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Nevada Senate
| NEVADA |
Nov. 2,
2010 U.S. Senate |
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Plurality: 41,424 votes (5.74 percentage points). NV
Secretary of State
Notes: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) started out in early Jan. 2010 as "the most vulnerable incumbent." In his bid for a fifth term, Reid benefited from having a hard-right opponent, Tea Party favorite former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R), and from a well-run campaign; he defied the odds and won (1, 2). The Reid-Angle contest was the most expensive Senate race of the 2010 cycle (>). Reid was not a popular figure; he was the Senate leader, yet Nevada ranked at the top of all 50 states in categories such as unemployment (14-percent) and foreclosures. Reid's unpopularity prompted a dozen candidates to run in the June 8 Republican primary (>). Angle, the eventual nominee, worked as a teacher for 25 years and was first elected to office in 1992 as a member of the Nye County School Board of Trustees. For a time in the mid-1990s she was a member of the Independent American Party. Angle was elected to the Assembly from Reno in 1998 and 2002, serving to Jan. 2007. In 2006 she ran for Congress in the 2nd CD, narrowly losing the Republican primary to Secretary of State Dean Heller. Sue Lowden served as chair of the Nevada Republican Party from 2007-09. She also served one term in the Nevada Senate in the 1990s and started out her career as a reporter and anchorwoman. Danny Tarkanian, a businessman and the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, had run for State Senate in 2004 and Secretary of State in 2006. Angle won with 70,424 votes (40.09%) followed by Lowden at 45,871 votes (26.11%) and Tarkanian at 40,926 votes (23.30%). In the Democratic primary, Reid won with 75.32% of the vote. Both the Reid and Angle campaigns unleashed a flurry of negative ads (>). There was one debate, on Oct. 14, sponsored by the Nevada Broadcasters Foundation/Nevada Broadcasters Association (>). Campaigns do make a difference. In an excellent post-election piece, Politico's Shira Toeplitz wrote that Reid "ran a nearly flawless, textbook campaign" while Angle's campaign was "a model of dysfunction." The Angle campaign spent $28.3 million compared to $26.0 million for the Reid campaign. Open Secrets put total spending in the race (all candidates and groups) at $82.8 million including $63.3 million by campaigns and $19.5 million by outside groups. Campaign Managers: Harry Reid: Brandon Hall (reported by Politico, Jan. 14, 2009) Senior advisor to Mark Begich’s 2008 U.S. campaign in Alaska. Western financial services director at the DCCC from Feb. 2007. "Worked on multiple congressional races and ballot initiative campaigns, and served as a legislative aide on the Hill in Washington, D.C.." Studied politics at the University of Washington. Originally from Seattle. Sharron Angle: Terry Campbell Ran Angle's 1998 and 2002 campaigns for Assembly. From Missouri. See also: Jim Margolis, Anson Kaye, Brandon Hall and Rebecca Lambe. "Through the Storm: TV Ads and Harry Reid's Nevada Comeback." Campaigns & Elections, Vol. 32, Issue 1 (Jan. 2011), pages 43-47. Shira Toeplitz. "Angle's campaign sank candidate." Politico, Nov. 21, 2010. Molly Ball. "Comeback: How did Reid do it?" Politico, Nov. 4, 2010 Nicholas Lemann. "Desert Storm." The New Yorker, Oct. 18, 2010. Manu Raju. "Brutal ads rule Reid, Angle campaign." Politico, Sept. 30, 2010. Laura Myers. "Reid is labeled most vulnerable incumbent." Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jan. 7, 2010. Lisa Mascaro. "Dodd's announcement makes Harry Reid most vulnerable." Las Vegas Sun, Jan. 6, 2010. |
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