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.
Well, I think that also might represent the 8% of Nevada residents who are Lds, like Harry Reid. Most of them probably didn't like Reid...it'd be interesting from the exit polls to see what percentage of them voted for Reid anyway...Between the gambling industry and Lds voters, it's possible that was the key to carrying Reid over the top.
Well, Juan was re-elected too. Incumbency still apparently has its uses.
I think his position in the Senate, more than anything else, would be the reason they voted for him; he’s supposed to bring all kinds of pork home (though that doesn’t seem to be lifting his sad state).
Nevada and California should merge and become ‘NEVAFORNIA’ for all the screwed-up and the ‘screwed’ people residing there.
This race clearly has corruption/fraud written all over it. Hopefully...rather than using the details to force Senate concessions from Harry ...Mitch McConnell will pursue the fraud that compromised the integrity of other Nevadans vote, and ultimately our Federal Senate chamber.
But I doubt it....chirp..chirp...chirp
This race clearly has corruption/fraud written all over it. Hopefully...rather than using the details to force Senate concessions from Harry ...Mitch McConnell will pursue the fraud that compromised the integrity of other Nevadans vote, and ultimately our Federal Senate chamber.
But I doubt it....chirp..chirp...chirp
Nevadans sold their souls to the devil for a tuna salad sandwich and a crispy creme.
I have no sympathy.
This is not completely bad news. Angle may run for a House seat in the election, and Reid’s negatives make him the poster child for what’s wrong with the Senate; The GOP will use him to takeover the Senate in the next cycle.
It takes a lot to oust an incumbent. Angle gave it all she had but it wasn’t enough.
maybe that’s what happens when the voting machines are programmed to flip about 10% of the vote to Harry Reid no matter what name is selected
The House always wins.
The bastid won?
So did Shmucky Schumer.
What did Bwarney Fwank do?
They neglected to accurately poll those who voted multiple times for Harry Reid.
Maybe Angle can get a position in a Palin Administration. She’d make a great Secretary Of State. Christine O’Donnell would make a great Secretary of Defense. Let’s not let the intellectual firepower of these two great ladies go to waste.
Unless we're talking about massive fraud. Which we are.
I wrote this before: I don’t doubt there were frauds involved, but I also thought Angle was too much wrapped in negativity. None of her campaign ads highlighted herself or her achievements in an uplifting way. All were about attacking Reid. Some which were not, showing her giving a lecture before some people who looked bored. In the environment where Reid and his MSM friends attacking her for being self-righteous who doesn’t want to listen to anybody, even to her own party, I was surprised her campaign didn’t do any effort to dispel such impressions.
Fwank won also - Big Margin!
.it’d be interesting from the exit polls to see what percentage of them voted for Reid anyway...
My guess would be ZERO except for family, relatives, and financial friends. So, bottom line less than one tenth of one percent.
The real question is how the other candidate who lost in the primary and everyone thought would have a better chance at a win, might have done.
Too late for speculation anyway.
Nevada, you suck!
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