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Nevada 'Tea Party' Candidate Ashjian: 'Reid Is Probably A Smarter Person Than Angle'

Eric Kleefeld | October 18, 2010, 5:19PM

Senate candidate Scott Ashjian (Tea Party-NV)

In an interview with ABC News, Scott Ashjian, the "Tea Party" candidate for Senate in Nevada, gave an interesting perspective on the two major candidates, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican nominee Sharron Angle. Although Ashjian repeatedly expressed his disdain for both candidates, it appears that he hates Reid slightly less than Angle.

Jonathan Karl repeatedly press Ashjian on which candidate he would favor if he had to choose between Reid or Angle. Ashjian answered:

I'll make that decision when I get there. I think that as far as competence goes, or maybe, intellect goes, Harry Reid is probably a smarter person than Angle. Angle is, her claim to fame is 41 to Angle. That tells me that she has no ability to get a deal done, by any means. She, well you know, she's approached me, trying to make deals. I wasn't going for it, and then she came back and lied about it.

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Suffolk Poll: Reid Leads Angle By Three Points

Eric Kleefeld | October 13, 2010, 2:40PM

US Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)

The new Suffolk University poll of the Nevada Senate race gives Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a three-point edge against Republican nominee Sharron Angle.

The numbers: Reid 46%, Angle 43%, Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian 2%, and three other independent candidates at 1% each. The survey of likely voters has a ±4.4% margin of error. There is no prior Suffolk poll of this race for direct comparison.

The TPM Poll Average for the direct two-way race -- which does not include this latest poll -- has Reid and Angle at a 47.6%-47.6% tie.

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PPP Poll: Reid Leads Angle By One Point

Eric Kleefeld | October 12, 2010, 1:18PM

US Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)

The new survey of the Nevada Senate race from Public Policy Polling (D) shows Harry Reid with a narrow edge over his Republican opponent Sharron Angle, in a voting environment that continues to show a big enthusiasm gap against the Democrats.

The numbers: Reid 49%, Angle 48%. The survey of likely voters has a ±4.4% margin of error. In the previous PPP survey from all the way back in mid-July, Reid was ahead by 48%-46%.

This poll also tested a field including Reid and Angle, plus all the minor candidates that will be on the ballot, such as Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian. Reid leads Angle by 47%-45%, with the other candidates all picking up only 0%-2% each.

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Angle: I Would Help Anyone Meet With Coburn Or DeMint

Eric Kleefeld | October 7, 2010, 4:24PM

US Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV)

Sharron Angle is offering a novel explanation for her seeming secret quid-pro-quo offer to a third-party conservative candidate that she could get him access to top GOP Senators if he dropped out and helped her win the race. Instead, as Jon Ralston reports, she now says she would help any constituent in Nevada meet with big-name Senators.

Earlier this week, Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian released a secret tape of himself meeting last week with Angle. As she had told Ashjian: "That's really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well...You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him...I go to Washington, DC, and want to see Jim DeMint, he's right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he's right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he's there."

But that wasn't improper at all, Angle told conservative talk radio host Heidi Harris: "Well, of course, I offered him meetings with people that are friends of mine. Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn are friends of mine, and I would offer that to any constituent in Nevada."

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CNN/Time Poll: Angle Leads Reid By Two Points

Eric Kleefeld | October 6, 2010, 6:24PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and US Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV)

The new CNN/Time poll of the Nevada Senate race gives Republican nominee Sharron Angle a two-point advantage over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The numbers: Angle 42%, Reid 40%, and Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian 7%. In a two-way race, Angle still leads Reid by 47%-45%. The survey of likely voters has a ±3.5% margin of error. In the previous CNN/Time poll from mid-September, Angle led Reid and Ashjian by 42%-41%-5%, with no two-way match-up included.

The TPM Poll Average of the two-way race currently puts Reid ahead by 47.5%-46.2%.

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Angle Lawyer Tells TPM: Meeting With Tea Party Candidate 'A Setup'

Christina Bellantoni | October 4, 2010, 10:33AM

Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell represents GOP candidates and causes.

Cleta Mitchell, a top Republican lawyer representing Sharron Angle's Senate bid in Nevada, told TPM this morning that the campaign ignored her advice about avoiding getting involved with Tea Party of Nevada candidate Scott Ashjian.

Mitchell said in a phone interview that the meeting -- which Ashjian recorded and leaked to the press -- was "a setup."

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Angle Met With 'Tea Party' Candidate, Trashed GOP -- And Offered Him Perks To Drop Out

Eric Kleefeld | October 4, 2010, 9:47AM

NV Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R)

Republican Sharron Angle is definitely worried that she could lose the Nevada Senate race due to vote-splitting with Scott Ashjian, who is running on the "Tea Party" ballot line. She's so worried, in fact, that she personally met with Ashjian last week to tell him how much she really agrees with him about bashing the Republican Party, and offered him access to the party's upper echelons if he dropped out. Oh, and there's a tape of the meeting to prove it.

As Jon Ralston reports, Angle sought to convince Ashjian to drop out and endorse her -- though Ashjian himself did not seem particularly eager to do so, thanks in no small part to the heavy-handed attacks that have been made against him by the state GOP and the California-based group Tea Party Express.

Angle clearly sought to show Ashjian that she was on his side. "The Republicans have lost their standards, they've lost their principles," Angle said. She also added: "Really that's why the machine in the Republican Party is fighting against me...They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government."

And she made him an offer: "That's really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well...You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him...I go to Washington, DC, and want to see Jim DeMint, he's right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he's right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he's there."

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GOP Pollster: Reid Leads Angle By Five Points

Eric Kleefeld | September 24, 2010, 6:39PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Here's another fun data point in the Nevada Senate race. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now being given a five-point lead over Sharron Angle -- by a Republican polling firm.

