Reid made tough job impossible

Harry Reid takes pride in his image as the son of a Searchlight miner, so the hole he finds himself in probably looks familiar.

It’s dark, dangerous and deep.

Republicans had a field day nationally, and Democrats had an especially rough time in Reid’s Nevada with its legendary campaign “machine.” The sound you heard coming from Democrats this year was the puttering of a Briggs &Stratton lawnmower engine.

Incumbent Democrats who’ve enjoyed majority status in Carson City weren’t up to the challenge on Tuesday. If they really worked their districts, how could they have been surprised by the outcome?

Organized labor, usually the Democrats’ best friend, had to feel conflicted — and not just because AFL-CIO leader Danny Thompson sided with the business class on the margin tax issue.

Democrats who ran from Question 3 paid a price for their lack of conviction. The Culinary union failed to catch a break from Obamacare, and its Latino-dominated local felt Washington’s lack of immigration reform.

Reid was sidled with an extremely unpopular president and his own firebrand reputation. He tried to save a Democratic majority in the Senate and fundraise nonstop while working to keep Nevada safe for a re-election run in 2016.

What he experienced, to continue the mining analogy, was a cave-in.

The refrain from Reid’s camp has been to blame the occupant of the White House and then blame the times we live in: “What happened in Nevada, in terms of results, wasn’t unique to Nevada. It happened in a lot of states. ... There was a wave. What happened in Nevada wasn’t unique.”

No, but Reid’s pre-eminent position as the master of the vaunted Democratic machine is undeniable. Whose flawed decision was it not to run anyone capable of articulating the Democratic message against Gov. Brian Sandoval? Whose decision was it to encourage the flawed candidacy of Lucy Flores for lieutenant governor?

Laurels one season, lemons the next.

From the sound of things, Reid misjudged the level of vitriol voters had for his own name, which was repeated like a mantra throughout conservative media. Obama was certainly unpopular, but “Fire Harry Reid” was a rallying cry for Nevada Republicans.

Complicating matters is the blistering criticism Reid’s chief of staff David Krone gave President Barack Obama following Tuesday’s election debacle.

After watching his boss lose the Senate, Krone clobbered Team Obama in an interview with the Washington Post. Krone recounted details of a March fundraising meeting in which Obama declined to participate on behalf of an outside group. Then Krone cracked wise about the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website, an embarrassing laugher that haunted campaigns from Alaska to New Hampshire.

“The president’s approval rating is barely 40 percent. What else more is there to say?” he jabbed. “... No member of the Democratic caucus screwed up the rollout of that health-care website, yet they paid the price — every one of them.”

I’m guessing Krone won’t be getting a holiday greeting card from Barack and Michelle this year.

By Friday, no one was predicting Reid would lose his leadership position, but some members of his caucus were grousing aloud. Some would, you know, actually like to stop stonewalling the process and start grinding legislative sausage.

Nevada Democrats have reason to complain, too. He lost his majority leader spot, but they damn near lost the whole state.

Running Flores, a promising young Hispanic candidate to be sure, failed to bring out enough Latino voters to offset the fact she wasn’t ready to step into the governor’s shoes. Running no one to represent the Democrats’ political philosophy only enabled Sandoval to breeze along and devote his time, fundraising ability and popular persona to other candidates whose name recognition rose in his presence.

It also fed conspiracy theories of a backroom deal between a certain Machiavellian senator and a star-gazing governor.

Obama’s lack of popularity is only part of why Republicans shellacked Democrats in Reid’s own backyard. A much-improved ground game and voter registration drive, and Sandoval’s popularity: These, too, tell only part of the story.

If Obama kindled Republican anger in 2014, Reid made it burn white hot. He’s hated plenty in the Silver State these days.

Is that likely to change in two years?

Reid will have to do more than criticize the president to improve his standing with Nevada voters. Besides, the Republicans already are using that strategy.

It all leaves the Searchlight miner’s son in a helluva hole. Politically, he’s been there before.

Let’s see if he can dig his way out this time.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.