Sharron Angle may be the GOP’s nominee, but the Tea Party Express and Club for Growth now own the Nevada U.S. Senate race. For all intents and purposes, they “bought” the nomination for Angle…and now it’s up to them to carry her all the way through to a general election win. If she loses, these two organizations end up with major league egg on their face and we end up with six more years of Harry Reid.
High stakes indeed.
Here’s Job #1 for Angle now: Unite and MOTIVATE the Republican base to get behind her.
The uniting part is the easy part. Harry Reid is the glue.
But as in previous races, Sharron did not get the majority of GOP voters in the primary – which calls into question her ability to pull in moderate Democrats and independents in the general. And while she’ll persuade most of the Republicans who didn’t vote for her in the primary to back her in the general , those Republicans are not yet ready to walk through walls for her. And against Reid, she’s going to need a LOT of people who will walk through at lot of walls for her.
But they’ll only do so if they truly believe she can win.
Unless the Angle campaign quickly demonstrates an objective, believable path to victory against the Reid Machine – not one built on emotion and happy talk – a lot of Nevada Republicans will vote for her but put their time and money into other races that look more winnable…like the governor’s race or Joe Heck’s congressional race against Dina Titus.
GOP hearts are with Sharron, but not as many minds yet.
This just in: Red flag warning!
Read this brief release put out by the Angle campaign this morning concerning an EPA regulation vote yesterday:
“Once again Harry Reid has put the extreme environmental agenda of the Obama Administration against the well being of his own state. He twisted arms of his fellow Democrats who wanted to vote for the resolution, causing it to fail. These regulations proposed by EPA would be harmful to most sectors of the domestic energy industry and eventually substantially raise the utility bill of every American. Even one of the most liberal members of the Senate, Jay Rockefeller, said he was voting for the resolution because he ‘didn’t want EPA turning out the lights on America.’ It’s time to replace a Senator who is so out of touch with what the people of Nevada want.”
Maybe I’m just paranoid, but this statement does not sound to me like the sort of clear, “regular folks” statement we’re used to getting from the Angle campaign. This has Washington “inside-the-beltway” written all over it. It screams DC-speak.
“Extreme environmental agenda.” “Domestic energy industry.” “Eventually substantially raise.” “Most liberal members.” “Out of touch.” And not one mention of a tsunami? Has the establishment already taken over Angle’s communications operation? Has she “gone native” already? Say it ain’t so!
One closing note about Danny Tarkanian.
He’s now a three-time loser. He ran for the Legislature…and lost. He ran for Secretary of State…and lost. And now he’s run for U.S. Senate…and lost.
Guess that means he’s running for President in 2012!
Seriously, though, I can’t remember a more intellectually dishonest campaign than the one he ran against Sue Lowden.
Look, I’m a big believer in negative campaigning. As much as some people bitch about it, negative campaigning which contrasts you and your record against your opponent and his or her record is not only essential, it works. However…
It should be honest. Especially in a Republican primary. Danny’s attacks weren’t. At best they were misleading. Many were just outright lies.
Fortunately, Republican voters made him pay a price for being such a louse.
Danny has a famous last name and some talking points…and that’s it. He’s a perennial loser with a bad temper now verging on gadfly status. He needs to quit politics and find another line of work.
Problem is, he’s already tried law, and failed at that. Then he tried real estate speculation, and failed at that.
Maybe Hangun Control, Inc. is hiring?
