How Harry Reid Won

[laughingliberal]

LAS VEGAS — Republicans said for months that if the Nevada Senate race was a referendum on Harry Reid, the unpopular Majority Leader would lose. Reid didn't let that happen. He adeptly painted opponent Sharron Angle as an extremist immediately after she won her primary – and proceeded to make the contest as much about her awkward and unconventional statements as Reid's own troubles.

Then he deployed his secret weapon: a powerful turnout machine that brought Democratic and Hispanic voters out to the polls in droves.

Reid's relentless TV ad assault against Angle and his powerful get-out-the-vote effort were huge factors in his no-holds-barred victory over Angle on a day when Republicans seized control of the House and gained Senate seats.

Talking with reporters Wednesday, Reid pointed to Angle's proposal to privatize Social Security as a defining contrast between them. He calls it one of the great government programs in history. <snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/03/how-harry-reid-won_n_778683.html

He went on the offense early and he NEVER let up on her. By the time it was over, everyone in NV knew how effed up her policy positions were.

[neverforget]

1. I may be disappointed with how he has performed as Majority Leader, but he's

a hell of a politician. Too bad he couldn't take that fight to the Majority Leader post. None the less, good job Harry of kicking that brain dead woman's ass!

[laughingliberal]

2. I had the distinct impression the day after Lieberman killed the PO that Reid was ready to go...

the distance with him over it. He made a remark that did not get widely reported about Rahm showing up and telling him to give Lieberman what he wanted. He said something to the effect he wasn't sure he was ready to just roll over about it.

Maybe his pulling this one off against all the odds will encourage him to unleash a little more of that fighter that is, obviously, in there.

[tblue]

3. I missed that.

Thanks for sharing. He's got some guts, huh?

[laughingliberal]

12. I know. It was very weird. I saw a short blurb where he was being interviewed.

He was talking about Lieberman's stunt and then said, "And now I have the President's Chief of Staff her ordering me to (don't remember the exact wording but 'cave' was the gist) and I'm not sure I'm prepared to do that."

Never saw it again. Just one report and it went quiet.

Anyway, yes, I think he does know how to fight and I hope we will see more of it.

[LostInAnomie]

4. I'm amazed that people are hailing this as a great victory.

Seriously, the man is the most powerful man in the Senate. He has huge name recognition. He has a huge GOTV machine built up over years. He's the home team's religion. And, he still barely squeaked by over a woman that is certifiably insane.

He only won because she was so fucking horrible as a candidate. If they would have ran anyone, and I mean literally, anyone else, he would have had his ass handed to him.

Thank the Teabaggers for his win, not Harry.

[Very_Boring_Name]

6. Republicans made it a national campaign though

It wasn't about Reid vs a crazy woman. It was about D vs R. That made it much easier to convince "sane" republicans to vote for her. You can be the most powerful person in the senate, but that won't save you from running in a red state during a republican year.

[laughingliberal]

15. Dead wrong.

It is not, at all, out of the question for Nevada to elect horrible candidates. And he did not 'barely squeak by.' He won by 5% which is a big margin in this state.

He barely squeaked by in 1998 when he defeated Ensign by 400 votes. If they'd run a different candidate, he'd have still won.

He carried, by 5%, the county that elected her to the state legislature and she is still wildly popular, there.

Harry's campaign was brilliant.

And, btw, GOTV efforts are part of the campaign, too. And one a lot of candidates overlook.


I'm thanking Harry and, as I'm one of his constituents, it counts more than your minimizing and disparaging.

[uncommon]

28. I have to agree. The telling thing about this race was how much of the vote that nut got.

The fact that Sharron Angle got over 40% of the vote in a Senate election should scare the shit out of America.

[laughingliberal]

34. Nothing new in Nevada. My husband is native and said being a nutjob here hurts no one.

As Harry said yesterday, 40,000 votes in Nevada is a landslide.

I'm very proud of him. :)

[bobbolink]

35. I think your point is right on the target! The RW gave him the win.

[mzmolly]

38. He's also one of the most vilified, because he was in control

of the Senate. Also, MOST R's are horrible candidates.

[dsc]

40. they ran her because he interviened in their primary and helped choose her

Nevada also has the highest Unemployment and forclosure rates so his win was impressive.

