Poll: Majority Leader Reid Vulnerable in 2010
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may be the most powerful Democrat in the upper house, but he's not the most popular politician in his home state of Nevada.
A new poll of likely voters reveals that in a head-to-head race in 2010, Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden would defeat Reid by 6 percentage points ? 48 percent favored Lowden, 42 chose Reid, and 10 percent were undecided.
Lowden has not announced her candidacy, and in fact, the poll was commissioned by Nevada Republicans in an effort to convince her to toss her hat in the ring, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
In the poll by Denver-based Vitale and Associates, 44 percent of respondents identified themselves as Democrats, 38 percent said they were Republicans, 15 percent said they were independent, and 3 percent did not state an affiliation.
The poll also disclosed that only 39 percent of respondents had a favorable view of Reid, who was first elected to the Senate in 1986, and just 34 percent said they would vote to re-elect him.
The results of the poll will help encourage Lowden to run, according to Republican strategist Robert Uithoven, who said "there's plenty of support for her."
Nevada's unemployment figure of more than 12 percent is likely contributing to Reid's low approval rating, the Review-Journal observed.
"All of those are very, very telling pieces of information," said pollster Todd Vitale. "I've never seen an incumbent with numbers this bad who hadn't had some scandal."
Interestingly, a Nevada politician who is involved in a scandal has a higher favorable rating than the majority leader.
Republican Sen. John Ensign confessed in June to a nine-month affair with Cindy Hampton, a campaign aide. But the poll showed his favorable rating at 40 percent, 1 percentage point higher than Reid's.
Ensign does not face re-election until 2012. |
