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Patriotic balloons appear at an auction Feb. 21 at a Lincoln Day dinner in Minden. Republican candidates make an annual pilgrimage through Nevada’s reddest counties, and this year’s Lincoln Day circuit is energized by the prospects of ousting Enemy No. 1: Harry Reid.
Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Harry Reid
Carolyn Mering can’t believe the news: Harry Reid is coming to town.
At least that’s what the local airport operator told her a minute ago, calling to organize the opposite of a welcoming party. See, the Senate majority leader will be using the airport’s sole loaner car when he lands — and workers want to cover it in anti-Reid bumper stickers.
Mering, vice chairwoman of Nevada’s Republican rural caucus, is wild with excitement, her voice shaking at the prospect of sticking it to the state’s senior senator.
“This is big national news,” she tells a reporter. “You can borrow my car, but get your ass over there fast because he lands in 30 minutes.”
This is the gravy to her Lincoln Day lunch at the Hide-A-Way Steakhouse, a roadside restaurant decked out in stuffed elk. On a bone-chilling Saturday in February, more than two dozen candidates and party officials have gathered to eat broccoli salad and corn chowder and ask for the support of some of the state’s most conservative voters — all 40 of them, the biggest turnout in years.
Too bad Mering got bogus information from her airport conspirators. Turns out the plane was carrying the campaign staff of Republican Mike Montandon, the former three-term North Las Vegas mayor running for governor. Even Reid’s son, Rory, would have been a small consolation to this crowd. He’s running for governor, too. That’s how much people hate Harry Reid.
And to hear locals tell it, there’s plenty to be angry about.
After all, Battle Mountain has a long memory. Residents still haven’t forgiven Washington Post scribe Gene Weingarten for dubbing the place the “Armpit of America” nine years ago, a “pathetic assemblage of ghastly buildings and nasty people on a freeway in the midst of a harsh, uninviting wilderness, far enough from the nearest city to be inconvenient, but not so far for it to develop a character of its own.”
So, while Weingarten isn’t welcome, Reid is banned.
Republicans here — and across rural Nevada — are looking for their Scott Brown, a pickup-driving savior to knock off Reid, Nevada’s equivalent of Ted Kennedy. As far as they’re concerned, Reid has forgotten his humble Searchlight roots and his home state in the quest for Washington power, complete with a yoga mat and an apartment in the Ritz-Carlton. They say he’s pushing President Barack Obama’s liberal agenda, saddling the country with debt and remaking America into a socialist nation.
On this weekend, a half dozen would-be challengers donned bluejeans and cowboy boots and gave red-meat speeches to win them over on the Lincoln Day dinner circuit, where the name “Glenn Beck” is an applause line and weapons are top prize in the fundraising auction. The annual pilgrimage through Nevada’s reddest counties is a must for Republican candidates, with Reid’s Senate race giving this year’s events a sense of urgency and excitement.
The state’s top Republicans did their part to stir conservative passions.
In Battle Mountain, Rep. Dean Heller, sporting jeans and a country-style sport coat, attacked Reid over health care legislation, which he said would lead to “higher taxes, bigger government and Medicare cuts.”
“You pick off Harry Reid, the world changes,” Heller said. “I truly believe any one of these candidates could beat Harry Reid.”
Sen. John Ensign told an audience in Fallon that Republicans were better positioned than they were in 1994, when the party took control of Congress. He said Reid’s Senate seat was one of a dozen being targeted in November. “We lost our principles and we deserved to lose” in 2006 and 2008, Ensign said. “We have to get back to those core principles.”
Because the GOP field is so crowded, the mostly unknown candidates used every edge they could find to curry favor, racing from lunches to cocktail receptions to dinners — sometimes with little to no reward.
In Winnemucca, the hopefuls arrived to a meet-and-greet at the Flying Pig only to find the barbecue joint empty. The candidates spoke among themselves, waited for local customers and tried to blend in.
In keeping with Flying Pig tradition, Montandon wrote his name on a dollar bill, climbed on top of the bar and taped it to the ceiling. John Chachas, a Wall Street investment banker seeking Reid’s seat, followed suit. Addressing his biggest vulnerability, Chachas, who was born and raised in Nevada but lives in New York, wrote: “John Chachas. From Ely.”
In Fallon, Bill Parson, a 23-year Marine with the flat-top haircut of a drill sergeant, donated boxes of ammunition to the Churchill County Republican Party’s auction. Leaving no doubt as to his stance on gun rights, his wife took the microphone to say he supported the 2nd Amendment.
