Brawl erupts between Reid, Angle supporters at forum

Supporters of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and his GOP challenger Sharron Angle brawled at the end of a Senate race forum at a local Christian school.

A half-dozen bystanders tried to separate the combatants, one male Angle backer and two female Reid supporters, before security guards intervened.

"I didn't expect anything like this, not in a million years," said the Rev. Robin Joyce, one of the organizers of the event at Faith Lutheran Junior/Senior High School in Summerlin. "Our whole aim was to have an educational forum to hear from the candidates about their economic positions."

Instead, tempers flared in the high-stakes race between the Democratic incumbent and the Tea Party upstart three weeks before early voting starts Oct. 16.

"He punched me twice, so I punched him back twice," Kay Mehta said as she nursed a red, tearing eye and waited for police to arrive. "I was just defending myself."

No arrests were made. Police interviewed those involved for a report on the incident. The names of all of the participants were not released.

At the start of the 7 p.m. forum, the audience was asked not to applaud or to shout out as Reid answered questions in a prerecorded videotape because he is in Washington, D.C. Angle answered a moderator's questions live from the stage.

But partisan members of the audience became boisterous as the hourlong forum progressed. As Angle was giving her closing statement, a stream of Reid supporters among the 800-member audience began to leave the auditorium, which has close rows of theater-style seating.

A Reid backer, Kelly Tanaka, said one male Angle supporter refused to let her pass in front of him.

She alleged he tried to push her over the seats in front of him when she tried to pass. That is when the Reid and Angle partisans began to tussle and then exchange blows.

Tanaka accused the Angle supporter of hitting her. Mehta said she then got involved. Some bystanders said one of the women shoved the man back into his seat when he tried to get up.

The fight escalated after Angle finished speaking and blew a kiss to supporters in the audience. She left quickly to catch a flight to Reno as the scuffle disrupted the auditorium.

"I was just trying to get him off her," said Mehta, a Reid supporter. "We were just trying to get by."

The auditorium was packed mostly with conservative Republican Angle supporters who were drawn to the event sponsored by the Faith Lutheran Business Advisory Council, the Christian Businessmen's Network, Businesswomen for Christ and Media Fellowship International.

Reid backers appeared to account for up to one-fifth of the audience judging by reactions from the crowd, including scattered boos and jeers when Angle was speaking.

Some of Reid's videotaped answers attracted rude noises and open scoffing from the Angle crowd.

The loudest protests came when Reid made his closing statement and made the case, using a baseball analogy, about why voters should give him a fifth term.

"Why would you pull somebody out of the game that's done so much for the state of Nevada?" Reid asked.

His remark elicited scattered boos and scoffing. One man said derisively, "Ha, ha, ha."

In Angle's closing remarks, she said voters should choose her because she will do what she says, including voting against tax hikes as she did as a Reno assemblywoman. She said she voted against taxes and fees more than 100 times, while Reid has voted for them more than 300 times.

"They can trust me," Angle said of voters. "I kept my promises, and I will keep my promises as your U.S. senator."

A man interrupted, calling out, "You lie!" Angle ignored him.

Reid and Angle largely kept to their standard campaign talking points during the forum.

The incumbent touted his record of pushing for more renewable energy projects to create jobs in Nevada, and he defended the Democrats' stimulus spending.

Angle said the best way to create new jobs is to cut taxes and regulations on businesses to free them to hire people without fear of increasing the costs of doing business.

Reid and Angle, who are running neck and neck in most polls, will engage in one televised debate on Oct. 14, two days before early voting starts in Nevada.

The debate will be moderated by Mitch Fox, the Vegas PBS, Channel 10, talk show host who moderated Thursday night's forum.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.

Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. Alvinjh Sep. 27, 2010 | 3:30 p.m. Report Abuse

   Endangered Dem plays up ties to Bush
   
   By Michael O'Brien - 09/27/10 11:55 AM ET
   A veteran Democratic incumbent facing a tough reelection challenge touted a relationship with President George W. Bush in a new campaign ad.
   
   Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) released a new campaign ad emphasizing his ties to the former Republican president at a time when most Democrats are pummeling Bush, and warning that GOP wins this fall would mean a return to Bush-era policies.
   
   http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/121061-endangered-dem-plays-up-ties-to-bush
   
   LOL no desperation in the dems now..is there?

2. INEBRIATED EINSTEIN Sep. 27, 2010 | 1:29 p.m. Report Abuse

   ALVIN IS A PAID HITLER YOUTH TO POST ALL OF THE NAZI LIES HE CAN!

3. Alvinjh Sep. 27, 2010 | 12:43 a.m. Report Abuse

   VOTE to change this-we have 36 Days to go now. We have the worst economic situation of any state in the country, and our Senator is a bag man for special interests who is spending $25 million dollars to call his opponent CRAZY. VOTE. Just VOTE HIM OUT.
   
