Category: Nevada

Harry Reid, Comeback Kid?

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Disturbing news in Nevada:

Republican Sue Lowden has the best chance of defeating U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, according to a new poll for the Review-Journal that also suggests the Democratic incumbent could beat Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle in the fall, although he remains as unpopular as ever.
For the first time, a Mason-Dixon Polling & Research poll indicates that Reid could win re-election, even over Lowden, the one-time GOP front-runner whom the Democrat most fears and has most attacked. She is seen as moderate and a stronger general election foe than Angle, a staunch conservative now tied for the GOP primary lead.

What does it mean? We don’t know. The important thing always to remember about polls is this: A poll is not a prediction. It is, as pollsters say, a “snapshot” of opinion at any given time. And that’s true, whether we view the poll results as “good” news or “bad” news. (All political polls are “good” news to somebody.)

Especially beware of early polls. Remember that Marco Rubio started out 30 points behind Charlie Crist in the Florida GOP primary and, a month before the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter was 20 points ahead of Joe Sestak. When the pollster asks a question about “if the election were held tomorrow,” and the election is still many months away, you can’t exactly take that number to the bank.

Furthermore, candidates and campaigns matter. All through 2007, polls showed Hillary Clintonway ahead of Barack Obama, but Hillary ran a lousy campaign and Obama ran a smart campaign and so he kicked her butt.

Obviously, the Las Vegas Review-Journal is interpreting this poll as telling GOP voters to vote for Sue Lowden, not Sharron Angle. Maybe. Among others, Rush Limbaugh has endorsed Sue Lowden. But what if Lowden is running a lousy campaign? I mean, if she can’t beat a Tea Party candidate, how’s she going to beat Harry Reid?

When I went to Nevada in March, I met Lowden and visited her campaign headquarters. Nice lady, and a very efficient-looking campaign operation. So why has Sharron Angle surged? I don’t know, but here are the numbers now in the GOP primary:

  • Lowden 30%
  • Angle 29%
  • Tarkanian 23%

So, with the June 8 primary just around the corner, it looks like a dead heat. We’ll wait and see on that. I suspect that Reid’s mysterious “bounce” in the polls may actually reflect the intensity of the GOP primary. Right now, Angle’s Tea Party supporters are hating Lowden, and Lowden’s regular GOP supporters are hating Angle, and so this feeling hurts the poll numbers for both Angle and Lowden versus Reid. But when push comes to shove on Nov. 2, will people who hate Harry Reid stay home, rather than vote Republican? We’ll see.

Exit question: Has the Tea Party done anything for the GOP?

UPDATE: Instalanche! Excuse the belated thanks, but I was offline for eight hours while my teenage son fixed my computer.

Guess Who Just Got an Invitation to the Right Online Conference in Las Vegas?

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No, of course not me. But somebody sent an invitation to my good friend Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom blog. And who do you suppose sent Barbara this invitation? If you guessed “Satan,” you’re pretty close:

From: Erik Telford
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 11:59 AM
To: Barbara Espinosa
Subject: Will you join us for the RightOnline Conference this year?

Dear Barbara,
Last August we gathered in Pittsburgh with over 700 fellow activists at the National RightOnline Conference to take a stand for limited government and free enterprise. Before that many of you came to our Regional RightOnline Conference in Chicago to take a stand for the same principles. It was great to see so many freedom loving citizens from around the country come together and learn how we can use Internet activism to stop the radical left agenda.
We made immense progress this year online, but the Obama administration continues to threaten our freedoms on a daily basis. That’s why I’m asking you to join fellow citizen activists, the nation’s foremost new media experts, and top conservative leaders for the third annual RightOnline Conference in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel on July 23 & 24.
After registering, you can reserve your hotel room at the Venetian Hotel for a discounted price . . .
This year’s conference features leading conservative voices such as Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Congressman Mike Pence, Talk Radio Host Herman Cain, RedState.com’s Erick Erickson, HotAir.com’s Ed Morrissey, The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore and John Fund, Talk Radio Host Guy Benson, Fox News Contributor Jim Pinkerton, Talk Radio Host Curtis Sliwa, and many more to be added.
This summer, more than ever, conservatives must be equipped with the tools to bring our country back to freedom and prosperity.
I hope you will join us in Las Vegas for another important RightOnline Conference.
Sincerely,
Erik Telford
Executive Director, RightOnline

