I’m stuck. If I point out the most recent polls in Nevada’s Senate race, those who remember my early skepticism about Sharron Angle’s chances will accuse me of saying, “See, I told you so.” If I don’t point out the most recent polls in Nevada, then I’m hiding the bad news from my readership, who overwhelmingly want to see Harry Reid defeated and/or deported.
Public Policy Polling, for whatever it’s worth: “Where Lowden trailed Reid only 51-41 with moderate voters, Angle is facing a 64-28 deficit. The price of nominating Angle for Nevada Republicans appears to be 26 points with moderate voters.”
The Las Vegas Sun’s Jon Ralston, a pretty good local observer of Nevada politics:
Sharron Angle is dead, one in an occasional series:
With Angle’s hot air balloon leaking helium about as rapidly as oil left that Gulf well — 45 days and counting and the GOP Senate nominee still has not plugged it — the question is whether she can survive the fall to earth.
At least three polls I know of show Angle trailing Harry Reid, including Friday’s Mason-Dixon survey that has the Senate majority leader ahead, 44-37, outside the margin of error. Even if you don’t believe one of the polls, the trend is inescapable and the race’s dynamic is fundamentally altered.
Coming up on the 100-day mark until the election — and only three months until early voting starts — Reid remains manifestly unpopular, with more than half of those surveyed indicating they will not vote for him. But his strategy of driving people away from Angle and into either a “none of the above” posture or a oh-how-it-pains-me-to-vote-for-him stance has worked to perfection.
Having said all that, Nevada’s unemployment hit 14.2 percent today. Really tough environment for an incumbent.