Tag: nevada

Democrats facing electoral disasters in NV-02, NY-09?

But before we start talking about implications, let’s review the situations.

  • NY-09. This D+5 seat was vacated by Anthony Weiner after pictures surfaced… and I don’t need to end that sentence: it’s never good for a politician’s career when the phrase ‘pictures surfaced’ is used to describe his or her situation. The race thus is between Republican Bob Turner and Democrat David Weprin… and Democrats are even now going frantic. They’re going frantic because an independent pollster now shows Turner in the lead (which has been consistent with other polling trends); they’re going frantic because Tuner has picked up several key endorsements from prominent New York Democrats (over Weprin’s – really, President Obama’s – Israel policy); and they’re going frantic because the entire Weprin campaign effort seems to be infected with incompetence, starting at the local level* and working all the way up to the DCCC itself. The Democrats have dumped half a million dollars in this race, and are right now grimly contemplating the possibility that this half a million is buying them bupkis.
  • NV-02. Meanwhile, this R+5 district is increasingly looking like a retention for the GOP. Dean Heller vacated the seat after being tapped to become Senator John Ensign’s replacement (Ensign, as you probably remember – and you probably were happy to forget – left office under what we shall charitably call ‘under a cloud’); Republican Mark Amodei will be facing Democrat Kate Marshall. The DCCC has essentially written this district off, at this point: their primary strategy, if you’ll pardon the pun, was to get Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller (elections have consequences, people) to sign off on a winner-take-all election (which would have splintered the Republican vote), only to be told no by the courts. Since then, Marshall hasn’t been able to make anything stick – including linking Amodei with Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan – and Amodei is favored to win. Incidentally, the Right has put about 750K into this race, including about $500K from the NRCC.

Continue reading Democrats facing electoral disasters in NV-02, NY-09?

#rsrh DCCC cuts and runs in NV-02.

Once upon a time, Kate Marshall looked like she could go the distance in the NV-02 special election against Mark Amodei: now the distancing is being done by the DCCC, which has left her by the stern rail listening to the band play Nearer My God To Thee.  Not that I know how that movie ended.  Or started.  I think that I’ve seen no more than five minutes of Titanic, actually.

And… that’s all that needs to be said, really.

Moe Lane

PS: Mark Admodei for NV-02.

Kate Marshall’s (D CAND, NV-02) scripted support of Israel.

Readers of RedState are, of course, aware that several days ago Hamas terrorists used their occupation of the Gaza Strip as a base from which to launch brutal attacks on Israel.  This unprovoked and obscene attack was of course condemned by anybody with a lick of moral sense… including, superficially, Kate Marshall, who is the Democratic candidate in the NV-02 special election next month.  Alas, I have to say ‘superficially’ because Marshall’s actually making this statement for purely political reasons.

You see, Israel has been in the news lately, and will be even more in the news with Beck’s “Rally to Restore Courage” in Jerusalem. In an R district, it will be useful to express support for Israel and demonstrate some foreign policy prowess while it is a timely topic – especially for people who are likely paying attention to Beck’s event… What was that?  That statement finally reveals me to be a cynical partisan hack, once and for all?  Well, I am a partisan hack, yes.

I’m also quoting Kate Marshall there word-for-word. Continue reading Kate Marshall’s (D CAND, NV-02) scripted support of Israel.

RS Interview: Mark Amodei (R CAND, NV-02)

Mark is the official candidate for the special election in Nevada’s second district this September: that’s the one that Dean Heller vacated to take the Senate seat.  The Democrats aren’t really happy about this one: they tried to play and encourage split-the-vote shenanigans, and more or less got shot down completely*.  We talked about the state of the race, not to mention the state of the district:

Mark’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Funny how those kinds of shenanigans seem to be clustered around Democratic Secretaries of State (like Nevada’s Ross Miller).  Elections have consequences, folks.

#rsrh John Ensign’s last day is tomorrow.

…You know, I was going to throw down the snark on this one, but forget it.  I’m glad that he feels bad about the adultery and the possible cover-up and everything – especially since he was one of the guys going after other Senators for ethically iffy behavior, too. I hope Ensign learns the right lessons from this.

One of which would be, Stay out of politics from now on.

Moe Lane

Did Harry Reid pull strings to protect aide in immigration conspiracy?

The facts of the case are these: in 2003 Diana Tejada entered into a fraudulent conspiracy with Lebanese national Bassam Mahmoud Tarhini, with the aim of securing permanent US residency for the latter (there was also and investigation whether Mr. Tarhini had links to ‘extremist groups,’ but nothing was ever confirmed).  Money changed hands.  For the next five years Ms. Tejada continued to misrepresent her relationship with Mr. Tarhini, despite official inquiries by immigration services; her eventual confession took place in November, which was one month after she joined current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s staff.  Despite her confession, Ms. Tejada was not charged with any crime at all, let alone a felony; in fact, Ms. Tejada was misidentified as still being at her former job (La Raza) by immigration officials at Tarhini’s deportation proceedings.  Harry Reid’s office has fired Ms. Tejada only in the last month (she was an official Reid spokesperson for the latest DREAM Act push), and claims that they had no prior knowledge of her activities: this has been contradicted by Fox’s own sources, which insist that Tejada’s confession was partially motivated by concerns relating to her new job with Harry Reid; and that in any case it would be standard operating procedure for the Senate Majority Leader to be made aware of a situation of this magnitude that involved one of his own aides.

