Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Senate Showdown:

Hillary Clinton rallying voters in fight for control of Senate

Hillary Clinton

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual fundraising Steak Fry on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014, in Indianola, Iowa. Clinton will spend much of October traveling to key states in the battle for control of the Senate.

Editor's note: This is part of a weekly series, Senate Showdown, in which the Las Vegas Sun politics team shares news, links and insights on Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and the 2014 battle for the U.S. Senate. Readers can also submit questions at [email protected] or via Twitter using the hashtag #AskAmber.

In six weeks, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid will know if he will still run the U.S. Senate.

The campaign to control the Senate is the defining storyline of American politics in the Nov. 4 election, and Reid is one of the main characters.

Forecasts predict Republicans could have a slight majority in the Senate. An unpopular Democratic president and the first national election since the 2013 implementation of Obamacare helped create a tough environment for Senate Democrats up for reelection in red states.

If Republicans gain a net six seats, they would control both chambers of Congress for President Barack Obama's last two years in office. And Reid would lose control of the Senate after ascending to majority leader in 2007.

But six weeks is a long time in politics.

Neither Reid nor Republican Nevada Sen. Dean Heller are up for re-election this year. But the Las Vegas Sun politics team will share links and insights on the Senate showdown leading up to the election.

It's all about that money

Reid and his team are doing everything they can to hang on to control of the Senate. And this year, that means raising hundreds of millions of dollars from billionaires.

Reid's sophisticated team of former aides, like former chief of staff Susan McCue, has raised so much outside money this election cycle that Democrats have actually out-coordinated Republicans in some cases, according to the New York Times.

More than half of all the outside ads supporting Democratic Senate candidates has come from the Reid-affiliated Senate Majority PAC and other closely related groups. Although Reid's not legally allowed to directly help raise money for outside groups, the Senate Majority PAC has benefited so much from its de facto ties to Reid that Republicans wish they had a similar relationship, says Peter Overby of NPR.

So, who's up for re-election again?

As Nov. 4 draws nearer, the field of races that could change the Senate majority becomes narrower and more important. The Huffington Post has a quick, easy-to-read guide to the top 10 races in November that will decide which party controls the Senate. And The New York Times' Nate Cohn, using forecasting models, tightens that number even further to six Senate races.

The man trying to oust Reid

Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas figures life would be better in a Republican Senate, out of Reid's tight grip. In fact, almost all of his Republican colleagues share that view, including Nevada's Heller. Moran is doing all he can to make that happen as head of his party's Senate campaign committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Senators from both parties take turns chairing this committee, and Moran tells Politico's Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan that part of his motivation to raise money and politically outmaneuver Democrats in 2014 is Reid.

The woman trying to save Reid

Democrats have their own superstar this month.

No surprise, it's Hillary Clinton.

The former secretary of state and senator from New York will spend much of October traveling to key states in the battle for the Senate, such as Kentucky. She'll rally voters in places Democrats' data shows she's quite popular, and she'll surely raise funds from big-money donors behind the scenes, reports Politico's Maggie Haberman. Part of this pull could lay the groundwork for her potential 2016 presidential bid: Clinton is coming to Las Vegas next week to speak at UNLV, and she'll host a fundraiser for Reid's potential 2016 race.

What the pundits say

If you want to follow the Senate showdown day-by-day, there are a number of forecasting models that try to predict the political winds. Statistic-driven models at The New York Times, The Washington Post and FiveThirtyEight use slightly different methodology, but all come to the same conclusion: Republicans have better than a 50/50 chance to take the Senate.

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