Posted on 11/03/2010 5:56:25 AM PDT by Colofornian
LAS VEGAS — At polling places across Nevada Tuesday, researchers conducting exit polls asked voters one fundamental question about Harry Reid: Do you approve or disapprove of the way he has handled his job as senator? The results were terrible for the Senate Majority Leader. Fifty-five percent of voters disapproved of the job he has done, while 44 percent approved. Such numbers might seem a sure indicator of defeat, and yet by Tuesday night, Reid was leading his supporters in a victory celebration.
The exit pollsters also asked whether Reid, running for a fifth term in the Senate, has been in Washington too long. Fifty-five percent of voters said yes, while 41 percent said no. And still Reid won.
It's long been common knowledge here that many, many Nevadans don't like their senior senator. What Tuesday's exit polls showed was that their feelings go well beyond simple dislike. And yet, if the exit polls are correct, a significant number of people voted to re-elect a man they think isn't doing a good job and who has stayed too long in the Senate. In the end, Reid won 50.2 percent of the vote to Republican challenger Sharron Angle's 44.6 percent.
It would be hard to find a more telling measure of Angle's deficiencies as a candidate or the devastating effectiveness of Reid's scorched-earth negative campaign against her. Funded by millions of dollars from public-sector unions, Reid relentlessly attacked Angle from the moment she won the GOP nomination. Many of the earliest attacks went unanswered, forming impressions of Angle so negative that they outweighed the voters' negative opinion of Reid.
And then there was Reid's organizational strength. Both Reid and Angle held their election-night parties in Las Vegas casinos, Reid in the new Aria complex and Angle at the Venetian. That's nothing out of the ordinary in Nevada, but the difference between them was that Reid was entirely at home, with the enormous financial power and organizing muscle of the gambling industry and its union allies in his corner, while Angle was relying on votes from people who live far from Las Vegas. Republicans across the country who were hoping for a miracle in this race discovered that raw power wins the day.
And bending the rules, too. On election day there were reports that casino giant Harrah's had worked with the Reid campaign and the unions, particularly the Culinary Workers Union, to herd virtually all unionized employees to early voting stations to vote for Reid. According to a report in National Review Online, one Reid staffer told Harrah's officials that he would do anything -- for emphasis, he wrote it ANYTHING -- to get those workers to the polls.
By mid-day Tuesday, the Nevada Republican Party had filed a complaint with the Secretary of State's office. "Employees' votes were being tracked and supervisors were instructed by top management to personally confront employees to find out why they had not voted," the complaint said. "Further, the evidence shows that Harrah's management has continually communicated to employees their concern with electing Harry Reid and not just to ensure that the employees voted for the candidates of their choice." Such conduct, the complaint argued, violates Nevada law.
Democrats denied any such violations. And the fact is, Reid won by about 40,000 votes, a margin difficult to explain by charges of fraud. Also, squabbling over alleged irregularities tended to obscure the enormous advantage that open union support gave Reid. Nationally, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spent $91 million trying to elect Democrats. A good chunk of that went to Reid, mostly for get-out-the-vote operations.
Even though they are not a huge part of the electorate, unions gave Reid an important edge. Exit pollsters found that 18 percent of voters had a union member in their household, while 82 percent didn't. The voters who didn't have a union member in the household split right down the middle between Reid and Angle, 48 percent to 48 percent. But among those who did have a union member in their household, Reid won 67 percent to 29 percent.
Every single aspect of the Reid campaign was organized to the max. "For people willing to volunteer, there's a free lunch afterward in the cafeteria," Reid staffers told people waiting in line to see First Lady Michelle Obama at a Reid rally on Monday. Everyone at the rally was given a sheet of paper with the phone numbers of people, presumably Democrats, to call and urge to vote. Speakers at the rally said they wanted to create the "biggest phone bank in the country," which sounded like an exaggeration but did indicate how much emphasis Reid put on getting in touch with voters.
When it comes to Angle's troubled campaign, one last statistic tells the story. The exit pollsters asked voters whether they had a favorable opinion of the Democratic and Republican parties. Among those who said they had a favorable opinion of the Democratic party, Reid won 93 percent of the vote. Of those who said they had a favorable opinion of the Republican party, Angle won 82 percent. Reid did a better job winning Democrats than Angle did winning Republicans.
So in the end, there was Reid onstage at the Aria, smiling as his supporters chanted HAR-EEE! HAR-EEE! HAR-EEE! Never terribly popular, for the last two years, he had defied the voters of his state as he pushed Barack Obama's unpopular agenda through the Senate. And as he did so, unemployment in Nevada climbed to 14.4 percent, the highest in the nation. It was no wonder, then, that a majority of the Nevadans who went to the polls Tuesday disapproved of the way Reid has done his job. The wonder was that he got away with it.
The more I look at the various Senate races, the more I’m in favor of rescinding the direct election of U.S. Senators.
Perhaps the results really wouldn’t matter that much, but the Senate has literally become the “Good Ol’ Boys (and Girls) Club.”
I will disagree with you about Angle. Angle did NOT lose on Angle. Angle lost on Union cohesiveness and extremely effective ground action.
