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.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
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.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
14 comments:
Just shows you either how incredibly stupid people living in the las vegas area are, or that they were bought out for a vote for him which in this case would make them just as bad as Reid, for accepting it...
How do you go about whining and complaining and moaning and want change and disapprove of their jobs, yet you still vote for them...
Oh and does this ring a bell? remember when Joe posted something about the government, stateing they might allow the Mexicans who vote count as 2 votes? might have something to do with it...
YOU NOW HAVE NO REASON TO SAY SHIT OR COMPLAIN!!! PERIOD!!!
Something sounds fishy!
Easy for that you know to win when you cheat the system.
It's because the tea party likes to nominate kooks who cheer on the base but don't provide anything productive afterward.
Fraud
What do you expect, he was running against an idiot. I hope the Republicans put up another idiot against Obama in 2012...Palin.
4:54- an idiot?? Wow, former governor of Alaska, best selling author, leading speaker for the multi-million member tea party, vice prsidential nominee, numerous college degrees, multi-millionaire, star of her own reality TV program, etc.... and here you sit on the eastern shore on your computer. Yep, she's the idiot! LOL
5:19 I have to agree with 4:54. Believe me, I'm did not vote democrat and will no way vote for obammie, but come on, O'Donnell?!!
That should say it all.
and a suspicious "power outage" just as the polls close.
Speaking of idiots 5:40, where'd you learn the English language?
6:59 Maybe it was from you MOM!! H
5:19, if Pres. Obama's resume as well as first lady Michelle's don't inspire much praise from you guys, neither should Sarah "Celebrity" Palin's resume.
8:54- you mom?? Do you mear y-o-u-r Mom? What a moron, a true obama voter!!
7:38- sorry, I don't recognize the word President in front of that name or the term first lady in front of the other. You know what I mean, like the MAJORITY of Americans don't!! The intelligent majority!!
7:59, if you don't recognize the name of the freely fairly elected pres. than I would not call you a US patriot. Then again, that would make me just like you dummies on the right. Can you say "sour grapes"? "Democracy is great...when my guy wins"
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