A quote from today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal neatly (and hilariously) sums up the state of the 2010 senate race in Nevada:
Nevada Republicans have been frustrated by the lack of a clear opponent for Reid, a Democrat who would be considered vulnerable if he weren’t running unopposed.
The article, however, is focused on Sharron Angle, who may wind up, at the very least, preventing Reid from being unopposed. If the name sounds vaguely familiar, she’s a former assemblywoman from Reno who finished a super-close second in the 2nd District primary in 2006, sandwiched between then-SoS, now-Rep. Dean Heller and Dawn Gibbons, the soon-to-be-ex-wife of then-Rep., now-Gov., soon-to-be-unemployed Jim Gibbons. In 2008, she ran in the GOP primary against state senator Bill Raggio (currently the minority leader) from the right, but lost that too.
With top-tier candidates like Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki sidelined by an indictment for misappropriation of state funds, and ex-Rep. Jon Porter settling in on K Street, the Nevada GOP bench doesn’t have much left on it. The national and state parties, nevertheless, haven’t expressed much interest in Angle. She says the push to run has come from “supporters,” and that she…
wasn’t recruited by the state GOP or the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but she said she hopes to talk to them if she gets the commitments she’s hoping for.
Meanwhile, Harry Reid continues to put the “$” in “Vega$,” raising $2 million in the first quarter, with over $5 million cash on hand. If he continues to raise at that clip (in an inexpensive media state like Nevada) and he faces Angle (whose current fundraising goal is $100,000 by May) in the general, this once-thought-vulnerable race may wind up being a footnote in 2010.
Until this weekend, the normally astute 538 for several weeks has listed NV as the most likely Dem Senate seat to flip.
He just dropped it down to second most likely Dem seat a few days ago.
And in light of what’s in this post RE Reid’s money and lack of opponents, even 2nd seems too high right now.
They should just try to recruit a rich businessman from the Vegas area to run against Reid. Someone who can at least self-fund. Though he may do poorly in rural NV, which may be fatal, as they might identify with Reid more (as he has rural roots)