See what I mean? Erik Telford is inviting all my friends to Right Online — offering them discounted rooms at the fabulous Venetian Hotel! — but have I gotten an invitation?

No. Because I’m not one of “the nation’s foremost new media experts,” nor am I one of those “top conservative leaders,” so Erik Telford is going to make doggone sure that I never get invited.

Don’t let the fact that I have once again been viciously snubbed by Erik Telford prevent you from attending this “important Right Online Conference.” I’m sure it will be great.

Say hello to all my friends while you’re there. Having fun. Without me.

Nevada Voters to Hopeless Harry Reid: ‘We’re Just Not That Into You’

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Let’s see, 62% of Nevada voters oppose ObamaCare, and Harry Reid couldn’t get 50% in a poll match-up with Charles Manson, so obviously it’s time for Harry to make fun of Sarah Palin and launch a sparsely-attended bus tour of the state:

“You can’t escape who you are. My roots are here and no one can take that away from me,” Reid told a crowd of more than 100 cheering friends and supporters inside the Searchlight Nugget casino, about 60 miles south of Las Vegas. . . .

Having been to the Searchlight Nugget, I’ll guarantee 20 of those “cheering friends and supporters” were there for the slot machines and 10-cent coffee. But the Hopeless Harry Tour continued on to Las Vegas, where Reid reportedly drew about 1,000 “hard-core Democrats” — at least 2,o00 less than the attendance at Ann Coulter’s Vegas speech at the Henderson Pavillion (fixed seating for 2,400, plus lawn seating for up to 1,500).

More on the Hopeless Harry Tour from Nice Deb, Ruby Slippers, Jennifer Rubin and Liberty Pundits. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports on Eric Odom and Steve Foley’s operation in Vegas:

The television cameras went 60 miles south, to where Sarah Palin kicked off the “Showdown in Searchlight.”
But come the midterm elections, what may be more significant is what is happening here, in a dark condominium where the Home Depot tags are still on the lawn chairs that double as indoor seating for guests.
The blinds drawn against the desert sun, this is the new burrow of Eric Odom, a chief organizer of the first nationwide Tea Parties last year. Mr. Odom moved here a few weeks ago with his fiancée and a blogger sidekick to mobilize the state’s Tea Party groups for the midterms. . . .

They didn’t even name the “blogger sidekick.” That’s just so wrong. Anyway, here are Eric and Steve in their “burrow”:

BTW, Eric’s fiancée fixed me breakfast one morning while I was crashing on their sofa, so you should probably make a donation to Liberty First PAC just for that.

Tea Party Alert: Harry Reid Will Launch Three-Day Nevada Bus Tour Monday

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A friend in Nevada just called to alert me to this news:

On Monday, the politically vulnerable Democratic majority leader of the Senate plans to hit the road from his hometown of Searchlight for a three-day bus tour . . .
“This bus tour is a great opportunity for me to visit and hear from people in communities I know and love across Nevada,” the 70-year-old Reid said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to discussing how we can put Nevadans back to work, ensure Nevada leads the nation in clean energy jobs, keep families in their homes, and make health insurance more affordable.”
Reid’s campaign is calling it his “Driving Nevada Forward” tour . . .
Stops Monday are set to include a solar power plant in Boulder City, a meet-and-greet and another stop at a renewable energy facility more than 90 miles away in Pahrump, and a campaign barbecue and rally at a park near the historically black West Las Vegas neighborhood. . . .
Tuesday’s tour is set to start in Minden and head to Carson City, Fallon, Fernley and Reno in Washoe County, Nevada’s second-largest population center.
On Wednesday, Reid boards the bus for an almost 300 mile trip from Reno to Elko, with stops in the Interstate 80 towns of Lovelock, Winnemucca and Blue Mountain on the way. . . .

