Poll Also Shows That Sen. Reid Leads All Republican Candidates for the First Time
Earlier this year, Republicans announced they were targeting three “trophy” Senate seats — the seats formerly held by Pres. Obama in Illinois and Vice Pres. Biden in Delaware, as well as the Nevada seat currently held by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The Delaware seat is likely to flip to Rep. Mike Castle, a liberal Republican, but Rep. Mark Kirk, the GOP candidate in Illinois, is having trouble, most of which stems from his service as a commander in the Naval Reserves. Not only has he been caught lying about his military record, his recent vote in favor of the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy prompted a Washington blog editor to out him.
Now it appears Republicans may have gloated too soon about picking up Nevada. A new poll finds that now Reid leads all Republican opponents for the first time, and one-time frontrunner Sue Lowden has taken a major hit in the wake of nationwide ridicule of her proposal that the United States health-care crisis could be resolved by bartering medical services for live chickens:
A Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll released Thursday shows Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) leading all potential GOP challengers in general election match-ups.
So, that’s where things stand in Nevada four days before the primary. Harry Reid’s likely GOP opponent makes the Chicken Lady appear sane.Reid is ahead of Tea Party-backed candidate Sharron Angle 43 percent to 37 percent, he leads Republican Sue Lowden 42 percent to 38 percent as well as long-shot GOP challenger Danny Tarkanian 43 percent to 39 percent, according to the Kos/Research 2000 poll.
Meanwhile, on the Republican side Angle is surging ahead in her fight to win the June 8 primary, according to both the Kos poll as well as a new survey from the Suffolk University.
So who is Sharron Angle, the new frontrunner to replace the Senate majority leader? Her money quote, “I am the Tea Party,” says it all. She holds typically far-right positions such as opposition to Social Security and the belief that the income tax is unconstitutional. She has the endorsement of way-outside-the-mainstream folks like Joe the Plumber and Phyllis Schafly, as well as the support of the Tea Party Express, the astroturf organizers operated by the Republican Party consulting firm, Russo Marsh + Rogers.
Last Month, Angle’s campaign scrubbed its website to eliminate references to her ties to Scientology, which most people consider to be a cult:
Surging Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle has had to defend her support of a prison program that her opponents linked to Scientology. Trying to head off that theme, Angle has eliminated from her campaign website mention of prominent members of the church, whom she worked with on other legislative efforts.
Angle has removed the claim that she, along with [Scientologists and] actresses Kelly Preston and Jenna Elfman, approached Sen. John Ensign to sponsor legislation prohibiting school employees from requiring students to take psychotropic drugs, such as anti-depressants…
(In 2001 and 2003, Angle introduced legislation in Nevada similar to the federal legislation, which passed.)
Angle is backed by the Club for Growth, the anti-tax PAC that funded the rise of Marco Rubio, the tea bagger candidate whose primary challenge forced Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist out of the GOP, and that bankrolled the ouster of right-wing extremist Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah because he was not right wing or extremist enough.
So, that’s where things stand in Nevada four days before the primary. Harry Reid’s likely GOP opponent makes the Chicken Lady appear sane.
