Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 6:23 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
October 2 - 3, 2004
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., holds a commanding 26-point advantage in his bid for a fourth term, earning support from Republicans and Democrats, according to a Las Vegas Sun/KLAS TV Channel 8/KNPR Nevada Public Radio poll.
Reid led his opponent, Republican Richard Ziser, 58 percent to 32 percent in the statewide poll of 600 likely voters. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.
The poll, conducted Sept. 20-28 by Washington research firm Belden Russonello & Stewart, showed that strong Reid support extends to most groups.
Reid was supported by 65 percent of women and 53 percent of men.
He also drew support from across party lines as 29 percent of people who identified themselves as Republicans said they would vote for him as did 38 percent of those who called themselves conservatives.
Thirty-one percent of the people who said they planned to vote for President Bush said they would also vote for Reid, and 52 percent of those who said they were undecided on the presidential races said they would vote for Reid.
Kate Stewart, a partner in the firm that conducted the polls, noted the crossover vote.
"It's sort of interesting that, at the moment, it looks like the likely voters in Nevada don't have any problem splitting their ticket," Stewart said.
Reid is also leading 48-43 in the rural counties, where he has struggled in past elections.
Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen pointed out that Reid barely squeaked by his opponent in 1998, Republican John Ensign, who went on to win the state's other Senate seat in 2000.
"The numbers look good and Sen. Reid is happy with them, but he's still not taking anything for granted," Hafen said. "He won his last election by 428 votes."
Reid, 64, holds a strong lead in fund-raising, and his campaign is planning to use that advantage to keep the senator's lead secure.
As of mid-August, Reid had raised almost $8 million, and had $4.7 million cash on hand. At the same time, Ziser had raised $465,000, and had just $5,000 cash on hand. He has loaned $271,000 of his own money to the campaign.
Hafen said the senator has just started a television campaign in which he will focus on a different message every week.
"We want all the new voters here to get to know Sen. Reid as a person and the background and values he has," she said.
Ziser, a 51-year-old former businessman, is waging his first run for major office. He lost a bid for the Clark County School Board in 1998.
That year he formed an advocacy group called the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage and successfully spearheaded the effort o define marriage in Nevada as between a man and a woman.
An initiative the group sponsored passed in 2000 and 2002, and the definition became part of the Nevada Constitution.
Ziser said he hopes to raise enough money soon to run television and radio ads attacking Reid for his vote against an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriages.
Reid is against same-sex marriage, but he said he didn't vote for the amendment because he didn't like the way the Republican leadership handled the amendment during the election year. Reid voted for a federal law in 1996 that denied federal recognition of same-sex marriages, and he supported the state initiative sponsored by Ziser.
Ziser said he is contacting lists of "pro-family, pro-marriage" conservatives for his grass-roots campaign and touting his endorsement from the National Taxpayers Union.
"Our methods of getting the message out are nontraditional," Ziser said.
And he predicted he would cut into Reid's lead among Republican and conservative voters.
"We will chip into those numbers," Ziser said. "I seriously doubt he's going to on Election Day get 29 percent of the (Republican) vote."
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