From the Wall Street Journal:
Sen. Harry Reid will command the biggest party majority of any Senate leader in a quarter century when the new Congress convenes in January. But the Nevada Democrat is already worried about his own re-election fight in 2010…
…Sen. Reid…faces a potentially tough fight. A recent Research 2000 poll of likely voters put his approval rating at 38% and his disapproval rating at 54%, a possible reflection of voters’ displeasure with gridlock and partisanship in Washington. And while Nevada broke for President-elect Barack Obama by 12 percentage points in November, the state voted for President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
As Senate majority leader, Sen. Reid is expected to play a critical role in shepherding Democratic priorities through the Senate, with a full docket of legislation up for consideration in the first year of the Obama administration.
In Reid’s favor is the fact that the current GOP governor is unpopular (and, indeed, I have called for his resignation over his extra-marital affair – can’t be loyal to your wife, who can you be loyal to?), the current GOP Lt. Governor has been indicted (perhaps a bogus charge – such things are known to happen for political purposes in Nevada, but its still a heavy blow), while Rep. John Porter lost his re-election bid in November (which proved we had a very large anti-GOP wave in this State as his opponent – Nevada Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus – is a political barnacle who also has a voice which grates on your ears like fingernails on a chalkboard). In short, the GOP bench is shallow right now, and that is Reid’s only real hope. And thus my concerns about Lt. Governor Krolicki’s indictment on a rather bizarre charge of misappropriating funds with the funds appearing to stay in State hands and being usefully engaged for the benefit of the State – adding to the concerns is that our State AG is a Democrat.
Be that as it may, all the top GOPers are at least damaged goods as we start our run-up to 2010. Still, Reid is entirely beatable. He’s entirely lost touch with Nevada and has become the merest lapdog for Nancy Pelosi and her San Francisco values. It is time for those who, perhaps, have never taken a direct hand in politics to work out plans for an insurgent campaign to take advantage of Reid’s weakness.
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