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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Benny B on November 03, 2010, 07:49:01 AM
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How Reid Did It
Posted by Nicholas Lemann
Well, he escaped again. Just about the only Democrat who performed better than expected at the polls yesterday was Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, who beat his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, by a comfortable margin. (I wrote about the campaign for The New Yorker.) Considering that Angle was three or four points ahead in most polls during the last week, and that Reid has had a history of very close races, for him this was practically a landslide.
How did Reid do it? His secret weapon is Rebecca Lambe, the political “ground game” specialist who has been rebuilding the Democratic Party in Nevada since 2003. Lambe works on the unglamorous side of politics—organizing, registration, get-out-the-vote, as opposed to polling, “message,” and advertising—and she must have done a superb job for Reid this fall. Angle, ironically, went from being the most grassroots candidate imaginable to being, in the realm of political technique, almost totally dependent on television advertising. That was because she was quite successful at raising money from national conservative groups, and because she was so skittish about engaging in the conventional aspects of politics. For the past few weeks, when she thought she was sitting on a lead, she has been almost invisible except over the airwaves.
People are always saying they want to be represented by atypical politicians, but one has to wonder whether Angle in the end was too atypical. Here’s someone whose views are ‘way out of the mainstream, and who just doesn’t engage in the daily routine of politicians: meeting with groups who want things from her, attending dinners where one says a few words over dessert, and so on. As far as I know, she has made no effort to meet any of the largest employers in her state. Maybe that’s just too far out of the political zone for voters.