All Entries Tagged With: "Harry Reid"
Sen. Reid tells voters: ‘I need your help’
By: Michael R. Blood, Associated Press
As he embarked on a campaign swing through his home state this week, Sen. Harry Reid didn’t have to look far to see that trouble is coming at him.
A leather-clad biker at a pizza shop refused to shake his hand. A protester waved a sign, “Welcome to Harry Reid’s throw Nevada under the bus tour.” A woman confronted him with two pages of statistics that she said showed Washington is ripping off Nevada.
To top things off, Reid’s customized bus was lashed by a freakish snow storm on a mountain pass, and the next morning he emerged with blood trickling down his hand after squashing it in a door.
During the three-day tour of tightly orchestrated campaign events that put the Senate’s most powerful Democrat in front of mostly cheerful crowds, there were reminders of why Reid is among the most vulnerable incumbents in the nation.
He said as much to a crowd Tuesday at the University of Nevada, Reno: “I need your help.”
“I have a lot of people who are after me,” Reid said.
Trailing in polls in his bid for a fifth term, Reid hit the road for the tour of handshaking and speeches that concludes Wednesday in Elko, a town known for its cowboy poetry festival, after long rides through rural Lovelock and Winnemucca. After easily winning re-election in 2004, he’s now playing a different role: incumbent underdog.
Reid is well-financed and faces only token opposition in the June primary, but a string of independent voter surveys suggest he is running behind little-known Republicans who could challenge him in November. With no leading rival to yet emerge, he’s essentially running against himself and the sour economy.
Nevada has been hit hard by double-digit unemployment and record numbers of foreclosures and bankruptcies.
“It’s not me,” Reid said during an interview on his bus, as he munched nuts and dried apricots. “You can go to (Sen.) John McCain in Arizona, you can go to (Sen.) Barbara Boxer in California. It doesn’t matter where you go, there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the status quo.”
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Reid: I’m not opposed to sex
By: Anjeanette, RGJ.com
In one of the stranger moments on the campaign trail today, an audience member at Comma Coffee in Carson City asked U.S. Sen. Harry Reid what he is doing to encourage immigrant women of child-bearing age to come to the United States.
Reid began to launch into a serious answer on immigration and then paused.
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Reid’s gaffe undercuts momentum
By: Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times
It had been a good two weeks for Majority Leader Harry Reid, who used tough parliamentary tactics to push through the Senate three measures, all of which could be described as “jobs bills.”
Then Friday, he stepped on that message, taking to the Senate floor to praise that morning’s news that the economy shed 36,000 jobs in February as “really good.” What he meant was that the numbers were not as bad as expectations, but what he actually said earned a blaring red banner headline on the Drudge Report.
Hours later, Mr. Reid was back on the Senate floor to clean up the mess, reading carefully from prepared remarks and assuring C-SPAN viewers and folks back in Nevada that he does think “the unemployment rate is still too high.”
So it goes for Mr. Reid, who, in the face of a brutal re-election battle in Nevada, notched some serious successes for bragging rights back home, but who showed he can still be his own worst enemy.
It’s become so bad that “Saturday Night Live” has spoofed Mr. Reid as untelegenic and uncharismatic, and portrayed him as uniquely vulnerable among senators this year over the unpopular health care reform bill.
Since Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority when Scott Brown, Massachusetts Republican, was sworn in last month, Mr. Reid has taken to playing legislative hardball. He has proposed a series of small, targeted bills and forced Republicans to either vote for them or face criticism for obstructing action to spur job creation.
The success of the strategy can be seen in the vote tallies: Led by Mr. Brown, four Republicans broke ranks and headed off a filibuster over a $15 billion measure to continue highway funding and create a payroll tax holiday for hiring unemployed workers. Days later, the Senate voted 76-20 to head off another filibuster on Mr. Reid’s bill to promote tourism abroad. Last week, the Senate overcame the blockade by Sen. Jim Bunning, Kentucky Republican, on a short-term extension of highway construction and unemployment-benefits funding.
“We scored major victories for Nevada this week,” Mr. Reid said in an e-mail to supporters back home, properly claiming credit for having gone head to head with Mr. Bunning to force that measure to a final vote.
The recent bills have been modest measures focused on jobs, and Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, says that has helped free up Republican votes.
“In light of Scott Brown’s election, in light of the pressing need to deal with the economy, it has provided and will provide an opportunity for additional bipartisan support,” Mr. Manley said.
Democrats are making a calculated gamble that voters care more about job revival than they do about reining in the ballooning deficit. Republicans say the bet won’t pay off.
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Sens. seek Obama boost on campaign trail
President Obama kicks off what might be called his “Save the Senate” tour this week, heading west to campaign for two embattled Democrats trailing badly against Republican challengers – including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
With high-profile Democrats already bailing out of re-election campaigns – Sen. Evan Bayh’s decision on Monday to drop out of the race in Indiana brings the number of retirees to five – Mr. Obama is putting his popularity and fundraising prowess on the line as he tries to help his party hold the majority in the Senate.
