Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Joe Heck will sign the Americans for Tax Reform’s anti-tax pledge, which ups the ante in the GOP contest that’s just getting off the ground. Word broke via the Nevada News Bureau moments ago. Here’s the story:

Heck to Sign Tax Pledge

(Las Vegas, NV) – Republican gubernatorial candidate Joe Heck will sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) at a private event on Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m. in Las Vegas.

Karri Bragg, Executive Vice President of Citizen Outreach and former ATR staffer, will serve as an official witness of the signing ceremony.

Heck will join Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons in pledging to the voters of Nevada to “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

The decision to sign the Tax Pledge comes less than 48 hours after fellow Republican Brian Sandoval entered the gubernatorial race and declared that he would not sign the Pledge.

The fourth Republican in the GOP primary race, former Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon, has not signed the Tax Pledge.

The pledge, which obligates candidates to oppose and veto any attempts to increase taxes, didn’t stop Gibbons from allowing a room tax increase to become law without his signature during the 2009 Legislature, however.

Sandoval, in several media interviews today, said he won’t sign the pledge because it would make a candidate irrelevant to any debate over whether to raise taxes.

Hey, do you think they make candidates sign in their own blood? That would be cool to see, but darn it, it’s a “private ceremony.” Well, maybe they’ll take photos.