With Angle Up 4, NYT on Harry Reid: ‘Some Republicans Fear Losing Such a Powerful Ally in Washington’

October 30, 2010

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(CNSNews.com) - In a classic example of liberal media bias, the front page of the print edition of Saturday's New York Times carries an above-the-fold story about the Nevada U.S. Senate race--headlined, “In Nevada, It’s Hold Nose and Cast Vote.” At one point, the story says: “Some Republicans fear losing such a powerfull ally in Washington—no matter that his name is Reid—at a time when Nevada is in precarious economic shape.”

But the story does not quote a single Republican from Nevada or elsewhere, or cite a single poll, that indicates that Republicans, either on the grassroots or in the leadership of the party, fear that Harry Reid will lose.

Nor does the story quote a single Republican from Nevada or elsewhere, or cite a single poll, that indicates Republicans either on the grassroots or in the leadership of the party, would like Sen. Reid to be re-elected because they believe his reelection would help Nevada overcome its “precarious economic shape.”

In the Real Clear Politics average of all polls in the Nevada Senate race, Republican challenger Sharron Angle is leading Sen. Reid by 4 percentage points.

Angle has led Reid in each of the last six polls conducted in the race, and has led by a consistent 4 points in each of the last three, which were conducted by CNN/Time, Rasmussen Reports, and the Las Vegas Review Journal/Mason Dixon.

The most recent of these polls, the Las Vegas Review Journal/Mason Dixon survey, which was conducted Oct. 25-27 and published in yesterday’s edition of the Review Journal, Angle not only led Reid by 4 points, but also had a marginally higher percentage of Republican voters than Reid had Democratic voters. Also, according to this poll, Angle is leading Reid by a double-digit margin among independents.

Specifically, the Las Vegas Review-Journal/Mason Dixon poll says Angle has the support of 85 percent of Republicans, while Reid has the support of 84 percent of Democrats. Among independents, Angle leads Reid by 17 points, 55 percent to 38 percent.

The New York Times report describes Reid as a “Horatio Alger” who could become the victim of a “general disgust with the establishment.”

“Union members have knocked on 200,000 doors and made 48,000 calls as part of a one-vote-at-a-time effort by Democrats to counter a general disgust with the establishment--personified these days by Mr. Reid, who might otherwise be seen as a Horatio Alger character from Nevada: a poor, pugnacious kid from Searchlight who rose to become a power broker able to secure federal money for large, jobs-creating state projects,” says the Times.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nevada has a 14.4 percent unemployment rate, the highest of any state in the nation. In January 2007, when Sen. Reid became Senate majority leader, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.