As Jon Ralston reports, a survey conducted for the Retail Association of Nevada by a well-known GOP polling firm, Public Opinion Strategies, showed the following numbers: Reid 45%, Angle 40%, plus 1% for Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian. The survey of likely voters has a ±4.38% margin of error. The last publicly-released POS survey of this race was all the way back in February, and put Reid ahead of Angle and Ashjian by 37%-32%-16%.

According to this poll, Reid's favorable rating is only 44%, with 51% unfavorable -- a position that ought to spell political death for an incumbent. However, Angle is even lower at 38%-52%.

The TPM Poll Average currently gives Reid an edge of 47.2%-44.9%.

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Poll: Angle Leads Reid By One In NV-SEN Race

Marc Kilstein | September 15, 2010, 6:01PM

US Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)

Over the last week, a flurry of polls of the Nevada Senate race have been released that tell a similar narrative -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican rival Sharron Angle are statistically deadlocked. A new CNN/Time poll released today finds one more batch of numbers that support the trend. Among likely voters, the survey shows Angle leading Reid 42%-41%, with Tea Party candidate Scott Ashijan earning 5%.

There is no previous CNN/Time poll for direct comparison. But no mainstream poll conducted over the last two months has produced an advantage for either candidate outside of its margin of error. Most recently, Rasmussen saw a 48%-48% tie in its September 13 survey, Ipsos gave Reid a slight 46%-44% edge in its September 12 poll, and Fox News' September 11 poll found Angle up 45%-44%.

Worth noting, when the CNN/Time poll surveyed the wider pool of all registered voters (instead of just likely voters), Reid led 42%-34%.

Though no recent poll has produced a noteworthy lead for Reid, the Democrat is still up in the TPM Poll Average, 47.3%-44.7%.

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Tea Party Of Nevada Candidate: 'Absolutely Not' A Democratic Plant (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | March 29, 2010, 5:42PM

Geraldo Rivera and NV Sen. Candidate Scott Ashjian

We've been writing about Jon Scott Ashjian, the official Tea Party of Nevada Senate candidate aiming to beat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) this fall.

Ashjian has been taking heat from groups that make up the tea party movement who say he's just been set up to siphon votes from Republican candidates, and he's also facing a felony charge of writing a bad check to a business consultant for his asphalt company. He's also had his contractor's license revoked and other business woes.

Geraldo Rivera asked Ashjian in a recent appearance on Fox News if he was a Democratic plant, a few days after the Tea Party Express group produced an Internet ad suggesting Ashjian is a fraud. Rivera also asked about the legal troubles.

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Former GOP Chair: Bad Check Charge Against NV Tea Party Candidate 'Isn't Political In Nature'

Christina Bellantoni | March 29, 2010, 12:55PM

Nevada senate candidate Scott Ashjian (Tea Party) and Clark County Deputy District Attorney Bernie Zadrowski (R-NV)

I just spent about half an hour on the phone with Bernie Zadrowski, a district attorney who heads the Bad Check Unit in Clark County, Nevada that is likely to file an arrest warrant today against Jon Scott Ashjian, the official Tea Party of Nevada candidate on this fall's Senate ballot.

Ashjian has been charged with writing a $5,000 bad check to a consultant who did work for his asphalt business -- his second offense and another legal problem he's facing as conservatives affiliated with the state's tea party movement target him as a fraud. Eyebrows were raised when the felony bad check charge surfaced because Zadrowski is the former chairman of the Clark County Republican Party and also is on the ballot in a judicial race this fall.

But Zadrowski told me that the victim of Ashjian's bounced check (written in December) came forward last month before Ashjian filed to run for Senate in early March. He also said his own political affiliations have nothing to do with it, especially since he is running to be a justice. That race is nonpartisan and candidates are barred from making endorsements or getting involved in political races. "This isn't political in nature at all, this is simply my job," Zadrowski told me.

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Tea Party Express Accuses Nevada 'Tea Party' Candidate: 'We Think You're A Fraud' (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | March 29, 2010, 12:48PM

Senate candidate Scott Ashjian (Tea Party-NV)

The Tea Party Express, a division of Our Country Deserves Better PAC, has a new Web ad excoriating "Tea Party" candidate Scott Ashjian in the Nevada Senate race, accusing him of being a Democratic mole trying to help re-elect Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The ad has not been put on television just yet -- but it could be soon.

Ashjian has registered as a candidate with an actual "Tea Party" label for the general election, rather than running in the Republican primary. Right-wing talk radio host and Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams tells Ashjian to "get lost." "Dozens of Tea Party groups across Nevada have spoken out against your candidacy," Williams says. "None of us has ever heard of you, or even seen you at a Tea Party rally. Nothing. We think you're a fraud who's trying to split the vote and help re-elect Harry Reid."

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Nevada Tea Battle: Grassroots Groups Call New Third Party Fake, Ban It From Events

Christina Bellantoni | March 15, 2010, 9:48AM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and a tea partier

Is there a fake tea party brewing in Nevada? Tea partiers who have declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) public enemy No. 1 sure seem to think so.

The Tea Party of Nevada formed an official third party in the Silver State, with candidate Jon Ashjian hoping to defeat Reid. But tea party groups that oppose becoming official third parties cried foul. Some conservatives have even accused Ashjian of being a front for Reid supporters who hope to dilute the Republican and tea party votes in the fall.

Twenty of Nevada's self-proclaimed "grassroots tea party groups" signed a statement denouncing the Tea Party of Nevada. The groups issued a blanket ban, saying the third party won't be invited to or welcome at any grassroots events in the state.

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