In the form of Nevada’s Lt Governor:
Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki is considering a run against U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2010.
Krolicki says he’s discussing the prospect of challenging Reid with his family and will decide by early next year whether to try to unseat the veteran senator and political powerhouse.
Krolicki says Republicans “got shellacked” nationally and in Nevada in the latest elections. He says the GOP rebuilding effort in this state must include an effort to get a first-rate slate of candidates for numerous offices that will be up for grabs in 2010.
Krolicki was elected lieutenant governor in 2006 after serving two four-year terms as state treasurer. He said he has received calls from Republicans at both the state and national level about a race against Reid, who he described as “too liberal and too partisan for Nevada.”
I have it on very good inside information that at least one other Republican will seek the GOP Senate nomination to run against Reid in 2010. Still, unseating Reid will be no easy task, especially as national GOP leaders will be wary of spending money in Nevada when the GOP will have a hard time defending Senate seats in Florida, Alaska, Ohio and Louisiana. If there is a big GOP wave in 2010, that would make things different – but by the time such a wave becomes noticeable, the chance to beat Reid may already have passed. Still, it is interesting that this early on we’ve got the Lt Governor plus the to-be-announced guy interested in taking on Reid, who has many vulnerabilities – not least of which being the way he’s entirely abandoned Nevada values and opted to become a lapdog for Pelosi and her San Francisco values.
As for Krolicki, himself, he’s a good man, but I wonder if he’s really got what it takes to bring a fresh perspective to the GOP. To unseat Reid will take an imaginative, conservative-populist campaign freed from adherence to the political dogmas of the past. And this goes for a recovering GOP all around the country – we can’t just retread what failed in 2006 and 2008 and expect to win in 2010 and beyond. The hackneyed phrase, “think outside the box” really does apply here. We’ve got to think anew and act anew. Adhering to core, conservative principles but also stretch out to apply those principles to thus-far ignored constituencies (socially conservative African-Americans and Hispanics, most notably – but there are other groups the GOP has ignored or been mostly unaware of). Especially given the media and funding advantage Reid will enjoy, only the most aggressive and different sort of campaign stands a chance.
One thing certain, we GOPers can do no better in 2010 than forcing Reid out – even if we otherwise fail to secure a Congressional majority, if we can beat Reid we can show we’re back on track and have learned the lessons of 2006 and 2008. We must not throw away this chance either because we’re afraid to take Reid on, or because we’re afraid to try new things and new people.
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