The best campaign this cycle, as many pundits are noting, was run by Senator Harry Reid. He was always confident of victory. He never once backed away from anything he did. He stood his ground and stuck with his president. Most importantly, he turned to his base the old-fashioned way and used political tactics straight out of the old-school Democratic Boss playbook.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Reid was one of the weakest incumbents in the nation, dealing with an economy that is the highest in both foreclosures and unemployment. He was a classic Washington insider in a throw-the-bums-out year. The Nevada Tea Party had its largest rally in the country with Palin. If there was anybody who was going down in a wave GOP year, it was Harry Reid.
Reid first made sure he picked his opponent by doing everything he could to get Sharron Angle over Sue Lowden. Once Reid got the opponent he wanted, he began to define her. No matter what, the Reid campaign always made Angle some form of "extreme." Crazy. Nutjob. Mental case. You name it. Angle never could get away from it as she tried to turn the subject to the economy and Reid, but Angle's stance on jobs just kept killing her. Time after time after time, Reid was on the attack. It was unrelenting. Instead of making the election about himself or the economy, he made it all about his opponent. His barrage was unrelenting and he really began to hammer her in the final days.
What really stands out is how Harry Reid turned out the Latino vote. I noted way back in August the beauty of his strategy. Anjeanette Damon of the Las Vegas Sun has a great analysis of the race I think nuts-and-bolts politics lovers will enjoy.
Reid's frontal assault on GOP racism isn't textbook DLC "be like a Republican" stuff or even textbook Obama "let's all get along" stuff. It is old school, hardball, walkin-around money, ward boss "whose side are you on?" kill-the-enemy Democratic politics. I love it. God help me, I love it.
Reid went in with his union base, Latinos, and just enough of the white vote to pull out a win that everybody said was impossible:
At the same time, Reid's get-out-the-vote operation capitalized on Angle's tough stand on illegal immigration to mobilize Hispanics, who turned out at a greater rate than in the 2008 presidential election and voted for Reid, 66-31. And Reid got help from organized labor, as union households voted for him 69-29.
Got that? Reid turned out the Latino vote better than Obama!
Reid didn't try to play moderate. He went in for the base. He ran on jobs, Social Security and tolerance. He didn't have a weak message of "Angle would be obstructionist, and that's not very nice." He said Angle was FRICKIN CRAZY, pure and simple. Reid didnt come with a ridiculous GOP reinforcing argument of "let's go forward, not backward." He made his opponent the subject and not himself, his time in Washington, or the economy. He didn't try to convince people that he was doing them good either. That wouldn't make sense with record foreclosures and unemployment. Reid kept it simple: MY OPPONENT BELONGS IN BELLEVUE, not the Senate. When he needed Obama, he didn't run...he brought him right in. When he needed the First Lady, he brought her right in. No apologies and no avoiding pictures. Reid was right up in Angle's face the moment she won the primary. I wish other Democrats had run with such moxie.
In the end, it was Harry Reid, the insider's insider, who bucked the national trend, coasting to victory by a convincing 50 to 45.
Congratulations to Majority Leader Harry Reid. While I may not be a fan of his leadership in the Senate, he has proved once again to be superb campaigner.