In Lovelock, Sharron Angle, the former assemblywoman from Reno, told a crowd not only that her parents were married in the small ranching community — but that she was likely conceived there.
Then, there was the rhetoric, each candidate striving to capture the Tea Party zeitgeist in the three-minute time limit.
Danny Tarkanian, a Las Vegas lawyer and son of the famous UNLV basketball coach, tells crowds he’s a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, favors limited government regulation and wants to turn Yucca Mountain into a reprocessing plant for nuclear waste. He caps his speech by promising to finish President Ronald Reagan’s last campaign against the “tax-and-spend liberal Harry Reid.”
“We’re going to win this last one for the Gipper,” he says.
Angle touts her record as a conservative state lawmaker in a speech chock-full of slogans. “I was a conservative before it was popular,” she says.
A crowd favorite: “Harry Reid has been waterboarding the economy.”
Angle’s campaign literature features a picture of her firing a .44 Magnum, the handgun Clint Eastwood made famous in “Dirty Harry.”
Chad Christensen, an assemblyman from Las Vegas, quotes NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon and says that Nevada “deserves a regular guy” in the Senate.
Sue Lowden, former chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party, says she’s not a professional politician, but a businesswoman who knows what it means to make payroll every two weeks. She tells the story of her first and only campaign in which she ousted Nevada’s state Senate majority leader in 1992.
She’s positioned herself as the front-runner, traveling the state in a custom-painted tour bus. Lowden also highlights the fact that she has raised the most money in the primary, a skill she says will be necessary to take on Reid and his massive war chest.
Parson describes himself as a “strict constitutionalist,” champions “state sovereignty” and promises to reduce the size of government by 60 percent.
Chachas emphasizes his Ely roots but doesn’t mention that he’s lived in New York since college. He touts his experience as a financial expert and, having donated more than $1 million of his money to his campaign, tells crowds that a “well-executed, well-funded campaign” will beat Reid.
Yet for all their excitement, Republicans have no clear favorite.
Amy Nelson, a middle school principal in Battle Mountain, said she’s looking for a “10th Amendment advocate,” referring to the part of the Constitution that gives states all powers not relegated to the federal government. She likes Parson.
“We need to get federal government mandates back in line,” Nelson said. “We’re off kilter. You can’t tax yourself out of poverty or spend yourself out of poverty. We’re fighting a mentality of people who expect the government to fix our country.”
Regina Brush, a retired kindergarten teacher, is outraged by deficit spending. “We’re having a hard time convincing people that government has to run like you run your home. Live within your means,” she said. “The American public has been living on credit cards for too long. The government can only do so much. You have to take care of you and yours.”
The danger for Republicans is that so much passion could lead to divided loyalties and bad blood in the general election.
So party leaders like Mark Feest, chairman of the Churchill County Republican Party, urged the candidates and their supporters to keep the primary as clean as possible.
“It’s important that we are united and remember Reagan’s 11th Commandment” not to speak ill of fellow Republicans, Feest said. “If we get down to arguing about the 20 percent of things we don’t agree on or get apathetic, we’ll lose. That’s the opportunity Harry Reid is looking for.”
You don't have to bash harry Reid in Nevada. The people have watched what 3 years of him running Congress has done to our country.
The Republicans aren't going anywhere this election. They will be to busy eating each other. The Grand Old Tea Baggers are going to split the Republican party right in half. The ultra conservative views of the Tea bag party and the more moderates views of the Republican candidates is going to put an end to their hopes of winning Harry Reid's senate seat. I am going to seat back and enjoy my popcorn watching this play out. Harry Reid in the senate majority leader if anyone could help Nevada it's Harry Reid. Why would you want to replace him with a junior senator ? who has no power. I guess these conservatives have never heard of Keynesian economics. Anytime there is a crisis the world runs to the safety of the U.S dollar. One of the main reason our deficit is so high is because of the Bush tax cuts. If the top one percent paid more in taxes the deficit wouldn't be so high.
Didn't Sue Lowden and her husband get a 200k bonus for laying off employees? How can a rich lady like her relate to us? Or would she lay us off after getting campaign cash from lobbyists?
Read Brian Greenspun's Column in this paper today...nothing more than a paid political announcement. The Sun is nothing more than the democratic mouthpiece of Nevada journalism. It is so obvious it is painful, and never reports objectively on anything to do with politics or our Government.
Who is Harry Reid? Didn't he used to be a Senator?
if u get rid of him u will loose all the pull in Washington then every1 will s*** on us
thus the phrase...
trailer park republicans!!!
That kind of pull we don't need.
Dippy is a little more dippy than usual today.
