Sharron Angle’s style not national GOP’s style

By Anjeanette Damon

Monday, June 28, 2010 | 2 a.m.

In 2001, state legislative leaders thought they had hit upon the perfect plan to rid their ranks of a conservative gadfly who not only voted against most of their bills, but proposed her own politically incendiary measures.

They would just combine then-Assemblywoman Sharron Angle’s district with that of a more “mainstream” Republican who had the full backing of the state’s political establishment.

Angle, an activist who had perfected grass-roots campaign tactics in her small Republican district, was never taken seriously by legislative leaders. They routinely voted her worst legislator in an informal newspaper poll and bristled at her refusal to participate in consensus building.

So, they thought, they’d just redistrict her away.

The plan backfired.

They underestimated how popular she had become with voters in her mostly Republican Assembly district. On Election Day, she easily defeated Greg Brower, the Republican who supposedly had it in the bag.

“They all thought that’ll go to Brower,” said Mark Amodei, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, who was a state senator when Angle first used her bedrock of support to go against the party establishment.

It’s that tenacious campaigning and ability to connect with voters that party leaders hope will give Angle an edge in her bid to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Now, the candidate who has long been the thorn in the side of her own party enters a statewide race with national implications as the party’s standard-bearer.

Neither national Republicans nor the Angle campaign seem quite sure how to deal with the dynamic that already seems to be brewing some turmoil, according to reports about a tense initial meeting among campaign staff and Republican National Committee staff last week.

The national party’s main objective isn’t necessarily to push Angle, but to concentrate the fight on defeating Reid. And Angle’s campaign walks into the general election with a mistrust of the establishment.

“The message that we’ve made clear to her is, ‘You’ve obviously run a smart, disciplined primary campaign, and we are here as a resource,’ ” said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Ultimately, she’s the candidate and she’s the one running this race.”

Walsh acknowledged national Republicans are just beginning to build a relationship with Angle. The committee is ready to spend more than $300,000 on a coordinated campaign and a yet-to-be decided amount to fund an independent expenditure effort.

But a Republican operative with knowledge of the committee’s emerging plans for the Nevada race was clear it wouldn’t simply cede control of the party’s most important race to Angle, a candidate who is completely untested in a serious general election matchup.

“National committees don’t write blank checks,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Since her come-from-behind victory in the primary this month, Angle has quickly begun the process of ramping up her campaign team.

She has brought on a former staffer from U.S. Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. She hired nationally renowned political consulting firm BrabenderCox and the new media firm that handled U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s recent victory in Massachusetts.

It’s a new line of attack for the grass-roots-oriented Angle. If her opponent knocked on each door in the district once, she made sure to knock on each door three times.

She spearheaded a property tax reform effort important in her district. She attended church services with her constituents and stumped at the Bible group meetings.

“She’s very honest and a good Christian,” said Mary Lou Harris, an Incline Village resident whose late husband, Ted Harris, worked closely, but unsuccessfully with Angle to get a property tax measure before voters in the early 2000s. “She has a lot of integrity. I don’t think she can be purchased.”

Angle has made a career out of seeking to parlay the power of that constituency into higher office, challenging Republican leaders and coming close to ousting them in two successive primaries.

As she starts building the “varsity-level” campaign organization needed to take on one of the country’s most powerful Democrats, some of her longtime supporters voiced a nagging worry the national committees and consultants — who define the very establishment Angle has fought — will do too much to package her.

“She’s somewhat reluctantly accepted the help of the RNC,” said Bryce Herndon, another longtime Angle supporter from Incline Village.

Harris noted Angle’s campaign sent her a form letter to thank her for a contribution, a less-than-personal touch that is out of character for Angle. But Harris said she wouldn’t expect Angle would be able to keep up the personal notes with the size of the campaign she’s now waging.

Most of Angle’s supporters said Angle would be the last to abandon her convictions.

“She has a basic value system she’s not going to give up just because she’s gone to a higher level in politics,” Harris said.

Most Republican operatives agree that Angle can’t be “handled.” Nor should national consultants try too hard to handle her.

“If Sharron Angle is not Sharron Angle, she will not be successful,” said Eric Herzik, a political scientist at UNR.

Instead, Republican consultants said the committees probably will put their efforts into a well-funded anti-Reid campaign, while leaving Angle to work her own bid.

Amodei said the state party is sensitive to the perception that the committees will seek to take over Angle’s campaign. So his efforts are focused on the “nuts and bolts” of building a turnout effort to rival the extensive organization already built by Democrats.

Still, some Republicans worry the most extreme of Angle’s views could be difficult to deal with on the campaign trail. How she explains those views, and how strongly she defends them, could be key in her messaging efforts, they said.

With her propensity to state those convictions, no matter how unpopular they may be with a general election audience, Angle could be the only one with the potential to throw a wrench in the national party’s anti-Reid efforts.

Angle has advocated the “phasing out” of Social Security and Medicare. She believes the American family should include a stay-at-home parent and a breadwinner. She’s concerned an angry electorate is arming itself for a revolution if conservatives don’t win at the ballot box.

And she repeatedly sponsored a bill in the Legislature that would require “dissemination of information concerning the scientific link between induced abortion and increased rate of breast cancer.”

Reid’s campaign has already begun a steady effort to roll out those views, defining them as extreme, dangerous and even “wacky.”

“Here she is, she’s right on the verge of it,” Herzik said of Angle’s entrance to the national political stage. “Will she suppress everything and go underground? Ultimately, no. Sharron has to be Sharron because she believes in her message and desperately wants you to believe it too.”