Is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in political trouble in his homestate of Nevada? A new poll suggests he is:
It’s the highest stakes ever for a Nevada election, and former boxer Sen. Harry Reid is on the ropes early. Either Republican Danny Tarkanian or Sue Lowden would knock out Reid in a general election, according to a recent poll of Nevada voters.
The results suggest the Democratic Senate majority leader will have to punch hard and often in order to retain his position as the most accomplished politician in state history, in terms of job status.
Nevadans favored Tarkanian over Reid 49 percent to 38 percent and Lowden over Reid 45 percent to 40 percent, according to the poll.
Reid’s status makes him an icon of the Democratic Party and ties him to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and President Barack Obama, both of whom are losing ground among centrist and right-leaning voters in the country.
Winning “becomes more difficult when you are actually the one having to carry the water for the president,” said Richard Davis, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University in Utah. “He (Reid) has got to get something out of the Obama administration that he can claim as his own.”
But with the election more than a year away, Reid has plenty of time to attract more supporters to his corner.
Even so, he will be a prime target. The GOP successfully targeted and defeated former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle who became a major political trophy. Reid will be a key target next time around.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.