So, if you get rid of Harry Reid, why would Sue Lowden be the best choice? Sue Lowden and her husband Paul Lowden have a very bad history of bad managment in their past business dealings with the casinos they owned, with the investors who trusted them, plus they fought the Union, which is normal for any business, but Paul Lowden has a history of treating his employees like dirt and paying his management pennys. The Lowdens would be more trouble then we need right now. The Lowden Family still associates with people of the kind Oscar Goodman has defended in the past and present. Plus, Addelson is backing Sue Lowden. Addelson is not the best casino operator on the Strip. He also is anti-employee and has attempted to by into the council and the county commissioners in the past to force his influence on the corrupted elected. Yes, you said it right, these people are attempting to do exactly what the current power brokers are doing. Choose your posion!
Sue please stop by the Shady Lady on your way up north. My friend Marcus is there waiting to give you some campaign advice.
Harry will soon be working at the town library in Searchlight. LVS staff can continue this competition in showering him with wild-eyed, cult-like accolades.
It seems the people of Nevada all feel the same towards senator Harry "Backdoor" Reid. Nevada needs to end their dependence on these Reid's this fall.
Fight the TRUE 'good fight' and get Reid out.
http://aBadReid.com
Bad Reid
Bad Senator
Well, so far, the Pro-Reid sentiments on this board are the usual "we need Reid and his powerful position for Nevada", to the same hateful "anyone that doesn't go along with Reid is just a poor white-trash, trailer park dweller living in a backwater". And just remember, the Democrats are the so-called party of the "little guy", unless that little guy is a "poor, white-trash, trailer park dweller living in a backwater".
Patriotism...Nationalism ....NO-DIF 4 RANCE
Dippy needs a beer...
Way too many negative waves coming out from our Liberal friends this morning...
Now, I need a beer...
Pinky Greid is not just a disgrace to this state, he is a national disgrace. Actually, Reid is a crook and needs to be put on trial for bribes. Reid is what is wrong with Washington. It's time we clean house and get rid of him.
I see the republican strategy of bash and trash is still being used with zeal.
Where were these fiscal hawks from 2000-2008? They slashes revenues and exploded spending, spending us into more debt.
And now they want republicans to forget that they fell asleep at the wheel?
I feel bad for the people who believe republicans are fiscally conservative. They never learn their lesson.
The Republicans are part of the problem, not the solution, we need a Teabag in the Gov's mansion and in Washington. All polls should include a teabag. I'm going to write a big check to the Teabag Party. HA HA HA
WOOHOO! Way to go, Nevada! No one holds Harry against you! We know you are good people who have suffered under his political stranglehold for years!
Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are the reasons our economy has tanked. They are all loose canons...and business and investors can't move forward...because you never know when one of them will shoot your a$$ off.
NoLongerADemo..please substantite you libelous claims that Reid is a crook. With a net worth of only a couple of million, please identify a top notch lawyer in this town that has been worked for 40+ years that has that little in assets!
Why would we replace the #1 senator with an approximate #100 in seniority? It makes no sense, on the other hand, these same idiots voted for Gibbons!
Birdie..lots of people live in trailer parks because they are poor and can't afford anything better...wow..the very people you bash and belittle are the same people your party claims to be fighting for...hypocrite
Notacon is trying to pull a con job on us...
No matter how you try to clean Harry up and dress him as you like, He will always be Harry Reid the ex-senator from Searchlight...
Get rid of the old cockroach! It's time he hit the road!
Vote for Danny Tarkanian!!!! Now that is an honest man who is going to look out for the people not his pocket!!!
"Where were these fiscal hawks from 2000-2008? They slashes revenues and exploded spending, spending us into more debt"
So Ksand, your solution is support a President and Congress who has quadrupled the largest deficit that Bush and the Republicans put into place. Oh and BTW, where were the democrat fiscal hawks in 2007 and 2008 when your boys and girls controlled Congress? Those were the years under Bush where the deficit exploded. Bush was bad, Obama is worse. Yet it is all Bush's fault, right? The only criticism coming from your side during Bush's years is that he *didn't* spend more money.
Just curious Ksand, when does it stop being Bush's fault? Oops, the national debt is now $14 trillion, it's Bush's fault. Oops, the national debt is now $20 trillion, damn that Bush for continuing to sign spending bills after he is out of office!
Not so sure how Reid will affect our state going forwards...
