Reid losing grip on senate seat

Tea Party candidate turning heads

By Andrew Pooch

            Around the country, Tea Party candidates are making an impact and Nevada is taking notice.  Harry Reid is currently battling Sharron Angle for the Nevada senate seat.

            Reid has held a senate seat in Nevada since 1987.  He has moved his way up from being senate majority whip, to minority leader and now majority leader.  None of this is being considered this fall however.  He has been attached to the Obama administration, which has been unsuccessful in bringing change to a state such as Nevada.

After a private questioning meeting, Angle was quoted saying, “ The best that I could give you is that the message has changed from hope and change to fear and smear.”

            The Tea Party has some extreme candidates, and Angle is said to be one of them.  Reid is trying to inform voters that although they may be frustrated with the Obama administration, they should be aware of the changes that would arise if he weren’t re-elected.

            The fact is that Reid underestimated his opponent to a degree.  He started his campaign advertisements in the fall of 2009, but has since lost a grip.  He started by assuming that his seat was secure to the fact that he is senate majority leader.  He wanted voters to realize what that means to his home state. 

            These two candidates are pouring millions into their campaigns.  Angle has stated about $17.8 million, while Reid has yet to classified his funding.  The figure for Reid is figured to be very high as well. 

            The results have yet to be shown however, since Reid is receiving less than 50 percent of the vote.  The independent voters have shown they are frustrated with Nevada’s economy and hurting Reid’s election chances.

            “I’m very confident that we are running ahead,” said Mr. Reid’s pollster, Mark Mellman.  “It’s a tough race, it’s a competitive race and lots of things can happen between now and Election Day.  But we’ve been meaningfully ahead, pretty consistently.”

            Angle’s party disagrees with this statement from Reid’s camp.  Rob Jesmer, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said, “I think if the election were today we’d win because Sharron has the advantage of voter intensity.”

            According to the FiveThiryEight forecast, the Nevada seat is in a toss-up.  The race is hard to pin down in the current polls, but Nate Silver gives Angle a 62 percent chance of winning the election.

            Silver is making his living predicting elections correctly.  He is taking into account the way campaign money is being spent, voter opinion and other major successful polls.  He forms this data into a mega poll. 

            The closer the date gets to November 2, the more views the FiveThirtyEight is going to see.  The outlook is change for Nevada as well as the Senate, because people are frustrated with the state of the economy and have a chance to change it.