Pundit: Reid race ‘leans R’
Political scientist and noted pundit Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, today updated his crystal ball analyses of the U.S. Senate races this year. He projects a net Republican pickup of seven seats, which would slice the Democrats' majority to 52-48.
As for Nevada, the race for Sen. Harry Reid's seat still "leans Republican" in Sabato's analysis, which is this:
"The question everybody is asking is, can Harry Reid pull out a miracle reelection? The Senate Majority Leader knows how to win a close one -- he got another term in 1998 by a few hundred votes -- and he’ll have a record amount of money to spend and the full resources of the White House on his side. No sane person counts him out, yet Nevadans seem determined, at least in the spring, to send him packing. It’s a combination of anger over health care reform, Obama second-thoughts (the president carried the Silver State), and most of all, a grassroots revulsion toward Congress, which Reid helps to run. Three little-known and mainly underwhelming Republicans are running, but this one is a referendum on Reid. No doubt, this wily survivor will try to make it a referendum instead on his eventual opponent."
