Reid Republicans in gaming have long supported other Democrats

Maybe the name of the "Republicans for Reid" list should be changed to "Republicans for Democrats."

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid added to his list Wednesday, including several top GOP gaming executives who, it turns out, have a history of backing other Democrats, including President Barack Obama in one case.

Reid, the Democratic incumbent, has been touting his GOP support to show that some Nevadans inside Sharron Angle's own party view his GOP opponent as too extreme.

The "Republicans for Reid" list now numbers about 200, many from the gaming and business establishment that often supports politicians in power who might help them.

The newest members include Marybel Batjer, vice president of Harrah's, and two executives with MGM Resorts, senior vice president Alan Feldman and Bill Hornbuckle, the company's chief marketing officer.

The endorsements are no surprise since the political action committees formed by MGM and Harrah's are top political donors to Reid's $25 million Senate campaign.

While Feldman and Hornbuckle added their names to the Reid list, Federal Election Commission records don't show a history of the men donating money personally to Reid.

But Feldman has donated at least $4,500 to Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., since 2000, according to the FEC. And he gave at least $1,000 in 2009 and 2010 to Rep. Dina Titus, the freshman Democrat in a close race against Republican Joe Heck, FEC records show. Previously, Feldman gave to former Rep. Jon Porter, $500 each in 2004 and 2007, before the Republican lost his seat to Titus in 2008.

Hornbuckle's support for Democrats in the past was focused on the popular Berkley. He donated at least $5,000 to her campaigns between 1998 and 2003, according to the FEC. He also has supported several Republicans, including Porter with $1,000 both in 2000 and 2004, $2,000 for Sen. Jon Ensign in 2000, and $1,000 for Rep. Dean Heller in 2008, the FEC records show.

Batjer, at the federal level, has been donating generously to Democrats since 2008, including to Obama's campaign, at least $1,550, according to FEC records. She gave another $1,000 to Heller's failed Democratic opponent Jill Derby in 2008 and $1,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2009. Most recently, she donated $500 to Reid's campaign this past March, three months before Angle shocked the GOP establishment by winning the June 8 Republican primary over more moderate members of the party.

Interestingly, Batjer has been a top loyalist in the Republican Party for years, serving in the first Bush administration as well as the Reagan administration. In Nevada, she was chief of staff for Kenny Guinn, the late governor, a moderate. Batjer also served in Republican Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Cabinet.

At the state level, Batjer said she has supported Republicans such as state Sen. Bill Raggio, a moderate stalwart who nearly lost his GOP primary in 2008 to Angle and holds a grudge. (Critics have called Raggio and Guinn RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only, a label conservatives use to attack moderates who compromise.)

But Batjer also is backing Reid's son, Rory Reid, in the gubernatorial race against Republican Brian Sandoval, who has a reputation as a moderate.

In an interview, Batjer said she has been supporting mostly Democrats lately because she's concerned about conservatives who seem to be taking over the GOP.

"I have great disillusionment with these extreme policies," said Batjer, who explained that she's a Republican who is pro-choice and supports stimulus spending to revive the economy, positions that put her in the minority of GOP thinking these days. "I can't support someone like Sharron Angle. She's just too extreme."

Of course, Batjer said she wouldn't have supported Sue Lowden or Danny Tarkanian, either, because she views them as too conservative as well.

Asked whether she's considering quitting her own party, Batjer said never, although Tea Party-backed conservatives such as Angle seem to be on the rise.

"I'm not going to let people like Sharron Angle drive me out of the party," Batjer said.

Batjer said she supports Reid and Obama because she believes their economic policies have saved Nevada and the nation from a deeper recession, although that argument is a hard sell these days in a state suffering record rates of unemployment and home foreclosures.

"I worry that if we are not careful, we will go into a double dip recession," said Batjer. "Time will show that if we had not had the political leadership we did that's where we'd be."