Senate candidate Sharron Angle may get Tea Party nod
UPDATE – Tea Party confirms endorsement of Sharron Angle, see:
'Angle gets Tea Party nod'
It looks like U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle may win the Tea Party Express lottery and get the national group's endorsement on Tax Day in Washington.
The former Reno assemblywoman was flying to the nation's capital to pick up "an important endorsement," it was announced Wednesday night by the Sparks Republican Women's group which said that's why she had to cancel her scheduled appearance.
Angle was supposed to appear jointly with the GOP front-runner in the race, Sue Lowden, who showed up at the event.
Angle has long been considered the Tea Party darling for her strong conservative anti-tax record in the Nevada Legislature. She's hopped on the Tea Party Express bus every time it has come to Nevada. Angle, like most of the other dozen Republicans in the race, also attended the Tea Party Express event in Sen. Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight March 27, that attracted up to 10,000 people calling for the Democratic majority leader's defeat.
Angle's campaign didn't return phone calls seeking confirmation of the endorsement. Tea Party Express leaders were trying to keep the news from leaking ahead of a scheduled news conference on Thursday morning in Washington.
If it comes, the endorsement could give Angle's flagging campaign a much-needed boost. She's been falling behind Lowden and GOP foe Danny Tarkanian in pre-primary polls although those same surveys also show her beating Reid if she makes it to the general election.
Local Tea Party movement leaders weren't consulted about the national endorsement, which could cause hurt feelings in Nevada.
Meantime, the only other Senate candidate the Tea Party Express folks seem to have vetted closely is John Chachas, who's been in the running to get the endorsement. The investment banker from Ely who came back to Nevada to run for the Senate was interviewed by Tea Party Express officials and rumors were flying that the long-shot candidate was going to get the national nod. But he's scheduled to be in Reno and Carson City Thursday, including a Tea Party rally.