This is pretty short notice, but expect Nevada Tea Party Patriots to mobilize to greet Harry along his route. Help spread the word.

Update: (Smitty) Proof Positive has an advance look at Reid’s equipment base. Let’s just say it’s almost like Harry is ripping a page out of Bill Clinton’s book:

On the Road Again

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s time for me to hit the road back to Vegas and then fly back home, but not before I introduce you briefly to Vernon Parker, candidate for Congress in Arizona’s 3rd District.

I’ll have lots more about Vernon later this week, but I wanted to make the introduction now before I pack up and head home.

That’s the big red Chevy I rented for this week. It’s not a convertible, but it’ll do.

Tea Party Express III: Fear and Loathing — and Ann Coulter! — in Las Vegas

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BUMPED & UPDATED! SUNDAY MARCH 28: We were linked by Her Blondeness yesterday. Unfortunately, security at the Vegas event was so tight that I didn’t get to say “Hello” to her, although I did get to wave at her personal bodyguard, Floyd — shortly before two Las Vegas police officers pulled me aside and frisked me for weapons.

To explain: There was a “no media” policy at the Vegas event — absolutely no reporters allowed inside, and no audio or video recording permitted. Event organizers had not been told to make an exception for Miss Coulter’s personal friends (I scored an e-mail interview with her last week), and so I was forced to resort to pure gonzo methods. Hiding my press credentials in my pocket and tucking my notebook under my arm inside my coat, I stood in line for general admission and prayed I didn’t get searched at the gate.

Alan Choate from the Las Vegas Review-Journal did the same thing, as did at least one other reporter for a major news organization whose identity I cannot reveal due to the admittedly bizarre ethical obligations of our mutual craft).  However, I can reveal that I managed to get close to the stage before Ann’s speech, until one of the event volunteers told me I had to leave the “VIP” area. Drat.

When the speech started, I had my digital micro-recorder going (hidden in my hand, which I kept down by my right side) and moved as close to the stage as I could without infringing the “VIP” zone. Floyd the bodygard was at stage left with a wire in his ear, and I managed to catch his attention by waving. That was just about the time my posture and my erratic movements attracted the attention of two LVPD officers. From their vantage point, it looked from a certain angle as if I might have a gun, and I was escorted to the back of the amphitheater where I was beaten with nightsticks, pepper-sprayed and repeatedly tasered . . .

Just kidding. Although I was scared out of my wits, fearing that I would be ejected and my recorder confiscated, once I flashed my press credentials and the cops learned that the bulge in my coat wasn’t a 9mm in a shoulder holster — that I was merely a journalist, not a dangerously deranged psycho like Dylan Ratigan or Keith Olbermann — they lightened up considerably and apologized for the inconvenience.

As a matter of fact, the police never even saw the digital recorder, which I managed to hide in my pocket before they could frisk me, and the recorder was on throughtout my frightening ordeal, so that the entire incident is now preserved on digital audio. I haven’t uploaded or transcribed the audio yet, but when I do you’ll cleary hear one of the cops ask me, “Is that a digital recorder in your pocket . . . or are you just happy to see Ann Coulter?”

ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 13: Yes, you heard that right: Her Blondeness will be in the Las Vegas area March 27 at the Henderson Pavillion:

Grassroots Nevada is pleased to present Ann Coulter for our Saturday, March 27th event in Henderson / Las Vegas. . . .
Ms. Coulter will only be here in Henderson at the Grassroots Nevada event prior to the arrival of the Tea Party Express. The event for Las Vegas will be at the Henderson Pavilion; Gates open at 3:15 pm and show begins at 3:45 pm!

