On to November …

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

When Nevada’s primary election season got under way, the two marquee races involved Republican contests. One of them, the GOP gubernatorial primary, went as expected. Former federal Judge Brian Sandoval beat Gov. Jim Gibbons, the first time in Nevada a sitting governor has lost a primary election. Sandoval will face Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, a Democrat, in the general election. But Sandoval’s makeover as an ultraconservative in the primary, in order to compete for the base of the Republican Party against the right-wing Gibbons, could very well be his undoing in the general election against the moderate Reid.

The other contest, to determine who would be the GOP U.S. Senate nominee to face Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, did not unfold the way most pundits and the political elite had predicted at the beginning of the year. Sue Lowden was supposed to easily win the primary against opponents such as Danny Tarkanian and former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, but on Tuesday that conventional wisdom was turned on its head, as Angle went on to win.

Angle’s campaign benefited from a huge infusion of cash spent on TV ads by two right-wing groups, the Tea Party Express and the Club for Growth. Lowden’s candidacy lost steam through self-inflicted wounds, notably her suggestion that health care costs could be reduced through patients bartering for services with their doctors. After Lowden defended the plan, mentioning that doctors in the “olden days” received chickens for payments, she was nationally ridiculed, something that the Reid campaign and his supporters also seized upon.

Meanwhile, for much of the contest, Angle escaped scrutiny of many of her extreme views. But those views will get full scrutiny in the general election, where she will have to appeal to a more diverse electorate. For example, Angle wants to privatize Social Security. That idea went over like a lead balloon after the stock market plummeted two years ago, but Angle still thinks it’s a grand idea. She’d also seek to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. Not exactly great timing in light of the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Angle even thinks Reid is wrong in his successful fight against efforts by the federal government to bring nuclear waste to Nevada. It’s hard to imagine too many independents, or moderate Republicans for that matter, sipping from that brew of ideas.

Still, this is an incredibly difficult year to be an incumbent, no matter how effective and important you have been to your state. Even someone as vital to Nevada as Reid, the Senate majority leader, is going to have a tough campaign. Reid isn’t flashy, and he’s plain-spoken. But it’s also important to remember that his colleagues in the Senate appreciate his work ethic and his steady hand during a crisis. In addition to the nation, Nevada benefits as well. We’re confident that once Nevadans have a chance to weigh the views, experience and values of each of the candidates, they’ll want Reid to represent them in Washington for another six years.