Harry Reid Toppled Sharron Angle In Nevada Senate Election With Many Votes From Registered Republicans

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid toppled Republican rival Sharron Angle in Nevada's midterm election last month with support from a perhaps surprising voting bloc, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

According to the Silver State-based outlet:

Preliminary figures show just 2,000 more Democrats than Republicans voted in Nevada's general election, the secretary of state's office said Monday.

Because there were 60,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans at the time of the election, the figures are a clear indication that many Republicans cast votes for Democrat U.S. Sen. Harry Reid rather than for his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, a secretary of state spokeswoman said.

While Reid ultimately defeated Angle by a 41,424-vote margin, the Associated Press noted following the election:

Reid's margin was a surprise in a race where a succession of polls showed a dead heat. But he had been there before, re-elected by 428 votes in 1998.

Reid's platform was power.

HuffPost's Mark Blumenthal reported last month:

In Nevada, polls predicted the wrong winner of this week's Senate election. Or did they? While public media polls in late October consistently gave a slight advantage to Republican Senate challenger Sharron Angle, the internal campaign polls gave Democrat Harry Reid the edge and campaign pollsters on both sides attribute the difference to a combination of greater care in modeling the demographics of the electorate, more persistence in reaching all sampled voters and the added value of registered voter lists.

Comments

[Thomas Stafford]

01:47 AM on 12/22/2010

Harry Reid didn't squeek by Sharron Angle......

I saw way more Angle signs in Reno than Reid but, he won the city? why?

cause Sharron Angle gave the latino voters in the state the middle finger.... the actual republican idea that latino voters don't matter..... well Senator Angle... I mean Sharron Angle better luck next time.... please run in 2012 we need ensigns seat to go to Ross Miller,Dina Titus or Cortez-Masto

[BlueLogic]

12:48 AM on 12/12/2010

Of course, Angle didn't help her case by maligning Nevada's large latino population, likening them to animalistic predators ready to seize on vulnerable whites. She awoke a sleeping giant, and they showed up in droves to punish her for her ignorance.

[Joe Falejczyk]

02:05 AM on 12/11/2010

Reid didn't "Topple" anyone. He barely squeaked by getting his job back. He is a damned luck man who has no business bragging about electoral victory.

[AJH]

01:17 AM on 12/11/2010

The race was a nice opportunity for dems to test the strategy needed for 2010 of perceived weak but highly effective democratic male vs mentally unhinged far right republican female. Even with low dem turnout they won.

[ramsha]

12:34 AM on 12/11/2010

May be it happened because more Republicans being illiterate could not read and figure out which candidate they were voting.

[KIMBER]

12:19 AM on 12/11/2010

The silent, thoughtful, sane, completely unrepresented Republicans. Glad there are still some out there.

[Angel R1240]

10:18 PM on 12/10/2010

wow republicans did something smart in not voting for Angle. I don't like Reid I think he is one of the weakest dems in the Senate, but he is way better than Angle.

[IfIonlyknew]

12:57 AM on 12/11/2010

I kinda hoped the repugs would have to invite her to there meetings.

[SFOSteve]

04:35 PM on 12/10/2010

Given Mr. Reid's miserable performance as Majority Leader, it seems to me that voting for him was exactly the right choice for Republicans.

[CaptRuby]

08:26 PM on 12/10/2010

What miserable performance exactly?

Hopefully you are not forgetting all the big legislations he got passed in senate in short time of two years, such as HIR, bank and wall street reform, credit card reform etc...

Or was misery created because he was too productive in getting this done?

[Khirad]

10:38 PM on 12/10/2010

More the latter.

For everyone that criticizes him for not getting liberal enough legislation, there's a place for that, but keep in mind that it p!ssed off conservatives just the same that he rounded up the votes and got them through effectively.

[GoDems2012]

03:54 PM on 12/10/2010

I thought Nevada would mess this up. But good to know they joined forces -- both blue, red and purple-- to keep Angle out. Shows that "avoid the media at all costs" and "just let your campaign run attack ads and hope for the best" strategy doesn't work in all red/purple states. At least not in Nevada. Apparently not in Alaska either.

