Senate race making history but won’t break every Nevada record

The U.S. Senate race in Nevada is one for the history books, whether Sharron Angle wins or Harry Reid survives as the state's most powerful senator ever to defend his seat.

A record 22 candidates ran for Reid's job, including a dozen Republicans in the primary.

And there will be a record nine choices on the November ballot, including Reid, Angle, four nonpartisan candidates, one Independent American Party contender, one from the Tea Party of Nevada and "none of these candidates," a choice Nevada voters can make when they don't like anyone else.

The contest is breaking records on money spent. Reid plans to spend up to $25 million. Angle is raising millions herself, while both political parties and outside groups are expected to dump millions more into the race that has become a national referendum on the Democratic Party in power.

"I don't think there's ever been a historical precedent for a race like this," said Guy Rocha, a former state archivist. "Given the number of candidates, the amount of money, Nevada's first and only Senate majority leader going against a female candidate, we're navigating unchartered waters here. This race will go down as unique in the annuls of Nevada history."

Rocha said the last time a U.S. Senate race here got such national attention from the White House and major political parties was in 1982. Sen. Howard Cannon lost to Chic Hecht, a Republican, after a divisive Democratic primary that irreparably hurt Cannon, who like Reid was seeking a fifth term.

There's one record that won't be broken, however, if Reid, 70, wins re-election. Two other senators have served for five terms: Sen. John P. Jones, a Republican, 1873-1903, and Sen. William M. Stewart, a Republican, who served from 1864 to 1875 and then again from 1887 to 1905, according to Rocha.

The record holder is Sen. Key Pittman, a Democrat who served from 1913 to 1940. While secretly on his death bed, he was elected to his sixth term on Nov. 5, 1940, and lived only five days more.

There's a lurid story behind Pittman's end, according to Rocha.

For years, the rumor was that Pittman actually died before the election and the Democratic Party hushed it up to retain the seat, even putting his body "on ice" to preserve it so Democratic Gov. Edward Carville could appoint his successor from the same party.

According to an interview Rocha did with Pittman's doctor in 1977, "The elderly senator suffered a heart attack Nov. 4 while engaged in a pre-election drinking spree at the Riverside" hotel-casino in Reno. The doctor told Pittman's political handlers that death was imminent and he was hospitalized.

"Democratic leaders chose to keep the facts secret and issued a cover story that Pittman was temporarily ill, thus allowing Nevadans to go to the polls on November 5 and elect a dying man," Rocha wrote in a 1996 article, adding that Pittman's spokesman blamed exhaustion and fatigue.

No ice was involved, and Pittman, 68, died Nov. 10 at Washoe General hospital.

Reid, a student of history, is a fan of Pittman, so much so that he named one of his sons Key.