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Reid's ratings mixed in poll

Majority leader role costs senator at home













WASHINGTON -- As Sen. Harry Reid completes his first year as Senate majority leader, Nevadans generally are unenthusiastic about his job performance, according to a new poll that shows as many people rate him poorly as believe he is doing well.

Coupled with a poll taken earlier this fall showing Reid's personal popularity has fallen, the latest survey taken for the Review-Journal indicates the veteran senator continues to pay a price back home as a leading face of Democrats in a Congress that spent this year in pugnacious debates on Iraq, immigration, energy, taxes and other topics.

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  • "It shows he has become a polarizing figure in Nevada," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., the Washington D.C.-based firm that conducted the poll. "He has become a lightning rod because he is the spokesman for the Democratic leadership and has had to play the tough guy role."

    The survey showed 41 percent believed Reid's performance has been excellent or good, while 42 percent rated him as poor. Sixteen percent said Reid's job rating should be "only fair."

    Nevadans expressed a similar lack of enthusiasm about the performance of first-year Gov. Jim Gibbons.

    The poll showed 41 percent believe the Republican is doing a good or excellent job, while 22 percent say his job rating is poor and 32 percent believe it is only fair.

    When it comes to the governor, Nevadans still need to be shown, said Danny Gonzales, a political science professor at Great Basin College in Elko.

    "My take is that the people are still in the process of determining whether he is doing a good job or not," Gonzales said.

    The telephone poll was taken Dec. 3 through Dec. 5 of 625 registered Nevada voters. It asked them to rate the performance of the leaders individually. The survey's margin of error was 4 percentage points.

    Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., enjoyed a positive job rating of 57 percent in the survey, with only 12 percent judging his performance as poor.

    Even though Ensign was given a position in the Senate Republican leadership this year, he has managed to keep a low profile on the most controversial topics, explained William Eric Davis, a political science professor at the College of Southern Nevada.

    "He is keeping his head low and doing his job in the way most Nevadans want," Davis said.

    Reid's poll numbers reflect voter frustration with Congress generally, according to Jon Summers, his spokesman. They may not reflect the millions of dollars Reid has secured for Nevada projects this year or his holding a line against nuclear waste being buried at Yucca Mountain, Summers said.

    "Reid is frustrated with what he sees as Republicans blocking progress at every turn, but in spite of their obstructionism on many issues he has been able to deliver meaningful results to the people of Nevada," Summers said.

    Reid's standing among partisans was predictable. Seventy-one percent of Democrats rated him positively while 12 percent rated him as poor. Among Republicans, 69 percent rated him poorly while 15 percent said they liked the job he has done.

    Among independents, Reid drew a positive rating from 32 percent while more than half -- 52 percent -- said they were not happy with his performance.

    "I don't think it is his tangling with the president that is the real problem," Davis said. "It is that Nevadans are like typical Americans, they hate bitter partisanship on both sides."

    In October, a Review-Journal poll showed Reid's favorability rating among Nevadans had dropped to 32 percent, a low that alarmed Democrats and cheered Republicans looking for signs that he might be vulnerable when he is up for election again in 2010.

    That poll asked whether respondents had a favorable, unfavorable or neutral opinion of Reid.

    Reid dismissed those numbers as flawed, but Coker said Reid's job performance figures are another warning sign as the incumbent begins to form a re-election strategy.

    But, Coker added, they are not necessarily a sign to panic. Official Washington will reset itself after the presidential elections next year, and there will be chances for Reid to recast himself.

    "If there is a Democratic president and all Reid has to be is a cheerleader, I suspect his numbers would improve," Coker said. "If a Republican is elected and he takes on the role of a bridge builder, his numbers may improve. If he continues in his role as a prizefighter, then he will run a risk."

    Gibbons should be worried because only 3 percent of Republicans surveyed thought he was doing an "excellent" job, Davis said, while 51 percent rated him "good."

    "I am sure that is making him nervous," Davis said. He said Gibbons needs to get the Republican base voters "up around 75 or 80 percent" positive ratings by the time he considers running for re-election in 2010.

    The Review-Journal poll in October showed Gibbons' favorability rating at 30 percent, while 29 percent had an unfavorable impression of him.

    "His job performance is a little bit better than his personal reputation right now," Coker said.

    "His problems have been basically coming out of the gate as governor," Coker said, referring to reports early this year that Gibbons may have accepted unreported gifts from Warren Trepp, a Reno defense contractor who was awarded secret military contracts while Gibbons was a member of Congress.

    Coker said Gibbons has the opportunity to boost his standing among Nevada conservatives if he holds firm against new taxes in response to the state's fiscal problems.

    "As long as he holds the line against taxes, he will hold the line with Republicans," Coker said.

    Gibbons said in a statement Monday that "I am not, nor will I ever be, one who governs the state based on the latest poll numbers. I base policy decisions on what is in the best interest of the state, not what is reflected in the latest poll.

    "Citizens expect their elected officials to make tough decisions that represent their interests, such as holding the line on spending and maintaining a balanced state budget without raising their taxes, all while sustaining state programs and services that provide assistance to children and those in need." Gibbons said.