[kimbanyc]

03:49 PM on 12/10/2010

ANGGGLE? rEALLY? SEN SANDERS IS FILLIBUSTERING

Let's do a little work for the Great Senator from Vermont

Google search "Bernie Sanders cspan2", post the links from cspan2 on FB, Myspace, Twitter, and post these links everywhere­­!

http://www­­.c-span.o­r­g/Watch/­C-­SPAN2.a­spx

http://www­­.huffingt­o­npost.co­m/­rep-ber­nie­-sande­rs/b­ernie­-sand­ers-­filibu­ste­r_b_795­01­2.html

[VeryGrood]

02:14 PM on 12/10/2010

I know a few very intelligent republicans... They would absolutely NEVER vote for someone like Angle. They would never want her name associated with their party. I'm not really surprised by this demographic voting for Reid.

[massjim]

08:28 AM on 12/10/2010

Ah, the sensible Republican anti-wacko vote. I'm praying that Palin would be stopped by that also.

[ClevelandTom]

10:58 AM on 12/10/2010

Good point. And if there is a Republican anit-wacko vote, think what the indpendent anti-wacko vote must be.

[Cheryl2]

11:21 AM on 12/10/2010

I am pretty sure that she is only favored by the tea party republicans, the straight republicans have a few brain cells left and know she is only a shrill shrew with no credibility.

[modrocker]

12:46 PM on 12/10/2010

And the Tea Party will eventually throw their weight behind Ron Paul, not by any means my candidate of choice but he can at least do an impression of a serious person. Angle couldn't and the more Palin puts her opinions out there the less serious she appears, day after day. And she wasn't working with much to begin with.

[Billar]

07:22 AM on 12/10/2010

Its interesting how Harry Reid is helping a Chicom windmill company get taxpayer funded stimulus money to build windmills in China. This would create few jobs here. We make windmills here lets keep the green jobs here. Senator Reid, I wish will no longer be Senate majority leader in January.
He did such a lousy job.

[Death to Crusaders]

12:53 PM on 12/10/2010

China holds almost 70% of the world market in Windmill tech and an even larger % of the solar cell business. Why . . Can you say dependence on oil? Those damned communists have hatched an evil plot to be far-thinking and to explore other means of providing for the continuance of their system's energy needs. How dare they not bow and scrape to the petroleum industry to the detriment of their country's future energy needs. Don't they realize that the Industry Fat Cats have a right to bleed them for all the money they can because Capitalism is the true god.

[CaptRuby]

08:28 PM on 12/10/2010

Very well stated, thanks!

[michael westman]

07:00 AM on 12/10/2010

Sometimes they just do not know what to do...rudderless ship

[highflag]

04:49 AM on 12/10/2010

As a resident and voter in Nevada, I have to say that I'm not at all surprised by the show of support for Reid by Republicans in our state.

There were rumors swirling, during the GOP primary season, that Harry had used his influence to ensure Angle's victory. There has never been any definitive proof of this, nor any explanation of how he might accomplish it, but the whispers persist.

If true, then it was a stroke of political genius. There is no doubt in my mind that, had any of the other candidates captured the nomination, Reid would be joining the ranks of the unemployed, come January.

The unfortunate truth is that too many voters seem blinded by their impatience and dissatisfaction to realize that it's the Republican's ongoing assault on the middle class, during the Bush regime and beyond, that has created double-digit joblessness and rampant foreclosures in our state.

Instead, they take the lazy-minded option, and blame the incumbent. Why haven't you fixed this yet? Where's my jet-pack? The reality is that Nevada, with it's economy almost entirely tourism-based, is going to be one of the last places to see recovery.

In any event, Sue Lowden (despite her "Chicken-Lady" gaffe) or Danny Tarkanian would have easily defeated an increasingly unpopular Reid. It was only the outrageous pronouncements and positions proffered by Angle, not to mention the blatant racism that drove her campaign, that ensured another six-year term for Harry Reid.

[chris16]

05:03 AM on 12/10/2010

I still can't understand how Angle got over $14 Million in contributions her third quarter. There was a powerful force that wanted that empty head elected. Could it have been the Koch Brothers? Thanks to the Supreme Court we won't know who is trying to fill the congress with puppets.