Tea Party activities may hand Reid an easy to beat opponent (Nevada)

[Liberal_in_LA]

LAS VEGAS -- Elevator technician David Shurtliff, 48, strolled out of an early voting station at the Clark County Government Center the other day happy to proclaim whom he voted for in Tuesday's Republican primary for the U.S. Senate: "Not Harry Reid, that's who!"

Nevada Republicans are seeking the Not-Harry-Reid vote with a vengeance this year as they attempt to dethrone the powerful Senate majority leader by portraying the four-term incumbent as a deal-making Washington insider.

But someone other than Reid's Republican rivals may benefit on Tuesday from the anti-Hary Reid movement: Harry Reid. In their zeal for a third big win this spring after victories in Utah and Kentucky, tea party groups are lining up behind the most uncompromising GOP candidate they see -- Sharron Angle, a former state assemblywoman who has hopped to the front of a 12-person pack in recent public polling with steadfast views against taxes and government spending.

But by backing a woman who many times was the lone "no" vote in the Nevada assembly, these groups may be handing Reid the candidate he can most easily beat.

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As Lowden's fortunes faded, Angle's rose. Tea party activists flocked to her promises of lower taxes, less government spending and what they view as stricter adherence to the constitution. But Angle is vulnerable to the caricature of being out of touch with the mainstream; pragmatic voters may view her as too uncompromising about the size of government -- at the expense of Nevada. Also, Angle supported a prison rehabilitation program during her years in the state assembly promoted by the Church of Scientology and involving saunas and massage. And she is a passionate advocate for reversing Reid's efforts to ban nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain -- an effort that Nevadans overwhelmingly support.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/06/AR2010060602354.html