State’s next first lady will be one very busy woman

Nevada’s next first lady won’t be traditional.

Both Kathleen Sandoval and Cindy Reid are political wives with careers of their own. They juggle marriage, three children and a job they love. They might find time to emulate Nancy Reagan and gaze adoringly at their husbands during speeches, but they’ll probably be too busy for much of that.

If Republican Brian Sandoval is elected governor in November, Kathleen Sandoval will continue working at the Children’s Cabinet in Reno, a nonprofit designed to keep children safe and families together.

If Democrat Rory Reid is elected, the family hasn’t decided whether Cindy Reid will continue teaching in Las Vegas, but that remains a possibility. One complication is that their 14-year-old son is just starting high school. Will he want to move to Carson City or perhaps stay in Henderson with his mom? Those decisions haven’t been made.

Rory Reid is trailing Brian Sandoval in the polls, so it might be a moot question. But if that changes and the Clark County commissioner wins, the family will decide what’s best for everyone. “If we have that honor (of winning) we’ll approach it as a family at that time,” Cindy Reid said.

Kathleen Sandoval, 45, is family and youth program director at the Children’s Cabinet, where she has worked for 11 years. “It’s definitely my passion,” she said.

While being first lady will be important, she said, the Children’s Cabinet needs her, too. It’s in the midst of moving into a new building and expanding services. “My background with families and youths can be important to the state,” she said.

The Sandovals have three children ages 15, 13 and 6, and she said there’s flexibility in her job. She can do work at home as well, though in this case, home might be the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City rather than Reno.

She said her continuing to work at the Children’s Cabinet was one of the conversations she had with her husband when he was deciding whether he should run.

Cindy Reid, 46, has taken a leave this fall from College of Southern Nevada, where she teaches English, writing and composition. Her daughters — 19 and 18 — are both in college, while her 14-year-old son starts high school this fall. She has taught at CSN for about nine years and also has taught high school. When she stayed home to raise the children, she also obtained her master’s degree in education at UNLV.

She has been involved with helping her husband develop his education plan and held a seat for four years on the State Board of Education, which gave her a statewide perspective on education.

The two women have never met, yet seem to have much in common. Mothers, wives, activists in their fields, married to men who each have a vision of Nevada’s future, just a different strategy of how to get there.

Nevada’s most nontraditional gubernatorial spouse would have been Tom Wright, a history professor at UNLV who would have been first gentleman if his wife, Dina Titus, had won the election in 2006. Instead the victor was Jim Gibbons, the first Nevada governor to divorce his wife while serving in office, a nontraditional political act.

Wright planned to take a semester off to ease into the Governor’s Mansion, then would have tried to transfer to University of Nevada, Reno, to continue working. But like any other gubernatorial spouse, he would have hosted special events at the mansion.

The time for the working gubernatorial spouse — whether first lady or first dude — has definitely arrived, and not just because it takes two incomes to raise a family. It’s late, but a spouse’s commitment to a career no longer is expected to yield to a mate’s political ambition.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.