Local Republicans are salivating at the prospect of Mr. Obama dropping into town to campaign for their opponents.
“The hardworking families in Nevada see right through any type of political dog-and-pony shows taking place this week in Las Vegas,” said former state Sen. Sue Lowden, a Republican running for Mr. Reid’s seat. “No amount of campaign cash will buy back the trust of voters and convince them that he deserves another six years.”
Even Democratic strategists say a visit by the president – whose poll numbers have plummeted since taking office – carries risks for his fellow Democrats.
“It’s definitely a gamble,” said Democratic strategist Liz Chadderdon. “A handshake that raises $1 million now could cost them the election later.”
Mr. Obama on Thursday will head to Colorado to deliver remarks at an event for Sen. Michael Bennet, who is trailing both Republicans vying for their party’s nomination. Mr. Bennet, 45, took office in January 2009 when Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. appointed him to fill the seat of Ken Salazar, whom Mr. Obama appointed to his Cabinet as secretary of the interior.
Mr. Bennet trails Jane Norton, a former lieutenant governor and state representative, by 14 percentage points, and Ken Bush, a district attorney and former congressional aide, by four percentage points, according to the most recent Rasmussen Reports survey.
The president’s appearance likely will help Mr. Bennet survive the Democratic primary because he “is still very popular with base voters,” said Ms. Chadderdon. “But will Obama’s numbers have rebounded enough in the general [election] not to be an albatross?”
On Thursday night, Mr. Obama will headline a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Las Vegas. The next day, he will hold events in the city with Mr. Reid, whose popularity in Nevada has fallen to record lows. Polls show a slew of Republican challengers – among them Mrs. Lowden and Las Vegas real estate developer Danny Tarkanian – ahead of Mr. Reid in potential November matchups.
Still, Democratic strategist Bud Jackson said calling in the president – even if his poll numbers are falling – still can be fruitful.
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Dina Titus to colleagues: Harry Reid is ‘done’
Clearly worried about the political landscape heading into the fall elections, Democratic Rep. Dina Titus tells colleagues Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is “done,” Politico is reporting today.
“Reid is done; he’s going to lose” in November, Titus said during a closed door meeting last week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and colleagues, according to Politico. The paper cites three people in the room who heard the comment.
Titus denied that she had singled out Reid, Politico said.
But she acknowledged that she said Democrats would be “f—-ed” if they failed to heed the lessons of Massachusetts, where Republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat last week, the paper reported.
The frank talk is sure to add a new dimension to the Reid-Titus relationship.
Titus spoke to Reid last night and denied making the comment.
The majority leader accepted her explanation, a Reid aide said.
“They have had a good relationship for years and he takes her at her word,” said Reid spokesman Jon Summers.
The two have a frosty history, especially after Reid did not appear to give his robust support for her failed campaign for governor. But they had appeared to have patched up their differences as Titus unseated a Republican congressman in 2008 and came to Washington.
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Local firm under scrutiny for contributions to Reid
A local architecture firm that recently won an $8.3 million federal contract to redesign a U.S. border crossing in California is being investigated by the Federal Election Commission for irregular campaign contributions to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is up for re-election next year.
Henderson resident Randy Spitzmesser prompted the FEC probe of his former employer, Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects.
On behalf of the architecture firm, Las Vegas attorney Stan Hunterton told the Las Vegas Review-Journal by fax last month, “We do not believe that anything was intentionally done wrong” regarding campaign finances.
Spitzmesser also thinks Henderson-based Tate Snyder Kimsey did not adequately disclose its recent history of legal disputes to the agency that awarded the border-crossing job.
His FEC complaint alleges the architecture firm illegally forced him to donate $1,000 to Reid in February and then covertly repaid him after he complained he didn’t have the money to spare. The firm hid the transaction, he said, by adding an extra $1,000 to a check that was also his reimbursement for legitimate business expenses. Federal laws prohibit campaign contributions that come from corporations, disguise the true donor’s identity or involve coercion.
“We should not force our political will” in the workplace, is how Spitzmesser explained his resistance to supporting Reid. He said he voiced his opposition directly to Windom Kimsey, a firm principal. Spitzmesser said Kimsey responded that individuals who did not support Reid “will not have any work for the upcoming year.”
In late June, the firm laid off Spitzmesser, citing a lack of work. Less than a month later, it won a huge assignment from the U.S. General Services Administration to modernize and expand the land port of entry in Otay Mesa, Calif. Federal stimulus dollars will pay for the project.
Reid and his re-election staff are aware of the FEC probe, campaign manager Brandon Hall said Friday.
