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Reid's Republican challenger (whose name currently escapes me) has been running an ad blitz on Howard Stern's show (very popular here in Vegas) which is replete with all the typical right-wing garbage (i.e. "failure to support the troops," "weak on defense," etc.). While the charges are demonstrably untrue, it seems as though Republicans can bandy around almost any blatant lies they want, and the public - at least to this point - seems to eat 'em up like candy.
Since Nevada kinda leans Republican anyway, I'm concerned that Reid's challenger's message (again, I forget his name; sorry for the poor grammar) may resonate simply cuz people hear what they wanna hear from who they wanna hear it from. I hope I'm wrong.
The interesting dynamic, though, is that a lot of Las Vegans that I talk to - and I talk to a lot of Republicans unfortunately - seem to support Reid not only for his moderate posture, but also due to the seniority he's accumulated. What I've heard from Repubs is that throwing away Reid's seniority during the ongoing fight (although pretty much dead at this point) with Yucca Mountain would be foolish, so hopefully that feeling will win out over any notion of switching a D for an R.
Jon Porter's re-election may be interesting provided that his challenger can amass enough funding for the fight. From what I've gathered, Porter's not exactly that popular even amongst his Republican constituency, so a well-funded, moderate Democrat may be able to successfully challenge him for the seat. Make no mistake, though, the effort will require a huge amount of money, seeing as how Porter is quite adept at fundraising.
I haven't seen any polls regarding either of these candidates. All of my information is purely anecdotal, so I'd love to see any polls if anyone can point me in the right direction ...
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