Will the Reid machine sputter without Harry at the throttle?

On the day Harry Reid announced he would retire from the U.S. Senate, he made an important phone call.

On the line was former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, a Latina he wants to replace him.

“She has a great résumé,” Reid said Friday in an interview on public radio station KNPR. “Her dad and I were friends many years ago. She has a background that really is significantly powerful. I hope she runs, and if she does I will help her.”

The call was a stock move by Reid, D-Nev., the 75-year-old Senate minority leader who will retire when his term ends after the 2016 election. Perhaps the most powerful politician in Nevada history, Reid has run the Democratic Party in the state with an iron grip for the past decade. He’s often the arbiter of who runs and who doesn’t in the Silver State, steering big donors toward his favored candidates and talking others out of running to avoid divisive primaries.

Beginning in 2004, when he became a Democratic leader in Congress, the senator began building the “Reid machine” within the Nevada Democratic Party. It registered 100,000 new voters ahead of the 2008 election to help put Barack Obama in the White House and Democrats in charge of the Nevada Legislature and most state constitutional offices.

That same machine re-elected Reid in 2010 against most oddsmakers’ and pollsters’ predictions as he defeated by nearly 6 percentage points a tea party favorite, Republican Sharron Angle.

The machine roared to life once again in 2012, helping re-elect Obama over GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

But last year the Reid machine stalled as the Democratic leader devoted most of his attention to maintaining control of the U.S. Senate, which he failed to do in the end.

In Nevada, the election was a Democratic disaster. Republicans took control of state government, from all of the constitutional offices to both houses of the Nevada Legislature, and they gained a congressional seat.

The dismal 2014 showing and Reid’s Friday announcement raise questions about whether the “Reid machine” will survive the man who built it — and whether Democrats will be able to hold Reid’s seat in a presidential election year when both political parties will go all-out to register new voters, outspend one another and win the White House.

One Democratic insider expressed confidence the machine will survive Reid, who will be in office for another 22 months, helping steer the party in Nevada and in Washington, D.C., through the 2016 election cycle.

“Our organization will be revved up fully to win all these races, and Sen. Reid will continue to be a critical part in leading our efforts,” said the insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Sen. Reid’s building up of the state party infrastructure over the last 10 years was never about just him, it was about ensuring Democratic victories up and down the ballot in Nevada. He’s not going anywhere, and neither are we.”

But the reality is, the younger generation of Democratic leaders likely will have to become more involved in party matters as Reid’s power recedes, said Billy Vassiliadis, a longtime party insider and CEO of R&R Partners.

“There’s been a discussion sort of going on for several years that emerging Democrats need to step up and take on more of that responsibility,” Vassiliadis said. “It needs to be a cooperative effort. As a group, they can fill the gap, but there’s not one person who can just step in.”

Republicans said Reid is the machine, and without him the Democrats will continue to falter.

“Shelley Berkley, Lucy Flores, Ross Miller, Kate Marshall, Steven Horsford and the rest of his liberal protégés have all learned that the only person who can turn the Reid machine on is Harry Reid,” said Jahan Wilcox, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, naming recently failed Democratic candidates. “With Reid on the sidelines, Nevada is the top pickup opportunity for the GOP.”

For now and the next 22 month, however, Reid remains the power center — though he might face more challenges.

“I think it will be hard for her to lose,” Reid said of Cortez Masto, adding that the Republicans now in charge of the Legislature and state government are “doing some fairly strange things.”

“I think this is going to be a rout for Democrats in 2016,” Reid said. “I think we are going to do very very well.”

Erin Bilbray, who was Cortez Masto’s political adviser for eight years, said she’s clearly the strongest Democratic candidate for the Senate seat, although there are several other party prospects.

“She is well-liked. She is well-connected. And she is incredibly intelligent,” Bilbray said of Cortez Masto.

She also could help attract Hispanic voters, who make up nearly one-fifth of Nevada’s electorate.

Cortez Masto,who served two four-year terms as attorney general before she was termed out, has deep connections in Nevada thanks to her late father, Manny Cortez, a longtime head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Cortez Masto, now executive vice chancellor for the Nevada System of Higher Education, didn’t respond directly to Reid’s plug for her Senate candidacy, praising him instead. If she ran and won she would be Nevada’s first female U.S. senator.

“Sen. Reid has been a powerful voice for families across Nevada throughout his decades in public service,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “He has worked tirelessly on behalf of our state and country. Today isn’t a day for partisan politics. Today is a day to thank Sen. Reid for his service to Nevada; I wish him all the best.”

But Cortez Masto has had her sights on a Senate seat — if not a retiring Reid’s in 2016 then Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller’s seat in 2018. She kept her options open last year in turning aside pleas to run against GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval as Democrats all but ceded the gubernatorial race to the popular Republican.

Another top prospect is U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., who said supporters are urging her to run for Reid’s seat.

“Nevadans deserve a strong voice and committed fighter to represent our state’s interests in the U.S. Senate,” Titus said. “I am humbled by the calls I’ve received from supporters across the state encouraging me to run for Senate. This is a decision I will make carefully after talking with family and close friends to ensure it is in the best interest of District 1 and the people of Nevada.”

Titus has bucked Reid before. In 2012, she ran for the 1st Congressional District in urban Las Vegas, although Reid’s first choice was state Sen. Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, who could have helped with the Hispanic vote. Kihuen dropped out of the race, however, after Titus released a poll showing she would smash him in the primary.

Other possible Democratic candidates include former Secretary of State Ross Miller, former Assemblywoman Lucy Flores of Las Vegas, former Treasurer Kate Marshall, former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley of Las Vegas and Steve Sisolak, chairman of the Clark County Commission. Reid’s son, Rory Reid, has said he’s out of politics after losing a gubernatorial run in 2010 to Sandoval, but for now the possibilities are wide open.

On the Republican side, Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers already has announced he’s running. Others on a long list of possible candidates include former Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, Nevada Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson of Las Vegas, Attorney General Adam Laxalt, U.S. Reps. Mark Amodei and Joe Heck, current Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison and Treasurer Dan Schwartz.

Gov. Brian Sandoval has been widely regarded as the strongest potential Republican candidate. He has not signaled an interest in running, but Republican leaders expect to renew their pitch to him now that he would be competing for an open seat.

Sandoval, who won re-election with 70 percent of the vote in 2014, also has been mentioned as a potential vice presidential running mate as well as a Cabinet member in a GOP administration or for another judicial post.

Analysts have said the seat could go to either party, even before Reid decided to retire.

The Cook Political Report said Reid was one of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2016 and would have faced “one of the toughest campaigns of his career.” The organization put Reid’s Senate seat in the “toss-up” column.

Beers said he wouldn’t be afraid to face Cortez Masto in a general election, explaining he couldn’t remember anything about her eight-year stint as attorney general.

Beers wished Reid well but said he won’t miss his politics.

“We differ on fundamental philosophy,” Beers said. “I’ve been representing taxpayers off and on for a while now.

“From a political perspective, you can’t spend more than you take in for 80 years without hurting your children.”

Review-Journal reporter James DeHaven and Stephens Media Washington bureau chief Steve Tetreault contributed to this story. Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Find her on Twitter: @lmyerslvrj.