Lisa Mascaro of the Las Vegas Sun had a very timely and insightful story yesterday on Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, who doubles as the Democrats’ Majority Leader in the United States Senate in DC. The hope of many Nevada Republicans is that they’ll be able to do to Reid in 2010 what South Dakota Republicans did to then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004. But the chances of “Daschling” Reid in 2010 appear rather remote these days in Nevada, thanks in large part to…Nevada Republicans.
First, there’s no Republican candidate on the horizon who Nevada Republicans are talking about and rallying behind. And you can’t beat somebody with nobody.
“I don’t see any strong Republican that could come aboard right now and flex his muscle,” state Sen. Dean Rhoades of Tuscarora told Mascaro. “We don’t have any leader out there right now that would be a capable candidate.”
He’s absolutely right. To be able to take out someone like Harry Reid, you’re going to need a boatload of money, an energized base, superior campaign management, organization and the best darned opposition research money can buy. And there’s no such Republican on the Nevada horizon.
Secondly, when you have elected Republicans fawning over Reid in newspaper stories…well, let’s be charitable and say that’s just not very helpful.
“Elko County Commissioner Sheri Eklund-Brown, a Republican, voted for Reid in 2004,” reports Mascaro. “I ignore what he (Reid) does in Washington,” Eklund-Brown said. “We’ve got four Republicans on our commission and I can tell you they’d say the same thing. I can see on a daily basis what he does for Northern Nevada.”
Gee, do you think that little quote might make it into a Harry Reid mailer in 2010? Good grief.
Republican Humboldt County Commissioner John Milton isn’t much better. Mascaro reports that “in Reid, Milton saw a man of action. Milton, who had not voted for Reid in 1998, crossed party lines to help reelect the senator 2004.”
Lovely.
Then again, both Republican commissioners are only following the lead being set by the state’s lead Republican in Congress, Sen. John Ensign.
“Also aiding Reid is John Ensign, Nevada’s Republican senator,” Mascaro notes. “Ensign has made it clear he will not attack Reid, as part of the detente the two reached after the 1998 race. Without Ensign’s backing and money, any contender has a steeper hill to climb.”
Mountain is more like it.
Absent a high-quality candidate and Ensign’s support, the hardest thing for Nevada Republicans in 2010 is probably going to be admitting to themselves that they have no shot at defeating Reid and putting their time, money and efforts toward something more politically doable…such gaining control of the Nevada Assembly and changing Minority Leader Heidi Gansert’s title to Speaker Gansert.
Let the Seven-Step program begin.
Posted on September 10th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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