[dkf]

5. I'm beginning to think we've got one of these turnout machines in Hawaii.

Boy was I shocked at how we pounded the Repubs. It was amazing

[ProgressiveEconomist]

7. Republican pollster Frank Luntz rates a Harry Reid healthcare reform ad BEST of this cycle

Luntz was on O'Lielly last night with dynamic focus-group rating curves superimposed on various election ads of this season. Each ad had two moving average rating lines rising and falling in real time as it ran--blue for Democrats, red for Republicans. Neither Democrats nor Republicans liked Kentucky Senate candidate Conway's anti-Ron-Paul "Aqua Buddha" ad.

But both parties' focus groups LOVED a Reid ad focusing on how healthcare reform has helped one Nevada woman's struggle to pay thousands of dollars in prescription drug costs in her fight against cancer. As Reid tells the woman's story, both lines climb steeply--blue up to 80 percent favorable, red up to 60 percent. The lines climb again when Reid talks about "58,000 seniors" getting help with the Medicare prescription drug donut-hole this year, with the reform scheduled eventually to eliminate the donut-hole entirely.

Like Jerry Brown, Harry Reid evidently had EXCELLENT simple and direct campaign ads. And those ads evidently turned the tide for both of them.

[lame54]

8. I like the Brown ad where Whitman endorses him...

that was brilliant

[ProgressiveEconomist]

10. I didn't see the whole O'Lielly segment, so I don't know if he ran his focus-group software

on that one too. Or the other brilliant Brown ad where he has Whitman parroting archived tapes of Ahhnold.

But I agree with Luntz (for the first time) about the Reid ad. It took guts--or a desperation gamble--to run TOWARD healthcare reform when most everyone else was running away from it.

What if Feingold in WI, Lincoln in AR, Sestak in PA. Gianoulis in IL, and Ellsworth in IN, and Potter in ND had run versions of the same ad? Surely we would have lost fewer than six seats in the Senate.

And what if Meek in FL, Fisher in OH, Conway in KY. McAdams in AK, and Hodes in NH had run versions of Reid's health reform ad? Maybe we would have even picked up some Republican seats.

And what if incumbent Democrats who lost their House seats had run versions of Reid's ad. Maybe we even would have kept the House.

The beauty of Reid's ad is that, unlike Brown's ads, it's easy for ANY Democrat to reproduce. Just find one sick constituent who's been helped by health care reform and tell her story, focusing only on that one person, not on legislative details. As we move toward the 2012 election, finding people who will have been helped will get easier and easier, as long as the President doesn't fail to veto any Republican repeal attempts.

I've never understood how Obama's superb achievements on health care and the economy got to be so disparaged by right-wing lies that Democrats decided to run away from them, rather than finding simple convincing ways to run TOWARD them.

[JCMach1]

9. +1000 that was a brilliant ad

that and the Brown ad with Whitman parroting Ahnold were the best of this cycle.

[laughingliberal]

14. That was a very good ad. He had a lot that were good.

Another good one had veterans talking about Angle's belief that the VA should be privatized.

Even his negative ads were all about the issues-highlighting her words about the unemployed being 'spoiled,' her belief that government has no role in creating jobs, her desire to phase out SS and Medicare. He did a brilliant job of letting people know her positions on issues that matter to them.

[SweetieD]

29. My favorite Reid ad, was one with the Republican mayor of Reno calling Angle "Wild"

at the end of the commercial. I sort of heard that in my head randomly as I was driving to the polls. "She's wild" or "wahld" as he said it with a drawl. lol.

[laughingliberal]

36. It was OK. I preferred the ad with the veterans talking about her desire to privatize VA. nt

[SweetieD]

27. I live in Las Vegas and never saw that ad. Never.

[laughingliberal]

37. I think Harry spent more on ads up here. Never a doubt he'd carry Clark. He saturated the north. nt

[Brewman_Jax]

11. Not much of a contest

Like said above, Reid shouldn't have had any trouble with a brain-dead extremist RW whacko opponent, but it says more about the rabid right. That they are that fractured, hateful, spiteful, ignorant, etc., that they would have such a poor excuse for a candidate actually run.

If he showed that level of fight as Senate Majority Leader, things might have been different.

