It looks like Nevada won’t have Sharron Angle to kick around — at least not for a while, as the former state representative and unsuccessful 2010 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate has announced that she will no longer run in the special election for NV-02.
Angle, who is reportedly disliked by the GOP establishment in the state, had previously been running for the open seat when Rep. Dean Heller was running for an open U.S. Senate seat. When Heller was appointed directly to the seat, after GOP Sen. John Ensign resigned due to his sex scandal and potential expulsion from the chamber, a special election for NV-02 was organized.
Since then, there has been ongoing litigation between Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller and the state GOP over the format the election would take: Miller favors a wide-open election in which anyone can file, and the GOP is suing for the ability to select a candidate through an internal party process. (In either case, there would be no primary, and the plurality-winner would take the seat.) A judge sided with the GOP last week, but the matter appears to be headed for the state Supreme Court on appeal.
And in the fact of that process, Angle is getting out of the race — but leaving the door open to running for office later on.
“I do not have any desire to participate in a process described by others as a ‘ballot royale’ or a situation where the party central committees choose their nominees because it makes a mockery of the most important constitutional element in exercising freedom,” Angle said in a statement, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports.
She also added: “Although I do not intend to participate as a candidate in the special election, I am not ruling out a future run for office. Meanwhile, I will remain busy working as an advocate for the voters of Nevada and this great nation. I thank all my supporters for their dedication and encouragement. I will be making additional announcements soon detailing my plans.”
(Via Jon Ralston.)
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