- Mark Szczygiel
rodney_owens - Those trailer park dwellers usually vote republican, as if the republicans care about poor people. Or even worse, they think if they vote republican, they too will be rich and be invited to the republican parties. They are the ones who bad mouth Democrats, even as the Democrats are trying to help them. Talk about biting the hand that feeds ya'! If any of them had a brain, they wouldn't be voting against their best interests. But, I guess their too mavericky and bootstrappy to accept that fact. Let them cling to their bibles and guns and keep voting republican. That'll keep them chilluns fed, also, too, ya' betcha.
What else would you expect of the BM G.O.P.? They forgot that it was Democrats who won WWII, Democrats who saved postwar Europe, Democrats who created and flew the 1948 Berlin Airlift, and Democrats who are trying to fix a health care system and a financial-banking system that threatens to bankrupt us all. The R's are probably ashamed of their own Teddy Roosevelt, for creating our National Park System.
Meanwhile Sexual predator John Ensign is doing what?
Way too many negative vibes coming out from our Liberal elitists this morning...
If Reid leaves who will be Obama's side kick?
Nick,
What makes John Ensign a sexual predator? If what he did made him a predator than Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, and many more are sexual predator. Ensign is an adulterer but not a predator.
Nice try. Additionally most of your posts lack logic. Maybe not Nick logic.
Ensign says Republicans deserved to lose in 06 and 08 because they lost their way. Now, in 2010 they want you suckers to believe that all of the sudden they have found their way.
The reason John Ensign is a sexual predator is that he preys on employees. That is wrong.
The Ensign family uses blackmail to hush up is also wrong.
John Ensign is morally bankcrupt.
Bashing Harry? that aint so hard to do. Maybe the GOP should focus on what it is they're going to do to change things for us. You can't unseat a long time senator just by bashing him as your whole campaign agenda. You need to show the people what you can do better, Lord I hope the GOP has that in thier plan, other wise we're looking at more of Dirty Harry.And thats the truth.
Harry won't be around much longer to kick around so they better get all the mileage out of it they can while he's still around.
Repubs want their "grandpa's" America, which is long gone.
And their intolerance makes it difficult for them to relate to what's replaced "grandpa's" America.
Gays used to hide. Now they don't. Repubs can't deal with it.
Minorities used to cower. Now they don't. Repubs can't deal with it.
Women used to tolerate back-alley abortions. Now they don't. Repubs can't deal with it.
The entire free world used to dance to our tune. Now they don't. Repubs can't deal with it.
Repubs are often paranoid xenophobes who perceive our entire existence being threatened by every little shadow.....
RepubliCONs in Northern rural Nevada are just trying to cover up all the taxpayer funded subsidies and use of public lands that many of their "friends" have been receiving for decades...
"What else would you expect of the BM G.O.P.? They forgot that it was Democrats who won WWII, Democrats who saved postwar Europe, Democrats who created and flew the 1948 Berlin Airlift, and Democrats who are trying to fix a health care system and a financial-banking system that threatens to bankrupt us all. The R's are probably ashamed of their own Teddy Roosevelt, for creating our National Park System."
What else would you expect from whiny children democrats. You are only willing to support American interests when you are in charge. If not you whine and stamp you feet and refuse to behave like adults. You whine and stamp your feet and hide behind "our politics stop at the waters edge" when you are in charge, but feel free to criticize America when ever your party does not have the Presidency.
Actually I almost wish Gore had been president on 9-11, then maybe you children would have supported a War on Terror.
Hmmm since you probably believe that BUSH KNEW!!! 9-11 was going to happen while he was reading My Pet Goat, let's add in that FDR knew that Japan was going to attack based on intercepted cables from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in DC. He let it happen so we could be free to attack Germany first. Opps he attacked in North Africa first in response to a Japanese attack! That is so much better than attacking a nation who defied 17 UNSC resolutions and who continued to target our jets.
You whine about Bush spending "$2 trillion" on a war of choice. Ok fine for the sake of argument. Bush and Cheney were war criminals who should be hung like we did to war criminals in WWII. Everyone who voted for the blood for oil war should be put in prison (only the Rethugs, after all the dems who votes back in 2002 are not responsible for their actions). And in order to make our peace with the world we should immediately give back every drop of oil we "stole" from the MidEast. Oh and help smack down the jooos.
If we do all that it will be all sunshine and rainbows right?
Oh and to fix the Bush GREAT RECESSION we should let President Obama spend twice as much to fix all the ills that that evil evil man Bu$hitler inflicted on the US.
Heck, giving you every point in your wildest dream, just for the sake of argument, it would only be $4 trillion. In today's world I would be happy if Obama only want that much. He wants to add three times that much (or to put it another way *six* times Bush's war of choice as you call it.) It is much better if the government bankrupts. At least the politicians claim to caaaaare.
