For Reid-Angle, it comes down to feet on the ground

Enough with the air wars. It's time to call out the foot soldiers in the Nevada Senate showdown.

Politico reports this morning that Sen. Harry Reid's campaign is preparing to unleash "what officials say will be the most expensive and far-reaching get-out-the-vote operation Nevada has ever seen."

Reid is expected to exceed even President Barack Obama's 2008 operation in Nevada that spent more than $4 million to target voters, it said.
   
Politico says Reid has almost 70 paid staffers dedicated to voter turnout, plus 3,000 volunteers. "Last weekend Reid workers knocked on 50,000 doors," it said.

"But national Republicans are also starting to dump huge resources behind (Sharron) Angle's ground game," it said. And, it noted the challenger "has a proven track record of bringing her supporters to the polls."

The spending may be necessary. Politico notes the 2010 landscape in Nevada is markedly different from when Obama ran two years ago. There is less enthusiam among voters in a state that has been ground zero for foreclosures and unemployment.

While most public polling shows the race statistically deadlocked, Reid advisers told Politico their internal polling shows him leading "just outside the margin of error."

In its take on the race, The New York Times reports today that Reid "finds himself trapped in the race he has, in many ways, always feared. Ms. Angle, an opponent his campaign had viewed as the most flawed on the Republican bench, has not only held her own, but has become a national symbol of the Tea Party attempt to upend politics in Washington."

"Campaigns frequently put too much faith in voter turnout operations, either to calm nervous supporters or boost their prospects with the media," The Times said.  "But in a race this close — and with an electorate this small — turnout could very well prove critical, particularly with a field of a half-dozen other candidates and an option to vote for “none of the above.”