Friday, Jan. 18, 2008 | 9:34 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Could the big winner in Nevada on Saturday be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s re-election campaign in 2010?
That’s the premise of a piece this morning in The Hill,which theorizes that the boost in voter registration among Democrats energized by Saturday's caucus will help Reid’s potentially tough re-election in two years.
“As a result of the concentrated attention, the number of registered Democrats has surpassed the number of registered Republicans for the first time in years. As of December, Democrats boasted approximately 397,000 registered voters to 392,000 Republicans. The total number of registered voters at the time was approximately 980,000.”
The paper revisits the issues that are creating a tricky landscape for Reid — his sagging poll numbers at home and a serious effort by Republicans nationally to take down the majority leader, much as was done to former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota when he was leader.
Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley noted in the story that that higher Democratic registration numbers could also spell trouble this fall for Republican Rep. Jon Porter, whose swing district in Southern Nevada is becoming more heavily Democratic.
(Of course, Democrats have always had high hopes in that district, which they have been unable to take since it was created in 2002.)
“I think there’s no doubt that the caucus and the extraordinary effort to register voters has helped all of us who will be running on the Democratic ticket,” said Berkley told the paper. “If [the caucus] also helps Harry Reid, that’s icing on the cake.”
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