How much spending will be enough for people like you?
Will having everyone with a 100% tax rate and an equal stipend of let's say $100 a week for discretionary spending with the government taking care of your housing, food, and medical care be enough for you? After all the Democrats er the Government know what's best for us, right?
Hey, I know let us elect a GOP Jr. Senator that has no clout.
That way NV can become the backwater that it deserves to be. I like lil' Tark's idea of opening Yucca Mtn to Nuclear Waste. I hope none of those truckers fall asleep hauling that waste here.
We all know that when the GOP deregulated the trucking industry, safety was the first regulation that was weakened. But it is OK because St. Reagan enacted deregulation, and HE was without fault.
Ronald Reagan started the wholesale degradation of the middle class. These policies were continued under William Jefferson Clinton.
Now most Americans can't make a decent living. The GOP wants to dismantle the rest of the social safety net. So workers receive more hateful rhetoric and less help from the right.
Glenn Beck thinks that if you have a problem, you are on your own. This includes, Old People, the disabled, poor children, and anyone else that is having a hard time. If he has any relative that comes to him for help, he probably says: You deserve to Starve! What a Calvinist!
Diamonddogg, having a Senator who is a majority leader has worked out so well to date, hasn't it? Hmmm wasn't Reid whining that we didn't get our share of money to help foreclosure? Surely a powerful senator would have cause a federal agency to make sure that Nevada made the cut. Hmmm didn't Reid have 60 votes during all of 2009? Why the hell didn't he sheppard through the Obamacare you are having wet dreams about? Such a powerful leader would surely make sure that in the first round of the Porkulus (er sorry you probably know it as the Stimulus) bill that Nevada would be higher than 50 out of 51 states (and DC) in bringing home the pork (er shovel ready projects.) Three things that a junior senator without clout can do just as the "powerful" Harry Reid.
"Glenn Beck thinks that if you have a problem, you are on your own. This includes, Old People, the disabled, poor children, and anyone else that is having a hard time. If he has any relative that comes to him for help, he probably says: You deserve to Starve! What a Calvinist!"
No, their solution is to ask me for assistance, not to have someone steal from me. Diamonddog I think I understand people from your side of the aisle, you are so uncompassionate in your morality that it would never occur to you that others might give from a sense of moral duty. Instead, you want the government to steal from me to enforce my charity. After all that frees you the burden of having to think.
Nick,
Wrong again.
"The reason John Ensign is a sexual predator is that he preys on employees. That is wrong." -Nick
Using Nick logic, if someone preys (picks up on) a woman in bar, that person is a sexual predator. If a man preys (picks up on) a woman at a wedding, he is sexual predator.
Nice try!!
I would hate to think what you call a foul in basketball. Using Nick logic, I think that is... assault and battery or maybe attempted murder.
Also, the Ensign family used bribery not "blackmail". I think you should spend some time with a dictionary.
jr99, I don't want to accuse you of being dense, but propositioning your staff for sexual favors is radically different than propositioning a stranger. That's Nick's logic, and it's something you can't deny.
Your examples do not follow from Nick's logic, unless the woman being picked up on was an employee of the man. Your examples are oranges vs. Nick's apple.
Sue Lowden! That's what shareholders in her and her hubby's public casino company have to do to collect the dividends they're owed - they have to sue Lowden's company, Archon Corp. This woman has more baggage than a Boeing 747 and it's all going to come out courtesy of the Reid machine. Tarkanian has already had a field day with her flip-flops. When you compare her to Angle, Lowden's like the Witch against Snow White. Angle has an unblemished record and is very strong in the rurals. While Lowden was working in the back room at the 2008 Nevada State Republican Convention figuring out ways to cheat the delegates she didn't want out of the National Delegate seats they legitimately won, Angle was in the foyer signing-up delegates to support a statewide property-tax limitation initiative. It really should come down to Angle vs. Tarkanian with Lowden a distant third. The only real support Lowden has is from the old-line, wealthy, party hacks and the silk stocking crowd that practically drove the Republican Party into extinction by bailing out their Wall Street friends.
Edgewise,
There is always a difference when you change the scenario but the comparison was not apples to oranges but a gala apple to a green apple.
Is a woman unable to say no at work?
We currently aren't questioning his ethics. If Nick would have said Ensign was stupid and unethical, I would agree 100 percent. That is not what was said. It isn't illegal to hit on the employee unless it severe and pervasive conduct and if it was unwanted. I haven't heard any of that. The woman wasn't unable to move, didn't have a disadvantage and wasn't a minor.
The only difference if the man were a worker instead of the boss are liability issues.