   Jobs picture gets worse in 27 states
   
   By Annalyn Censky, staff reporter
   September 21, 2010: 12:07 PM ET
   
   NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The national unemployment rate may have only ticked up slightly in August, but on a state-by-state basis, the jobs picture continues to look a lot more grim in places like Nevada, Michigan and California.
   
   A total of 27 states reported higher unemployment rates in August, nearly double the 14 that saw increases in July, the Labor Department said in its monthly report on state unemployment Tuesday.
   
   http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/21/news/economy/state_unemployment/index.htm

4. Viking1 Sep. 26, 2010 | 9:13 p.m. Report Abuse

   How stupid can you get. Having a fist fight over politicians.

5. Deep.Thoughts Sep. 26, 2010 | 4:54 p.m. Report Abuse

   It is foolish to blame the tea party or republicans or anyone else for that matter when something like this happens. This is what happens when tempers flair and democrats puff up their chest and act like retards. If you were there, you might have seen a "different" account of the facts.

6. James.Tucker Sep. 26, 2010 | 1:33 p.m. Report Abuse

   Alvinjh needs to stfu and get a job. Maybe stick to ONE comment jerkwad. You are just an annoying troll on the paper. I would like to see what OTHER people think who read this paper. You are ignored...Now.

7. Alvinjh Sep. 26, 2010 | 12:20 p.m. Report Abuse

   '2010 is gone for Democrats'
   
   “He cannot save 2010,” the big-time Democrat is saying of Barack Obama. “It is gone. He must now concentrate on saving 2012. But the biggest fear of some of those close to him is that he might not really want to go on in 2012, that he might not really care.”
   
   Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42100.html#ixzz0zWuuWWA5
   
   For many many many good reasons...Harry is one of the biggest..
   
   
   
   
   '2010 is gone for Democrats'

8. Alvinjh Sep. 26, 2010 | 12:08 p.m. Report Abuse

   Health Insurers Seeking Rate Hikes Of More Than 20 Percent In Connecticut
   
   Retiree health benefits disappearing
   
   The report also found a steep drop in the percentage of employers that subsidize retiree health coverage. The survey reported that only 22 percent of employers with more than 5,000 workers subsidized retiree coverage after age 65 this year. That’s down from 37 percent in 2009.

9. Alvinjh Sep. 26, 2010 | 12:08 p.m. Report Abuse

   $25 million and still not enough...
   
   Despite Reid's considerable power in Washington, his leadership in the Senate doesn't appear to matter too much to his constituents in Nevada. In fact, most people don't even like him. According to The Wall Street Journal, a recent poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal found that 52 percent of Nevadans had an unfavorable opinion of Reid and only 40 percent indicated that they would vote for him. But Reid won't go away quietly. He's announced that he'll raise $25 million for the race, if he needs to -- and the special interests will be glad to help him out.
   
   They need him there. At the beginning of 2010, Reid had already raked in more than $15 million. But money may not be enough. After spending $22,000 a day from October through December (for a total of almost $2 million), Reid hasn't made any significant inroads in the polls. The people of Nevada, it turns out, just aren't wild about Harry.
   
   http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/defeating-harry-reid-90560169.html

10. Alvinjh Sep. 26, 2010 | 12:06 p.m. Report Abuse

    Harry Reid has four sons who all work for Nevada’s largest law firm, Lionel, Sawyer & Collins.
    
    All of them have benefited from Reid.
    
    Here’s how the Los Angeles Times puts it:
    
    But Harry Reid is in a class by himself. One of his sons and his son-in-law lobby in Washington for companies, trade groups and municipalities seeking Reid’s help in the Senate. A second son has lobbied in Nevada for some of those same interests, and a third has represented a couple of them as a litigator.
    
    In the last four years alone, their firms have collected more than $2 million in lobbying fees from special interests that were represented by the kids and helped by the senator in Washington.
    
    In running the Senate, money has been no object for Reid. It's the means to keeping his team in line and rewarding his friends. When Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana was wavering about voting for the health care bill, for example, Reid handed her a $300 million gift for her state. She wasn't at all undecided after that. And Reid also tossed out another $100 million to his friend and fellow ObamaCare advocate, Chris Dodd, for a $100 million new medical facility in Connecticut -- a state that already has the prestigious Yale University and UConn medical centers to cover its 3 million people. What are the odds that the soon-to-be-former-Sen. Dodd finds his name on the new facility? But, hey, what are friends for?
    
    http://woxy.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-38441.html
    
    http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=1&threadid=4425968&sort=1
    
    http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/defeating-harry-reid-90560169.html

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