[laughingliberal]

13. Like I've said, Nevada has no problem electing crazies or brain dead candidates. That is not the...

whole sum of the reason he won. I might consider buying that had he not carried a county that had already elected this woman to the legislature once and in which she remains wildly popular. He carried Washoe by 5%. Nobody expected that.

[Emit]

18. And didn't he win Carson City, Angle's home turf?

[laughingliberal]

19. She took Carson by 3%.Not exactly a huge show for an area where she is so popular.

And Harry taking Washoe by 5% was just a shock.

[joeybee12]

20. She primaried the Congressman up north...forget his name...very popular up there, a Repuke...

after she left the state legislature and lots of people were unhappy with her for that...almost 100% of the money she raised came from out of state.

[laughingliberal]

21. She never 'primaried' a Congressman. Her & Dean Heller both ran for the Republican nomination for...

the seat vacated by Jim Gibbons. I live in the north and I've never seen any indication there was any real anger at her over that. She never had a chance but she remains wildly popular with the right up here.

[joeybee12]

22. Ok, but still int he GOP that angered them...they wanted a clear path for Heller...

Let's face it, people hate her, because they hate Harry Reid, but they ahte her even more.

[laughingliberal]

23. I've seen no indication she is hated in northern Nevada. All the pukes I know were salivating...

at the thought of voting for her.

[joeybee12]

43. I emant more the GOP establishment...this really should have been a pick-up

for them...but she was too nuts for even Nevada!!!!

[LynneSin]

16. Tea Party has got to realize that nominating dingbats who can recite your mantra...

won't win you elections.

Delawareans knew O'Donnell was a nut job and we overwhelmingly gave the seat to Chris Coons.

[laughingliberal]

24. KY elected one and Nevada was well on track to put Angle in the Senate.

Nate Silver had this one as a 78% chance for Angle to take it and raised it to 83% on election day.

Harry ran a brilliant campaign and deserves all credit for whomping her.

[LynneSin]

30. Rand ran in a state that was overwhelmingly republican to begin with.

Nevada is more of a purple state whereas Delaware and California are blue.

[laughingliberal]

32. Nevada is just now becoming somewhat purple and the north is still quite red. Harry won there, too.

No matter to me if you give Harry the credit due. I know who saved that seat for us.

We had people here on DU who actually said having Angle in the Senate would be 'amusing.'

Guess they'll have to look elsewhere for their amusement, now. Lol

[cybildisobedience]

17. why is it....

that the only time guys like Harry Reid is when it's THEIR butt on the line? When they have to say themselves?
Why can't they fight like that for us?

[laughingliberal]

25. Well, I saw him work like hell to come up with a way to get us a public option.

Too bad I can't say I saw him getting a lot of support on that from some of our leaders.

[SweetieD]

26. I live in NV. It was not that easy. I saw way more Angle ads than Reid ads. It was nonstop.

on every station cable and network between every program day or night. TBH I don't think the victory was because of Harry's doing but because of Angle's undoing. She wouldn't give interviews to the press. She couldn't explain her positions. And ultimately, her attitude toward hispanics killed any chance she had. She lost the race within the last couple of weeks because of the minority thing. (Thank god) Whites in NV voted for Angle by 55%, white males by 58%. If it was just whites voting, she would be senator. But I read that 2/3s of hispanics, 2/3s of asians(many did not like Angle's hispanic-asian comment either), and 8/10 of blacks voted for Reid. It was the urban population and minorities that saved Reid.

[laughingliberal]

33. No, she would have won if Harry had not run his operation as well as he did.

The article nailed it. He got out front showing people her positions on the issues early.

And he ran a flawless GOTV effort.

Guess it depends on the area of the state they targeted but I saw Reid and Angle running tit for tat in number of ads in this area.

[GSLevel9]

31. Bullshit...

Pubs nominated a genuine nutbag. Lowden would have beat him.

[LostInAnomie]

39. Ding Ding Ding!

If "Chickens for Check-ups" Lowden hadn't "Chickened for Check-upped" herself Harry would be looking for a job right now.

Harry won through amazing luck.

[WillyT]

41. Hey LL, Did You See This ???

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9475356

BTW - K & R !!!

:hi:

[laughingliberal]

44. I did not. Thanks! nt

[WI_DEM]

42. Nevada was also a state where GOTV truly worked

Nearly every poll in the last month had Angle leading by 4 but Harry won early voting and on election day he won by 5.