However, that’s the problem in an election cycle when millions of Americans despise the ruling class. Meantime, is it any wonder that the most recent R-J poll shows Tea Party Republican Angle, a former four-term assemblywoman, closing the gap on Lowden, a wealthy casino executive and former Nevada Republican Party chairwoman and state Senator? Angle’s the rebel in a year when entrenched power’s in trouble, and Lowden is seen by a good number of hard-core R’s as a member of the ruling class. Lowden’s staff believes she’ll receive 60,000 to 70,000 votes to win the primary, but Reid and Tarkanian have been ripping her mercilessly, and they’re apparently scoring. Could Angle continue a late surge and defeat the former New Jersey beauty queen, setting up a Tea Party-driven referendum on Nevada-style liberalism? You’ve got to love this race. 11. Why are Democrats running against Reid in the primary? They hope to catch him by surprise. Take, for example, Eduardo Hamilton, who goes by the nickname “Mr. Clean” (Nevada being one of the few states that allow candidates to have nicknames on the ballot) and is pitching himself as an “early opportunity candidate.” Hamilton is one of three Democrats hoping to beat Reid in the primary. His strategy is simple: Get 50,000 or so votes in a lowturnout primary, and win. That may still feel like gamblers odds, but Hamilton, a retired Chrysler exec, is confident he has a shot at the upset. “If you get mad and you get pissed off, don’t wait until November. Do it now. If you wait until November you’re going to need millions of dollars to beat him.” 12. What does Reid need to do to win in November? Crank up the PR machine. “He’s a great majority leader; he and his staff need to continue to spread the word about what kinds of things he’s accomplished for Nevada,” says Roberta Lange, chairwoman of the Clark County Democrats, who served as Reid’s deputy campaign manager in 1998. Then again, Moehring suggests, Reid may just need to hold tight: He wonders whether Nevadans really want to replace the Senate majority leader “with Jerry Tarkanian’s son or Sue Lowden. … The guy’s got power.” But he may need all of it. Uithoven, Lowden’s campaign manager, notes that the election is referendum on the Senate majority leader. “He says we can’t do without him,” Uithoven says. “Then why do we have the highest unemployment rate in the nation? Why do we have record home foreclosures? No amount of public relations advertising is going to convince people they’re doing well if they’re being kicked out of their homes.”
13. Is the Arizona immigration law a plus or minus for Reid? It looks like a plus. His Republican challengers are falling all over themselves to play to the conservative base and praise the law, which among other things allows cops to demand proof of residency in the course of a legal stop. Hispanics are none too pleased about the racial profiling implications of the law, and they count for about 24 percent of Nevada’s population. Reid has come out in favor of comprehensive federal immigration reform, a pretty safe position at the moment seeing as that’s not even on the radar in Washington right now. So Reid has the advantage of acknowledging the problem, but not upsetting Hispanics with a draconian solution. 14. What has he done for Nevada anyway? Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University and an expert on Senate history, says that other Senate leaders have, over the years, brought back big-ticket items to their states. Democrat Robert Byrd managed to get the IRS to move most of its computing facilities to West Virginia. Republican Trent Lott fought to keep a naval station open in Mississippi.
34 Vegas Seven May 20-26, 2010
Reid has kept pace, Baker says, though more with a steady flow of federal dollars toward smaller projects. “I calculated that his [earmarks] annually bring in about a quarter of a billion dollars to Nevada,” Baker says. Still, Reid has a few big victories under his belt. The long-proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility is very likely history. And Reid may very well have helped save MGM Mirage, when it was on the brink of bankruptcy, by getting on the phone with the company’s lenders at the 11th hour. Moehring agrees that it’s “amazing how much federal money” came into the state under Reid’s watch. But his biggest legacy may be the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act of 1998, which required the BLM to swap land close to Las Vegas for development while protecting lands farther away. That set the stage for the triumphant growth Vegas enjoyed in the last decade. It also set the stage for the spectacular economic hangover we’re all experiencing now. 15. Who’s giving money to Reid? He raised $17 million, with $8.6 million spent and $9.4 million on hand, as of March 31, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. MGM Mirage led the way with $153,400; followed by the New York-based personal injury law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg, $88,800; Harrah’s Entertainment, $82,100; the L.A.-based personal injury law firm of Girardi & Keese, $76,400; and the New York-based private equity fund the Blackstone Group, $71,500. 16. Same question for Sue Lowden. Lowden raised $2.17 million and spent $1.9 million, as of March 31. Her biggest donor was Las Vegas Sands ($26,200), which is headed by Sheldon Adelson, who has been one of the biggest individual donors to Republicans nationally, as well as a major supporter of conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sue and Paul Lowden’s casino company, Archon Corp., is the No. 2 donor to her campaign at $19,700. They are followed by Nevada Holding Services, $19,200; Martin Harris Construction, $9,500; and Frias Holding, a taxi cab and limousine service provider, $7,200. 17. Same question for Sharron Angle. Angle raised $948,330, as of March 31, with $395,800 spent and $430,545 on hand. Her biggest donor was the conservative political action committee Citizens United, $5,000. Earlier this year, the group won an historic U.S. Supreme Court decision that knocked down federal campaign finance reform laws, arguing that corporations have the same free-speech rights as individuals. Next was power plant owner, developer and operator Indeck Energy Services, $4,800; Rothschild Capital Management, $4,800; the private equity firm TA Associates, $4,800; and the Oklahoma-based energy exploration and production company Helmerich & Payne, $2,000. 18. How in the world did Jim Gibbons become the governor in 2006? A Las Vegas reporter interviewed Gibbons in June 2006 and found a short-tempered, five-term U.S. House member who grew increasingly combative as he was pressed to answer policy questions. Later, the reporter contacted a corporate executive who was supporting Gibbons and asked the exec what he saw in the anti-tax candidate. “At best he’ll be benign. At worst he’ll be a disaster,” the executive said. Think back four years. The Nevada economy was booming. Gaming and sales tax revenue were rolling into the state. Gibbons successfully pushed for a state constitutional amendment that requires a two-thirds vote of state legislators for any tax increase—a popular measure among the anti-tax crowd that dominates much of the state’s politics. He also promised to oppose any effort to raise the state’s gaming tax. A geologist, hydrologist, lawyer, fighter and airline pilot who loves the solitude of rural Elko County, Gibbons was popular in northern and rural Nevada. His opponent, liberal Democratic
RINO Acronym for “Republican in Name Only.” A Republican conservatives believe is too liberal. Example: former Gov. Kenny Guinn.
SCOTUS Acronym for Supreme Court of the United States.
Soft money Money given in federal campaigns to political parties for “party building” purposes, which is loosely defined as anything that doesn’t tell someone to vote for a specific candidate. Ads that portray candidate X as a guy who takes candy from babies, but stop short of saying to vote for candidate Y, are soft money ads. There is no limit on soft money donations. See “hard money.”
Tea Party movement A loosely organized group that coalesced in early 2009 around the idea of a strict interpretation of the Constitution and smaller government. Broadly speaking, they are anti-bailout, anti-stimulus and anti-Obama. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll characterized the 18 percent of Americans who identified themselves as Tea Partiers as Republican, white, male, over 45 and better educated than the general public.
Truthers People who reject the “official” explanation of events for 9/11, instead believing that the U.S. government orchestrated the acts of terrorism against itself.
10thers States’ rights advocates. The reference is to the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” See “Tea Party movement.”
Vast right-wing conspiracy Coined by Hillary Clinton to describe President Bill Clinton’s political foes.
Wingnuts Right wingers, often bloggers. –Bob Whitby