This event is part of the Tea Party Express III tour, which kicks off that morning in Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nevada:

Join us for the biggest Tea Party Express national tour to date. Starting March 27, 2010 with a Mega Rally in Searchlight, NV (hometown to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) we will take this message across the nation all the way to the White House in Washington, D.C. on April 15th:
“You, the politicians in Washington, have failed We The People with your bailouts, out-of-control deficit spending, government takeovers of sectors of the economy, Cap & Trade, government-run health care, and higher taxes! If you thought we were just going to quietly go away, or that this tea party movement would be just a passing fad, you were mistaken. We’re taking our country back!”

Here’s the video:

OK, people, here we go. I’ve been planning a trip out West to cover the Senate campaigns against Harry Reid and John McCain, and this chance is too perfect to miss.

After Vegas, the Tea Party Express goes to Phoenix, Arizona, which is home to our good friend, Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom blog. So I can party with our good friend Ann — who is not a stuck-up douchebag like Ross Douthat — and then go check out Barbara’s good friend, J.D. Hayworth.

This is the kind of journalistic expedition that the Shoe Leather Fund has made possible in the past. It’s 2,341 miles to Searchlight, Nev. — 38 hours if I were to drive it non-stop — but Smitty tells me that flights to Vegas are cheap, so maybe I’ll leave the 2004 KIA Optima at home for this trip. Driving or flying, either way it looks like an extraordinarily gonzo trip.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive….” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. . . .
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Now all we need is a red Chevy convertible.

Hit the tip jar!

Tea Party With Sarah Palin: Scenes from the Showdown in Searchlight, Nev.

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Word. Sarah Palin speaks! Notice the flags fluttering furiously. It was incredibly windy Saturday. I was backstage and one of my buddies let me get a nice perch at stage left to get photos and video, but the wind was more powerful than the sound system at the rally, which made Palin nearly inaudible on the video.

Palin is mobbed by media after her speech. Notice the boom mike overhead. The only interview she granted was to Griff Jenkins of Fox News. Earlier, I had seen the CNN correspondent at the rally, and tried to talk to him — my usual glad-handing style, “Hey there! How ya doin’?” — but he seemed very sour and hostile. Was it me, or was he just bummed about being stuck on the Tea Party beat?

“Hundreds of people, at least dozens” — gee, I wonder why they would say that? I just got off the phone with Smitty, who told me about that comment. What was my own estimate of the crowd size? Well, Bob Engstrom of Human Events had told me that the organizers had figured they could accommodate about 6,000 in the main area in front of the stage, while law enforcement was concerned that a crowd of 10,000 might completely overwhelm their traffic-control efforts.

The traffic was overwhelming — have you ever tried to get to a big SEC football game? The traffic on U.S. 95 reminded me of trying to get to Legion Field in Birmingham for an Alabama-Tennessee game (back in the day before ‘Bama started playing nearly all its home games at Tuscaloosa).

Victoria Jackson and Joe the Plumber have a chat before going onstage. Notice the Tea Party Express bus in the background. The crowd was sufficiently large that, when the buses arrived, they couldn’t park them where they had planned, because that space directly behind the stage was already full of people.

Read the fine print. Someone felt the need to clarify the terminology . . . NTTAWWT.

Further clarification from Doug Rodrigues of Reno who explained to me that he has a personal grudge against Marxism. Rodrigues is of Portugese/Chinese/Hawaiian ancestry — which is to say 100% American — and one side of his family came from the former Portugese colony of Macau. Shortly after the Communist revolution in China, Rodrigues’ grandfather left Macau for a trip to the Chinese province of Canton to check on the family’s land there. The grandfather was never heard from again and the land . . . well, so much for that, eh? All of which makes it easy to understand why Doug isn’t too keen on socialism and has a serious commitment to liberty. Oh, yeah, and he had a couple more things to say along the lines of enforcing the borders and no hyphens, please.