And this is where it frankly beggars belief that Senator Reid was unaware of the situation.  Tarhini’s being the subject of a counter-terrorist investigation, coupled with the news that his partner in conspiracy was also an aide to the Senate Majority Leader, would have absolutely required that the Senator be informed at what could have been a hideously dangerous security leak in his own office.  It is much less difficult to believe that Senator Reid was told, concluded that the situation was not actually all that dire, and simply arranged matters so that his new aide – and more importantly, himself – wasn’t dragged through the wringer of an official investigation.  And in late 2008/early 2009 that may have seemed a reasonable decision.

Unfortunately, in late 2010 that looks suspiciously like a callous indifference to national security and an arrogant abuse of political power.  Not to be cliched about this, but here goes: this raises serious questions, that must be answered.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: In point of fact: yes, politicians can be that stupid.  In fact, doing something stupid is how they usually trip and fall from the high places.

#rsrh Harry Reid has a problem.

His problem is that passages like this:

Someone got up and announced that Sharron Angle would speak next, because she had a plane to catch. Angle is a small woman, a sixty-one-year-old grandmother with a broad, open face, a toothy smile, and red hair worn in a pageboy. She has a friendly manner and a firm handshake, along with a set of basic political skills that Harry Reid lacks. These include the ability to chat pleasantly for a minute or two and then tactfully extract herself, and to say what she stands for quickly, with real passion but usually without seeming odd or threatening.

…and this…

Although [Harry Reid] first ran for office at the age of twenty-eight and he is now seventy, he is still strikingly bad at the public part of his job. His voice is soft, with little resonance. When he’s talking to someone, he has a habit of looking down instead of into the person’s eyes. His gestures on a podium are awkward hand chops.

…and this:

Two years ago, Reid published an autobiography, “The Good Fight,” written with the assistance of Mark Warren, of Esquire. Like the autobiographies of Reid’s Republican colleague John McCain, it was meant to “humanize” (as they say in politics) a top-ranking official who had a reputation for being hard to love. But what shines through is Reid’s lack of the natural gregariousness and geniality that most people associate with the political personality.

…are showing up in what are supposed to be puff pieces about him. Continue reading #rsrh Harry Reid has a problem.

Reid: Gillibrand ‘hottest’ Senator.

You’ve come a long way, baby.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) If you were wondering whether or not current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) is snapping under the strain of facing Sharron Angle, well, stop wondering.  If he was not snapping, Reid almost certainly would not have made such a strong contrast between Chuckie Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand at a recent NYC fundraiser thrown for Reid by Mayor Bloomberg.  To sum up the difference in the tenor of Reid’s remarks (subtext added):

  • Schumer: Chuckie Schumer is so smart and so good at politics!  He was great as DSCC  Chair, too – unlike that idiot we have now who can’t even get rid of one single, troublesome, inconvenient woman…
  • Gillibrand: …she’s HOT!  …And, oh, yeah, she knows something about securities law.

Continue reading Reid: Gillibrand ‘hottest’ Senator.

Sharron says, “Apologize to Petraeus.”

I stole this line from Jim Geraghty, because it’s the perfect way to visualize this latest ad from the Sharron Angle campaign. In this one, Harry Reid is reminded that lying about how you treat our military personnel is a bad idea, and that he should apologize for it:

Isn’t it nice to have a grown-up around who has some small hope of making Harry Reid behave like one?

Moe Lane Continue reading Sharron says, “Apologize to Petraeus.”

Lots of Primaries today.

According to RCP, we’ve got primaries in California, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Virginia.  The news has been dominated by California’s, Nevada’s, and of course South Carolina’s – but they’re all important, so if you’re a voter in that state, hie yourselves and any reliable Republican voters within reach to a polling station.  You can let the Democrats in your life sleep in, particularly in New Jersey and Virginia.

Also: KEEP YOUR VIDEO CAMERAS HANDY, PARTICULARLY IF YOU LIVE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.  Anti-reform opponents of Nikki Haley and Bill Connor may be now past the point where their shenanigans can shape public opinion in time for the actual primary election, but there’s plenty of things that you can do to illicitly affect an election.  Fortunately, sunlight is an excellent disinfectant – and, remember: as Mark Steyn notes here, Helen Thomas was taken down by a flipcam.  There’s a reason that both Instapundit and I keep harping on this…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.