Senate race exposes fractures in Republican Party
GOP leaders say the state party firmly backs Sharron Angle against Sen. Harry Reid. But rancorous disputes are evident after Reno Republican state Sen. Bill Raggio last week endorsed Reid
It seems having a polarizing, high-profile Democrat as theirtop target would unite Nevada Republicans. Instead the state GOP finds itselfengaged in internecine attacks over the candidacy of Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid.
The intraparty feuding peaked last week with state Sen. BillRaggio, the Reno Republican and longest-serving state senator in history,endorsingReid over Republican challenger Sharron Angle.
Angle’s campaign dismissed Raggio, saying it didn’t want thesupport of a politician who would vote to raise taxes as Raggio had. And theClark County Republican Party asked its state Senate candidates not to support Raggio’sre-election as the caucus leader, a position he has held since 1987.
That was followed by Sig Rogich, long a party kingmaker anda prominent member of “Republicans for Reid,” exchangingfusillades with former Gov. Bob List, who is Nevada’s Republicannational committeeman.
Democrats, to be sure, have had their own share ofinfighting. But the Republican civil war underscores what the party lacks andDemocrats have: an undisputed head of their party, such as Reid, who can imposeorder.
Republicans, by contrast, have Gov. Jim Gibbons, who wasdefeated in June’s primary, and Sen. John Ensign, tarnished by his affair witha former employee and his parents’ gift to her family.
Thus, Nevada’s U.S. Senate race is featuring anunprecedented level of Republican infighting.
Although the rancor is unusual, the divisions aren’t. Everytwo years in Carson City, there’s a simmering tension in the Republican Partyover taxes and fiscal issues, as libertarian wing clashes with more centristmembers.
Of course, sometimes it just seems personal.
Raggio and Angle may have been divided over taxes and therole of a legislator initially. But by 2008, when she challenged him in thestate Senate primary, it seemed more personal. (Raggio will mentionoccasionally that Angle never called to concede the race to him.)
And List and Rogich’s letters dragged into the light of daythe type of accusations that politicos mutter over drinks.
List started with a letter to the Republican NationalCommittee, criticizing it for having Rogich co-host a Las Vegas fundraiser forCalifornia U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorino. Rogich is an adviser to Reid’scampaign.
“Rogich has burned virtually every bridge to our party andto the Las Vegas business community,” List wrote in letters first reported bythe Las Vegas Sun’s Jon Ralston.
Rogich responded by calling List a failed politician whosold out the state as a pro-Yucca Mountain project lobbyist.
List wrote another letter, stating that Rogich was selfishlymotivated in supporting Reid.
“No one is buying your rhetoric about your support for HarryReid being driven by ‘what is best for Nevada.’ It is patently clear that yoursupport for Sen. Reid is all about your personal economic interests, as everyknowledgeable political observer and operative in this state knows.”
Both Rogich and List downplayed the conflict in interviewswith the Sun.
“I don’t think it has long-term effect,” Rogich said.
List called it “sideline noise.”
Some Republicans say that the party is less fractured thanit appears and the Reid campaign wants the public to believe.
Robert Uithoven, a Republican who ran Sue Lowden’sunsuccessful U.S. Senate bid, said outside of a few well-known, longtimeinsiders, there has not been a wave of defections.
“They’re all people who have financial interest in Sen.Reid’s success, or have long-term relationships with the senator,” Uithovensaid. “It’s not as widespread as you think. Republicans are remarkably unifiedaround Sharron Angle.”