OK, since our good friends in the MSM have raised the issue of attendance estimates, I’ll post my three best crowd shots and you can click on any of these photos to see it full-size.

From stage left, looking toward the left (west). Notice the teeny-tiny dots on the hills in the distance? Those are people. Also notice the U.S. flag toward the right side . . . .

Also from stage left, facing about 20 or 30 degrees further right (northwest). The U.S. flag at the top left side of this photo is, I believe, the same flag in the right side of first photo. So that could help you get a sense of the area shown between these two photos, and there were thousands more people to the right (north/northeast) of that area, to say nothing of the people who were still out on Highway 95 trying to get through the two-mile-long traffic jam both ways to get into the rally.

This third photo was taken from a hill close to the highway, looking west toward the site, and someone with a technical or mathematical aptitude can click on the photo to see it full size and estimate the area by reference to the size of the trucks, RVs, etc.

Somebody put this sign on the gate to the rally site.

This 1970 Dodge Charger matches the Gadsden Flag perfectly!

As soon as I saw this jacket, I knew I had to get a picture. Semper Fi!

Andrea Shea King, the Radio Patriot, is on the Tea Party bus this time.

One of these people is a pharmacist I interviewed, and who was extremely critical of ObamaCare.

Another dangerous right-wing extremist!

According to Democrats and their media henchpeople, these are either (a) fake Astroturf stooges, bought and paid for by Corporate America, or (b) vicious ignorant kooks. Or perhaps both.

Eve of the Showdown in Searchlight

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LAS VEGAS — Just got back from Searchlight, where I reconnoitered the town and the rally site, about two miles north of Harry Reid’s hometown. A quick video report:

One reason I wanted to make the trip Friday was to scope out the route. When Ali arrives at 7 a.m. Saturday, we’ll have to drive like hell to get there before the road becomes completely jammed, so I needed to know where I’m going.

Driving down from Vegas late Friday afternoon, I missed the turn-off for U.S. 95 at Railroad Pass and ended up driving past Boulder City on U.S. 93 all the way to Hoover Dam before I realized I was on the wrong road. So it was already dark by the time I pulled into Searchlight and stopped in at the Nugget Casino and Restaurant, a local landmark.

It’s called a “casino,” but don’t get any illusions of glamour. It’s basically a bar and restaurant with a room full of slot machines on one side. There was a game of blackjack, but no roulette, craps, etc., and of course no big flashy showroom.

There was a guy in the Nugget working on a laptop and I figured he must be a reporter. Correct. He was a freelancer from San Diego on assignment for NBC News online. We talked a while, and I asked him where the rally was. He told me I’d driven past the site on my way into town, so I hopped back in the red Chevy and went north again until I finally found the place.

Friday, I’d talked by phone with Bob Engstrom, a pilot and freelance journalist who usually covers aviation issues for Human Events. He lives down the road in Arizona and got the assignment as their man on the scene for the big Tea Party rally.

Bob arrived at the rally site Thursday, camping out in the back of his truck, and he toured me around the place. His estimate was that 1,500 people were already on the site. Organizers expect about 6,000 by noon Saturday, although there are some who think as many as 10,000 may show up.

Although it was warm during the day, it got cold and windy when the sun went down. Several of the volunteers were gathered around a fire, talking and warming themselves.

One of the hundreds of RVs on the site, decorated with flags and signs.

Posing on the stage where Sarah Palin and others will speak Saturday. The site itself is extremely primitive — just a big dirt lot. Being from the East, where we have trees and grass and stuff, it’s weird to see the arid landscape of the West.

Another local landmark — Terrible’s Casino, slightly more upscale than the Nugget. Terrible’s actually has what you’d call decor, but other than that, it’s still just a slots parlor/bar and also a convenience store with a McDonald’s. I’m not sure, but this might be the only McDonald’s located at a casino. “Here, kids, have a Happy Meal, while Daddy feeds next month’s rent money into a slot machine.”