He is in charge of a state where the brothels are legal and where the weddings are conducted by fat men in white spandex jumpsuits.

And yet Jim Gibbons, a former Vietnam fighter pilot-turned-Republican Governor of Nevada, has still managed to shock his hard-bitten constituents.

The problem is the implosion of his marriage to Dawn Gibbons, a former manager of the Heart of Reno wedding chapel, who once issued an official press release before a state ball to announce that “the First Lady will be wearing a Bordeaux velvet gown designed by Giorgio Armani”.

But after two decades of loyal service - she stood by her husband even after he was accused of drunkenly groping a woman in a car park - Mrs Gibbons is proving to be a formidable adversary in the divorce courts.

Indeed, she has helped to create a nationwide scandal that has provoked condescending sniggers from as far away as New York, with the Governor's marital problems growing into a news event of such unstoppable momentum that Republicans now fear the state could end up being handed to the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, in November.

Since Mr Gibbons, 63, filed for divorce last month, the “first couple” of Nevada have brawled over the 23-room governor's mansion; she has accused him of cheating and he has denied it; she has asked him to prove his claim that they are “incompatible”; and he has tried - and failed - to keep the proceedings sealed.

An even worse problem for the Governor is Mrs Gibbons's legal representative: Cal Dunlap, perhaps the most feared lawyer in the state. He has gone on record to call Mr Gibbons “one of the most, if not the most, scandal-ridden governors in the history of this state”. Through Mr Dunlap, Mrs Gibbons has blamed the collapse of their 22-year marriage on the Governor's “fawning involvement” with an unnamed third party, and she has alleged that Mr Gibbons made this woman “his frequent bar, lunch, dinner and even grocery store companion”.

As a result, the Governor is now followed everywhere by paparazzi. They have documented him taking one “mystery woman” out for sushi and another to see the film Sex and the City. Mr Gibbons, who is up for re-election in 2010, strenuously denies having a girlfriend. He wrote recently to a local newspaper criticising harshly an editorial that stated, among other things, that he had been involved with the wife of a Reno doctor. The article was “absolutely out of the bounds of good taste and common decency”, he said.

Yet the Governor is no stranger to such outlandish claims. In 2006 he faced scrutiny and ridicule over the alleged groping incident, although charges were never filed. He remains under investigation over allegations that he took “gifts” from a defence contractor while serving in Congress (he was photographed at a contractor's event giving a woman bunny ears). And he is facing a $1 billion shortfall in state revenues caused by the slowing economy.

Meanwhile, the issue of where the Governor and his wife sleep at night remains unresolved. Mrs Gibbons has proposed that she sleep in the guesthouse of the mansion and continue her public duties. Mr Gibbons has asked the judge presiding over the case to award him sole occupancy of the mansion - partly funded with taxpayers' money - and give his wife occupancy of the couple's Reno home, where he has been living in recent months.

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