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    echoscanr wrote on January 17, 2008 01:01 PM:
    Harry is a bumbler, really brutalizes and stumbles around alot when he's speaking. He needs to be in the high school english again. I sure hope he doesn't decide to run for office again. If so, we need to place him in the crosshairs and retire him to that little eatery in searchlight.


    Michael Ray Thompson wrote on December 26, 2007 06:56 PM: I really hope that Governor Gibbons' poll numbers go up before election day. The Democrats have launched an all out frontal assault on his character. They recruited that lady saying that then-candidate Gibbons sexually harrassed her during the campaign. The Democrats had nothing then, so naturally they devised that Hollywood scheme that Gibbons was a notorious sex addict. In normal, non-political life, that accusation would have gone nowhere. The news media let Bill Clinton off the hook with Paula Jones and Jennifer Flowers, but they are determined to hang Jim Gibbons.


    Hugh Haynsworth wrote on December 22, 2007 11:42 AM: I just saw some one-on-one polls for president. I was really hoping for a view of how Paul is doing in your state. Some Ron Paul sites claim that he can win your state. What is interesting is, you don't even ask if anybody in the state knows who he is?

    Ron Paul is only the candidate with the best fund raising this quarter, and the largest fund raiser for a single day.

    Some of your TV news competitors have acknowledged his existence by giving him lengthy interviews. I think one commentator even said he was going to win Nevada. Wake up and see exactly where he is in your state polls.


    David Tracy wrote on December 12, 2007 12:08 AM: When I look at the photo of Sen. Reid that the RJ provides for this article as of 11:58 P.M. Tuesday, December 11, he does look like doo-doo. Similarly, so did the RJ's large photo of Hillary on Monday, December 10.

    As if close up photos, especially non-complimentary ones (you should see the one on my driver's license) are an indicator of the likableness of a candidate. But the RJ propagandists know that they do, so that's why the Reid and Clinton photos are ugly: to short-circuit your analysis of their respective positions in comparison to the libertarian and ultra-right-wingers' arguments. RJ chief Sherman Frederick et. al. would have you vote for anyone besides Reid or Clinton (the people whom they feel most threatened by).

    The guy responsible for the RJ's shading on Harry's neck and the accentuation of the lines on Hillary's face knows who signs his paycheck.

    Have you seen a really ugly picture of a good old Republican on this Web site lately?

    'Nuff said.


    skunked wrote on December 11, 2007 08:02 PM: He is the majority leader alright.



    The leader of the majority of the good ole boys.


    Lenny wrote on December 11, 2007 05:40 PM: Dennis 1944,

    "I didn't know he owned it."

    Have you checked the BLM land swaps??
    His buds sure do. But he says it was good fo Nevada. I think it was better for his buds.
    Google "Dirty Harry Reid"


    Lee wrote on December 11, 2007 05:29 PM: Kell, WAKE UP ! it is not about what !side of the aisle you sit on anymore. I think people are starting to realize, Republican and Democrats have blurred the lines. I am Republican, but I think they are just as bad as Democrats. Our so called, "represenitives" in Washington could care less about us. All they care about is maintaining power and staying elected. They tell you what you want to hear during elections then ignore you until the next elections. It is time for the people of this grand ole country wake up and take it back. What is it going to take, I do not know. But we can not continue on the course we are on now.


    Lee wrote on December 11, 2007 05:22 PM: Reid is a wimp. Put a dress on him and you could not tell the differnce. Thank God he can not get anything done in the Senate. No telling what kind of trouble this country would be in if he could. What an embarrassment to the state of Nevada. Let's get rid of this clown and send someone who has a little backbone.


    oldlawdawg wrote on December 11, 2007 05:05 PM: The approval rateing for Harry actually seems high to me -- 41%? One wonders whether that number will fall like a rock as more people register to vote in the next 11 months before the elections (the poll was taken of registered voters, a factor which skews all polls during this period of a presidential election year as more Democrats are registered to vote for early caucuses than are Republicans, who often don't even bother with the primaries before registering, let alone some new "caucus" program).

    As a moderate who regularly votes with little regard to party affiliation, I have voted for Reid in the past, but now not only regret it, but resent Harry for lying by placing Nevada and the nation in the backseat to his relentless, hardcore partisan bickering and gridlock. I am now convinced that Harry has to go, and can find extremely few Nevadans who think well of him at all, including devoted Democrats who will vote for him anyway. Harry has unequivocally demonstrated that he will use his power as Majority Leader not for the benefit of Nevada and the nation, but as a partisan bully-pulpet for the Democratic Party. Nevadans who buy into his inevitable re-election rhetoric to the contrary, or claims that he can now focus on Nevada since the presidential race is over, will get taken for a ride. If Harry's focus shifts to anything at all,it will be to corruption and graft in the promotion of his huge real estate ventures in which he and his developer cronies have enormous financial interests. I would not be a bit surprised if scandals come to light between now and his re-election which force him to "retire," even before he helps Rory to a higher,possibly national,office. HARRY'S GOT TO GO!


    GOD wrote on December 11, 2007 04:55 PM: This poll reiterates what we already knew... Crazy Harry Reid is on his way out.

    Crazy Harry Reid represents special interest and his liberal puppeteers who are pulling his strings --- HE CERTAINLY DOESN'T REPRESENT NEVADA!!!


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