The Las Vegas Review Journal crushes the happy dreams of Harry Reid:
Previously, Reid and his campaign have argued that the senator would win any general election contest because the full slate of candidates would splinter the vote, allowing him to eke out a slim victory with
less than half the total. But the new poll discounts that re-election scenario . . .
The survey of Nevada voters commissioned by the Review-Journal shows Reid getting 37 percent of the vote compared with 47 percent for Republican Sue Lowden, who would win if the election were today, while the slate of third-party and nonpartisan candidates would get slim to no backing.
The latest Mason-Dixon poll for the first time measured Reid’s and Lowden’s support in a full general election test instead of in a head-to-head or three-way matchup to see how much of the vote the record number of Senate candidates on the Nov. 2 ballot would siphon off from the Democratic incumbent and the top GOP challenger, pollster Brad Coker said.
“The bottom line is that adding all these minor candidates won’t really bleed support away exclusively from the Republican,” Coker said. “They’re not really bleeding much support from either candidate, Reid or Lowden, and if they do siphon off votes, it’ll probably be about half and half.”
According to the poll, the four nonpartisan candidates wouldn’t pick up any measurable vote. Tim Fasano of the Independent American Party and “none of these candidates” would each get 3 percent, Scott Ashjian of the Tea Party of Nevada would get 2 percent, and 8 percent of voters are undecided.