The good news for Republicans who want to see Harry Reid defeated is that he just denied that illegal immigrants do construction work in Nevada, people are renouncing him on their deathbed, and here’s his percentage of the vote in the last fourteen polls: 43, 40, 40, 40, 37, 42, 38, 40, 40, 42, 41, 39, 41, 43. (Now that’s consistent.)

The bad news for Republicans who want Reid gone that Sharron Angle’s lead ranges from ahead by 11 to trailing by 3. She usually leads modestly, around or just outside the margin of error. She’s the favorite, but for much of the year, this race looked on par with Indiana, North Dakota, Delaware, or other near-automatic GOP Senate pickups.

I’ve heard from several GOP folks who are grumbling that what ought to be a slam-dunk win against a pulverized Democrat is now a competitive race. By any measure — the state’s lousy economy, high unemployment, brutal housing market, Reid’s gaffes, his role in enacting the Obama agenda, the administration’s knee-jerk Las Vegas–bashing — the GOP challenger ought to be crushing him. Instead, the race is becoming less of a referendum on the incumbent and more of a contest of which side can better spotlight the other’s more controversial comments.

For now, the grumbling is relatively quiet, and every Republican with a hand in this race is rowing in the same direction. But if Harry Reid somehow manages to squeak by, there will be an enormous amount of recrimination among Nevada Republicans for nominating Angle.