Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sharron Angle inspires sharp contrasts within Republican Party

Angle

AP Photo/Scott Sady

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle speaks to supporters at the Peppermill Hotel/Casino in Reno on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010.

Please, don’t do it.

That’s the plea some conservatives are making to Sharron Angle as she mulls another possible bid for U.S. Senate.

The reason is simple: Angle would siphon support away from establishment Republican Rep. Joe Heck, who poses a real challenge to the Democratic contender, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. But while Angle might be able to win a primary, the conservatives say, she’d be hard-pressed to win the general election.

“All she can do is hurt Joe Heck’s chances in the primary,” said Chuck Muth, a Republican political consultant who supported Angle in 2010. “This (idea about running) is all about Sharron, not the conservative movement. She had her chance and blew it.”

Angle challenged then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010 but made repeated gaffes on the campaign trail. She lost by more than 40,000 votes. Reid, who is retiring next year, tapped Cortez Masto to run this cycle.

The Reid-Angle race was a long, expensive battle that many thought Reid would lose amid the Tea Party wave. And in many respects, his victory wasn’t so much a win as it was a loss for Angle. Many political observers said that had any other candidate run, Reid would have lost.

Knowing very well what Angle could bring to the 2016 race, Reid unrolled the welcome mat for his former challenger.

“People shouldn’t minimize what a good campaigner she is, how aggressive she is — and frankly, she’s no dope,” Reid told Politico. “If people think that Heck is some kind of a moderate, she’ll certainly show that’s not the case.”

Two of Angle’s biggest fans, Assemblyman Brent Jones and state Sen. Don Gustavson, recently penned a “Run Sharron Run” letter to conservative donors, touting her as a “clear voice” who won’t flip-flop on fiscal policy. Jones discounted the notion that an Angle primary would disrupt the already fractious Republican party.

“I think it will play out before the primary,” Jones said. “I don’t think she will be battling Heck. We’ll be united by the primary.”

Angle’s political history in Nevada dates to 1998, when she won the first of four terms in the 42-member Assembly, where she voted no so often, lopsided roll calls were cheekily scored as 41-Angle. Philosophically, Angle opposes new taxes, the Affordable Care Act and federal education standards. She championed an effort to prohibit the federal government from collecting test scores and demographic data from public school students, and she is an outspoken advocate for stricter voter ID laws, a measure that failed in the 2015 Legislature. Angle also is working on a ballot effort to eliminate Nevada’s health insurance market created by the Affordable Care Act.

Angle recently held a news conference to promote her education reform effort but was swamped with questions about a potential Senate run. She said she was “looking for interest.”

She had collected only 60 signatures of the 55,234 required to run.

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