“Former Republican Assemblywoman Sharron Angle is contemplating another run for the 2nd district congressional seat currently occupied by Rep. Dean Heller,” writes Joseph Cooper over at PolitickerNV.com. “A run by Angle could pose a serious risk to Heller as she has proven both broad appeal in the district and impressive fundraising prowess. In 2006 Angle lost the Republican primary to Heller by only 321 votes in a heated three-way race that included now-Nevada First Lady Dawn Gibbons. Angle was also able to match Heller in fundraising that year-both barely broke the 800K mark in pre-primary dollars.”
No way, Jose. That was then. This is now.
That race in 2006 was for an “open” seat with no incumbent, as then-Rep. Jim Gibbons had opted to give up his congressional seat to run for governor. It’s one thing to run competitively for an open seat with no incumbent; it’s quite another to run against an incumbent, as Heller is now.
Also, Angle’s “impressive fundraising prowess” was more a factor of the Club for Growth’s impressive fundraising prowess. The Washington, DC-based organization of fiscal conservatives backed Angle, as Dick Cheney would say, big time.
But Heller and the Club have since made peace and it is highly unlikely the Club would again pump hundreds of thousands of dollars Angle’s way against the incumbent. Without the Club’s backing and dough, Angle would have a tough time even coming close to the money Heller has already banked for his re-election.
Then there’s Heller’s voting record since taking office. Conservatives would be hard-pressed to find many votes the freshman Republican has cast that they could disagree with. Angle’s appeal in 2006 was as the conservative candidate, with her campaign portraying Heller as a moderate. But again, Heller’s voting record has been stellar. There’s simply no conservative reason in his votes for conservatives to want to boot him out and replace him with Angle.
Angle definitely has political appeal in a conservative district and could well be a formidable candidate on the ballot again in 2008. But not against Heller for Congress. That ship has sailed.
Posted on February 12th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
who is this guy - i keep getting my email bounced. i had a note on romney on the bottom.
From: postmaster@isp.att.net
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Date: February 13, 2008 2:49:25 PM EST
To: stardustsara@bellsouth.net
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From: Sara Rainone
Date: February 13, 2008 2:35:55 PM EST
To: ericjdodom@gmail.com
Subject: Fwd: Returned mail: delivery problems encounteredsomething is up there -romney is just too quiet. i am taking a wait and see attitude. if he is selected as the VP - that is when i will throw my support to mc cain - and it is substantial as i worked for 6 months for romney and helped get him a win in my county.
also, would someone please tell mc cain to stop standing in the front of a group of old people. it is so disheartening.
sara rainone
vero beach
Thanks for the story Chuck, I gotta agree, but…
It is the craziest world! Club for Growth was a big backer of Angle in 2006. Recently, the Club for Growth released its “2007 RePORK Card” which identified 50 different anti-pork amendments and rated the votes. Only 16 House members got a perfect score, one of whom is Heller. But when one looks at the 50 ammendments selected by the CFG, one could conclude that it was a very selective criteria. Certainly out of the tens of thousands of earmarks there are many more that are even more egregious than the 50 selected for scoring.
The crazy part? He voted AGAINST all approriations bills even though he had pork barrel earmarks in everyone of them. President Bush is rightfully against earmarks, yet Heller doesn’t agree with the president.
Heller goes on television, says he is against out of control spending and in the same interviews say’s that Washington D/C. doesn’t understand the needs of rural Nevadans. Huh?! We stand on our two feet and don’t need the ‘kindness’ of D.C. in our communities!
Sorry for the long statement, but I gotta say, I don’ understand that fella Heller….is he for a small limited governement or is he for government pork barrel spending? Action speak louder than words, and with some one hundred earmarks worth $120,000,000, I quess he’s a RINO.