The new Mason-Dixon poll of the Nevada Senate race shows Harry Reid with a one-point advantage, within the margin of error, against his Republican opponent Sharron Angle. Furthermore, Reid’s constant attacks against Angle are working — he is still unpopular, but now her voters don’t actually like her, either.
The numbers: Reid 45%, Angle 44%. The survey of likely voters has a ±4% margin of error. In the previous Mason-Dixon poll from two weeks ago, Reid led by 46%-44%. The TPM Poll Average puts Reid ahead by 46.6%-43.7%.
Looking further in the poll, it becomes clear just how disliked both of these candidates have become, to the point where their own supporters wish they could have had different candidates.
As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:
Two-thirds of voters who say they back Sharron Angle wish another Republican had won the nomination, according to a poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and 8NewsNow that shows deep dissatisfaction with both the Tea Party pick and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.
Nearly eight of 10 voters who remain undecided or who don’t like Angle or Reid say they, too, would have preferred if the staunch conservative hadn’t won the June 8 primary over her more moderate foes. And 58 percent of such nonaligned voters say they wish Reid hadn’t won the Democratic nomination, suggesting a majority of Nevadans are unhappy with their choices.
That’s still largely good news for Reid and troubling for Angle. A year ago, the unpopular incumbent was thought to be on his way out. Instead, he’s locked in a dead heat with a vulnerable GOP opponent as he runs a scorched-earth campaign to portray her as too extreme.
The bottom line is that Reid remains unpopular back home. But all he needs is for Angle to be slightly more unpopular than he is. And for now, it appears to be working.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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