give her the backing that Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie did. Then again, Vassiliadis may be afflicted by the dislike of Titus common to supporters of former candidate Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, who dropped out of the race last month.

“I think ‘I’m the guy to beat Jim Gibbons’ is one message that could work. Philosophically, partisan pure governor candidates aren’t typically the ones who win here,” he said.

True enough: Anointed candidates are the ones who typically win here. But for the first time, we could be seeing a race between two candidates — Titus and Gibbons — who don’t have all the money, endorsements and consultants sewn up. In other words, a real race. (Well, almost: Republican kingmaker Sig Rogich is helping Gibbons.)

For voters, that’s great. It means they may have a real race, and a real choice, for the first time in years. For consultants, it’s not so good, since if Titus does get elected, she won’t owe anybody anything. When’s the last time that happened?

Oh, the irony.

Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald used to serve on the Las Vegas City Council. And while there she was the only member who showed even a glimmer of understanding the whole “separation of powers” doctrine, which in Nevada constitutional parlance says that no person who exercises the powers of one branch of government may exercise the functions of another.

Simply stated, that means a person who serves as a state lawmaker cannot work for the government. It came up when Las Vegas Assemblyman Wendell Williams got in trouble in his job as a member of the city’s Neighborhood Services division. While other council members — including Mayor Oscar Goodman, who is an attorney and who formerly studied constitutional law, dithered on whether to ban city employees from municipal work if they got elected to office, Boggs McDonald was dead set against it.

And now, the irony: A two-member panel of the state Ethics Commission has found just and sufficient cause to hold a hearing on whether Boggs McDonald violated ethics laws. Her alleged crime? Asking city employee/lawmaker Williams to block a bill in the 2003 Legislature that would have reorganized the state treasurer’s office and cost Boggs McDonald’s husband, Steven, his job. (She’s also alleged to have asked former city employee and Assemblyman Morse Arberry to intervene to save her husband’s job after the 2003 session concluded.)

Call the hypocrisy police, baby. It’s a harsh slam for somebody who was so outspoken on the separation of powers issue to have allegedly used the double service to her own advantage.

Boggs McDonald’s attorney says she’s innocent, and the commission will hold a hearing into the matter Dec. 14. Acquittal won’t hurt Boggs McDonald much in the long run, but a finding she broke the law here could be more damaging than usual here, given her stance on separation of powers.

Belated greetings to a fellow blogger: U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who has taken to posting his thoughts on his very own blog. The site asks us to “Think of this website as your own: A place where you can be a part of taking back your Senate in 2006 and fighting to protect your communities.”

Ah, if only it were true. The Las Vegas Sun reported this weekend that Reid was reaching out to potential candidates all over. He’s asking state Sen. Mike Schneider to run against Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, freshman Las Vegas Councilman Steve Wolfson to run for lieutenant governor and former attorney general candidate John Hunt to run for, well, pretty much anything. (Wolfson wisely said no, but Schneider and Hunt may yet get involved.)

What’s missing? U.S. Senate, of course, where Reid and his Best Friend Forever, U.S. Sen. John Ensign, have forged a close working relationship. So close, in fact, that the leader of the Senate’s Democrats will very likely not recruit or even assist a Democratic opponent to challenge the Republican Ensign. We at Various Things & Stuff call that a “Bernstein,” after the lackluster support Reid showed for attorney Ed Bernstein, who ran against Ensign in 2000.

Nevada’s Democrats — we suspect, since we’re not registered with the party ourselves — would love to take back the Senate and protect their communities. Only if they do, they’ll be doing it without the help of the guy who’s the top Democratic dog in Nevada, and one of the top three leaders of the party nationwide.

That’s too bad.