Thank you Laz.
Now you can go back to being fun after your very reasonable and correct statement. :)
We need a law that makes it illegal for unions which are beholden to taxpayer funds to keep the employees working, that they cannot use their member funds to help elect candidates! It is evil and I cannot believe this is going on in our once great nation!
I stand corrected.
Back about forty years ago some drug addled hippie writter said that all the hippies should move to Nevada, because the population then was so small. They could overwhelm the state and make a hippie paradise out of it.
It appears they have done so. It only took two counties to carry the state, where most of the parasites are.
Does Harry Reid still have the support to remain as Majority Leader, or does he face a challenge in January??
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I would hyave said Hillary but shes no longer in the Senate...
Boxer ??? Does she covet the top rung ???
What doesn’t make since is Titus losing, but Reid wins by 5 points???
I believe Danny Tark or Sue Lowden would have beaten Reid. In fact, I don’t think it would have been that close.
Well, so much for me and the family going to Nevada. I absolutely refuse to contribute to the economy of a state that re-elects the architect of disaster! The sediment of the Colorado River must be in the drinking water!
I have a good friend in Vegas who told me that SEIU bussed and flew over 10,000 people there to vote for Reid.
Any illegality when it comes to congressional election votes, is grounds for calling a new election. If anything along these lines can be proven, the Republicans should nullify the vote and require a new one.
Let Harry campaign with that on the record.
” Any illegality when it comes to congressional election votes, is grounds for calling a new election. If anything along these lines can be proven, the Republicans should nullify the vote and require a new one. “
I agree whole heartedly, but since when do Republicans ever fight back when they get swindled. Everyone in the country knows that Al Franken won by voter fraud, but when asked, the Republican candidate said he didn’t want an “ ugly confrontation”
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
(Yes; the union is part of the bulward of the gambling industry...and I mentioned that industry first in my comment)
LDS? He took the state with Vegas and Reno. His Union buddies bought him the win and it’s well proven with the scandals there.
From the article: And the fact is, Reid won by about 40,000 votes...
People look @ the percentages of margin of victory & think Reid pulled way ahead...but Nevada's a small state...and only 40,ooo votes separated them...So if the gambling industry supplied 3/4 of that...and if Lds supplied 10,000 votes...there's your margin of victory.
I agree that most LDS can't stand Reid. But the focus of this article is that a certain % of Nevada voters also couldn't stand Reid, yet voted for him anyway.
I contend that's what happened...and it included Nevada LDS voters.
As for "not one voting for him," we've had Republican Nevada Mormons bolstering Harry Reid for quite some time. The Las Vegas Review-Journal ran an article May 30 with this mention: ...Mormon places of worship, where those who support Reid often keep their opinions to themselves...When people try to attack him, there isn't anybody who is willing to speak up," says Richard Bunker, a prominent Mormon and strong Reid supporter who happens to be Republican. "The problem is, the people that are vocal are the ones who are opposed to him, the ones that are beating the tom-toms with the Tea Party and all of that garbage. Sometimes I have to straighten them out." Bunker, whose great-grandfather was among Mormons who founded Bunkerville in 1877… Source: Harry Reid
BYU newspaper citing student speaking about Harry Reid: “I respect him. I think that he basically does do a good job of representing Mormons in general,” said Kelsey Jorgenson, a BYU student from Las Vegas. “He is a political leader after all, and I think he puts on a good public face. I think it’s a good thing that he is a Democrat and a Mormon.” (BYU Daily Universe, Jan. 13, 2010)
And why wouldn’t a BYU student like Miss Jorgenson “respect” Sen. Reid? After all, don’t BYU students come to trust BYU decision-makers as ones who would only invite politician-speakers onto campus worthy of “respect?” And didn’t BYU’s decision-makers do that?
Perhaps Miss Jorgenson is a senior now @ BYU – meaning she probably then heard Reid speak @ BYU three academic years ago. And if she was there, perhaps she heard Sen. Reid tell BYU students: "I am a Democrat because I am a Mormon, not in spite of it."
Source: Reid Gets Warm Reception at BYU
I heard the casinos were supplying some of the buses. I vote at my local school 1/4 mile from my house. Makes you wonder who they could legally bus and fly besides college students. I know you already have your own ideas. What is the ID requirement to vote in LV? I could ask my relatives there,
>>So if the gambling industry supplied 3/4 of that...and if Lds supplied 10,000 votes...there’s your margin of victory. <<
Your posting history shows a general disdain for LDS.
Sorry FRiend, the corruption, illegals and voter fraud was the reason.
There was documented fraud in the Dornan loss too.
The Republicans let that election stand. It’s stuff like this that caused me to absolutely detest Republican leaders.
We had a perjurer, a witness tamperer, a witness intimidator, a witness briber, and the Republicans didn’t even list these things in his impeachment documents.
They have got to grow some backbone.
” What is the ID requirement to vote in LV? I could ask my relatives there, “
I don’t know. Could you ask them, and let me know?
” There was documented fraud in the Dornan loss too. “
And at least Bob fought back, but the RINO Republican elitist scum never liked Bob, so they left him out to dry, the SOB’s.
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