Sunday, May 30, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
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I was given unusual access Friday to a Harry Reid campaign strategy meeting, under the condition I was not to identify any of the three advisers by name. The room was festooned with chicken paraphernalia and a large sign on the wall was emblazoned with the slogan, “Just beat Lowden, stupid.”
Here’s what I heard:
Reidite No. 1: “You see that Mason-Dixon poll! We are back, baby!”
Reidite No. 2: “A dead heat with all three of ’em, even if the Review-Journal says Lowden is the strongest.”
Reidite No. 3: “Well, um, we have been saying she is the strongest, too, for months.”
No. 1: “Not publicly, we haven’t. Don’t say that outside this room.”
No. 2: “Well, it’s kinda obvious since we have put out, like 2,000 releases attacking Lowden and none about Sharron Angle or Danny Tarkanian. Sort of telegraphs it, don’t you think? And there is that sign on the wall.”
No. 3: “Let’s focus on the good news. We are resurgent. It’s all over the national media. We are exactly where we want to be with five months to go.”
No. 1: “Well, um, our guy is the Senate majority leader and we still are barely over 40 percent. He’s not exactly a juggernaut. It’s not like people suddenly decided to like him. This is about chickens, Scientology and, well, Tark is Tark.”
No. 2: “We need to find a way to sell the story that we did this to Lowden, not that she did it to herself. Reinforces the great and powerful Wizard of Reid thing.”
No. 3: “I am thinking out of the box here, but what if we scrap the original plan and go positive after the primary? You know, those warm and fuzzy spots about the senator — son of a hard-rock miner, rags to riches, man of the people.”
(There is a stunned silence. Then, suddenly, waves of laughter fill the room.)
No. 1: “Positive? Us? Hilarious. That is so last year.”
No. 2: “Exactly. That’s the last time you will see us go positive.”
No. 3: “Guys, I’m just saying maybe we can get people to like the senator a little more.”
No. 1: “Listen, the best we can do is to get people to hate him a little less. This election is about to be about one thing and one thing only: Destroying the Republican nominee, and getting people to vote for the minor candidates or ‘none of the above.’ Period.”
No. 2: “Are we sure with everything that has happened in the last few weeks that we actually don’t want to face Lowden? She has created a lot of issues for us — and that doesn’t count everything that’s in the file cabinet over there.”
No. 3: “It’s an interesting question. She may be able to draw more independents than Angle, but she also has turned off a lot of Republicans with her campaign. And I think some of the Tea Party types might opt for none of the above before they vote for her.”
No. 1: “But Angle is like a dream come true for us. We just paint her as a nut job who wants to give prisoners massages, outlaw alcohol, privatize Social Security and all kinds of other wacky stuff. Target-rich environment.”
No. 2: “What I worry about with Angle is that the Tea Party Express and Club for Growth will go all out for her. And she may be able to fake normalcy for a few months to peel away some indies.”
No. 3: “Listen, the issue here is the outside money, and much more of it will flow in if Lowden survives. Sure, the national Republicans are worried about her campaign. But they will send reinforcements, and Lowden still seems to have the best profile to run against us.”
No. 1: “What about Tark? I don’t think he is out of it yet. He could benefit from the Angle-Lowden mutual bashing.”
No. 2: “Maybe. But more likely he is odd man out. I’m more worried about Chad (Christensen) and the LDS vote.”
Long pause. Guffaws fill the room.
No. 1: “So we keep sending chickens to all Lowden’s events and put out a news release every day about her and blanket the Net with stuff?”
No. 2: “Can’t hurt. Even if she hangs on, we want her as damaged as possible.”
No. 3: “That is, we want her as close to our guy in her negative rating?”
No. 1: “Well, we can’t get her that low.”
No. 2: “Give us time.”
No. 3: “Five months of negativity. I can’t wait.”
Jon Ralston’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or at [email protected].
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