Getting the right Angle on Harry Reid's reelection challenge

Sharron Angle is dead, one in an occasional series.

The question cannot be ignored considering all that has happened since the primary: If Sharron Angle truly is as cuckoo as Harry Reid says she is and as her own words occasionally indicate, why isn’t the Senate majority leader, arguably the most powerful Nevadan in history, running away from her in the polls?

Although it’s possible Reid may continue to gain ground on Angle — he has gone from being down double digits to having slight leads in most surveys — the inexorable number in nearly every poll is the one that shows about half of the electorate disapproves of Reid. With 10 weeks until early voting begins, and with Reid hoarding enough money to unload all of the ammunition Angle has provided, it has become clear that either the majority leader can’t beat anyone this year or the GOP nominee is the only person he can survive.

At first glance, the prospect is startling: The most powerful man in Nevada, who controls the Democratic Party and is as canny as they come, could lose to a backbencher assemblywoman, who has no help from the party, who is on a mission from God, who thinks entitlements are extra-constitutional and who doesn’t think gays should adopt. I could go on with positions she has espoused, despite any current rhetorical mellowing, that generally are seen as out of the mainstream. But no need.

It’s almost preposterous, right? Sharron Angle defeating Harry Reid? Come on.

But here’s the rub: People hate Reid. I tell my daughter never to use that verb, but it’s the only word for it. It seethes, blinds, sputters.

I am asked all the time for the provenance of such animus. I still believe it is a combination: Anger at the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda that folks blame for their economic lot, Reid’s four decades in politics, his general mien and, of course, his intemperate remarks (war is lost, taxes are voluntary, tourists smell).

But it is profoundly irrational, too, much of the time, and thus impossible to change with a “She’s from Crazytown” campaign. And that’s what keeps the Reid folks up at night, knowing no matter how skillful they are — and he has the best campaign team Nevada has seen — the Reid-haters will not listen. They may be able to scare a small percentage to stay home or vote for “none of these candidates” — and that may be enough — but Team Reid can’t be sure, no matter what the next Angle revelation is.

Rothenberg: 11 Senate seats held by Democrats are in play

Until about 10 days ago, I agreed with the conventional wisdom that control of the House of Representatives was up for grabs this fall but that Republicans had yet to put the Senate into play. I no longer believe that.

The chances that the next Senate will have a Republican majority are not great, but even three months ago there were not enough Senate seats in play to imagine a Republican gain of 10 seats. Now there are, with 11 Democratic seats definitely competitive.

But at the same time that Republican prospects have brightened overall, they suddenly look less bright than previously in at least a couple of states: Nevada and Illinois.

Just a few months ago, Democratic nominees Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada and Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias looked like sure losers in their races, but their candidacies have been resuscitated by their GOP opponents.

Even Republican political operatives acknowledge privately that former Nevada state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle has been an even worse candidate than they had thought. And while recent polling in the Silver State may overstate Reid’s prospects in the fall, it seems clear that the contest has evolved from being purely a referendum on Reid and President Barack Obama to being a choice between Reid and Angle.

That’s a far less advantageous position for the challenger and a far better one for Reid. Angle’s prospects have now slipped from being a clear favorite to only 50-50.

Reid remains a political basket case, but he certainly has a fighting chance in a contest of two unappealing nominees. And Angle has the benefit of a Republican wind at her back that could still turn into a gale-force wind. Republicans might want to ship Angle out of the country for a few months to improve her prospects.

Tea Party excels at choosing conservative winners

Leading this American renewal is the increasingly brilliant Tea Party movement, which is rapidly disproving all the fears regarding its emergence of a year ago. Rather than dividing the conservative, free market vote, or chasing the Republican Party off an extremist cliff, in race after race it has demonstrated an uncanny ability to coalesce around the most conservative candidate that can win. In this, it has served as a Club for Growth on steroids, knocking the RINOs where they belong, all the way to the Democrat party. What I love most about the Tea Party is the way it has remained a thoroughly decentralized movement without the emergence of an identifiable national leadership, yet in a classic free market way that very decentralization has operated all the more effectively.

Here are some of the genuine, grassroots leaders that the American people aided by the Tea Party movement have now called forth in the new emerging leadership of the GOP.

Sharron Angle
Sharron Angle took on the political establishment in Nevada and won. I am not talking about her recent, stirring, come from behind primary victory over 10 other candidates to win the GOP nomination to oppose Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Republican Angle's lead over Harry Reid grows to 11 points

Sharron Angle, following her come-from-behind Republican Primary win Tuesday, has bounced to an 11-point lead over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada’s closely-watched U.S. Senate race.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Nevada, taken Wednesday night, shows Angle earning 50% support while Reid picks up 39% of the vote. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

A month ago, Angle led Reid 48% to 40% but ran poorest against the incumbent of the three GOP primary hopefuls as she has for months.

In Nevada, Tea Partier Sharron Angle will take on Sen. Harry Reid - the renegade outsider against the poster boy insider

Republican voters in Nevada on Tuesday nominated Sharron Angle to take on Democratic Sen. Harry Reid — something that was unimaginable just two months ago when Angle was polling in the single digits and having a hard time getting anybody to pay attention to her campaign. Then came the Tea Party Express (TPX).

Everything changed when the group, run by longtime Republican operatives in California, threw its weight behind Angle in Washington D.C. at a Tax Day conference heavily attended by the national media.

“When the Tea Party Express endorsed her, everybody took a second look,” said Larry Hart, a campaign consultant for Angle, in an interview with The Daily Caller. “And that changed the whole dynamic of the campaign. So, yes, they do get a lot of credit for giving her the credibility to really build her support up to where it is now.”

Angle defeated frontrunner and establishment choice Sue Lowden, Danny Tarkanian and a host of other Republicans Tuesday night. She will face Harry Reid — perhaps the most wanted of Democratic incumbents by Republicans this cycle — in November.

Though Angle’s campaign concedes TPX’s role in making her campaign, members of the Tea Party organization hesitate to take credit publicly.

“We didn’t create her,” said TPX’s Mark Williams, a conservative radio host, in an email to The Daily Caller. “Sharron was a one-person Tea Party before there was a Tea Party movement.”

Tea Party Express shows muscle in nomination of Sharron Angle

Republican voters in Nevada on Tuesday nominated Sharron Angle to take on Democratic Sen. Harry Reid — something that was unimaginable just two months ago when Angle was polling in the single digits and having a hard time getting anybody to pay attention to her campaign. Then came the Tea Party Express (TPX).
Everything changed when the group, run by longtime Republican operatives in California, threw its weight behind Angle in Washington D.C. at a Tax Day conference heavily attended by the national media.

“When the Tea Party Express endorsed her, everybody took a second look,” said Larry Hart, a campaign consultant for Angle, in an interview with The Daily Caller. “And that changed the whole dynamic of the campaign. So, yes, they do get a lot of credit for giving her the credibility to really build her support up to where it is now.”

Angle defeated frontrunner and establishment choice Sue Lowden, Danny Tarkanian and a host of other Republicans Tuesday night. She will face Harry Reid — perhaps the most wanted of Democratic incumbents by Republicans this cycle — in November.